{"id":170,"date":"2016-06-08T04:55:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T08:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/?p=170"},"modified":"2016-08-07T02:08:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T06:08:31","slug":"june-8-scottish-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/2016\/06\/08\/june-8-scottish-history\/","title":{"rendered":"June 8: Scottish History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today the weather was supposed to have deteriorated, so we planned activities that are less weather-dependent.\u00a0 But, as it turned out, the weather was better than ever, low seventies (23C), brilliant sunshine yet again.<\/p>\n

\"Inchmahome
Inchmahome Priory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First we went to Lake of Menteith, the only so-called lake in Scotland (the others are lochs), which has an island in the middle with a medieval priory (Inchmahome Priory) where Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed as a child.\u00a0 To get to the island, there\u2019s a small ferry boat. \u00a0There\u2019s a sign on the dock that says there\u2019s no schedule: just turn the big white board so that it faces\u00a0the island, and we will come and get you.\u00a0 Wonderfully low-tech and very effective.\u00a0 The priory is mostly in ruins and recently suffered a lot of\u00a0weather damage.\u00a0 There are barriers all around it while they are doing restoration work. \u00a0 The island also has some magnificent old trees, some of which are said to have been planted by 4-year-old Mary in 1547, but we are sure that\u2019s an apocryphal story.<\/p>\n

\"Doune
Doune Castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Later we went to Doune castle, right here in town.\u00a0 It was originally built in the thirteenth century, before being rebuilt in its present form in the late 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany.\u00a0 It has been the setting for several movies and TV series, among which are Monty Python and the Holy Grail<\/em>, and more recently Outlander<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For the evening, our hostess, Fiona Graham, provided a wonderful gourmet meal for us.\u00a0 About fifteen minutes before mealtime, her husband, Colin, started playing the bagpipes in the garden to welcome us, a wonderful sound wafting over the quiet countryside.<\/p>\n

Photographs \u00a9 2016 P.J. Gardner<\/a>. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today the weather was supposed to have deteriorated, so we planned activities that are less weather-dependent.\u00a0 But, as it turned out, the weather was better than ever, low seventies (23C), brilliant sunshine yet again. First we went to Lake of Menteith, the only so-called lake in Scotland (the others are lochs), which has an island … Continue reading “June 8: Scottish History”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}