We did not sleep well as some Spanish campers returned at midnight singing because of their victory over Argentina in the football world cup. It takes over an hour for their music to turn down. Tim wakes up at 6, Olga follows at 7. We shower, have breakfast and break down our tent to continue our journey to Scotland. Bye Lake District! We had some wonderful, sunny days.
From the three hour drive to Culzean Castle in South-West Scotland, Zeno sleeps a full hour. We need one pitstop and one supermarket stop. We eat lunch while driving and arrive at 13.
The Culzean Castle lies on a clifftop within a 260ha Country Park, which also contains a walled garden, Swan Pond, beaches, woods, deers and dozens other estate buildings that are open to the public, such as shops and cafés, and a playground.
First stop is the playground, as the kids deserve some movement after the long morning sitting in the car. It turns out to be an enourmous castle-themed playground with towers, treehouses, slides, climbing walls, zip slides and a maze house. They enjoy themselves for an hour, while Tim and Olga take turns walking around the Swan Pond with one swan that is fed white bread by kids. We hope the swan survives it.
Next is the castle. Designed in the 18th century for one of Scotland’s oldest clans, the Kennedy family, Culzean is the masterpiece of architect Robert Adam. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, the chief of Clan Kennedy, and is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Our National Trust passes are also valid here.
The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust, stipulating that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General of the Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower visited the castle four times, including once while President of the United States.
The kids get another trial hunt, this time of themed lego figures. It’s quite a challenge to find the little figures in the richly decorated giant rooms.
The first room shows 700 pistols. Every inch of the room is decorated with a pistols. The collection is second only to that of King Charles at Windsor Castle.
Another highlight is the oval staircase, providing access and drama to all castle buildings.
We pass bedrooms, bathrooms, dressing rooms, drawing rooms, dinner rooms and we end in the kitchen. We spotted 10 Lego figueres and the kids get a sticker. The exit is through the gift shop, here we buy a mug of Moorland Pottery. We buy one every holiday, this is our fourth. Picturing Culzean Castle.
We also explore the huge walled garden, one of the largest of the UK. We don’t have time to visit the other buildings as it all closes at 16. It’s only a few minutes drive to our coastal camping Balkenna Tea Room. We pitch our tent, unfortunately it’s next to the highway, but it’s only for one night. The kids enjoy the (smaller) play ground and even get to play with another kid of Cleo’s age.
Beside the highway, the view is stunning we’re looking out towards the isle of Arran and many more, it’s very clear and we watch the sun set into the sea before we go to bed.
