Crathes Castle

Saturday was another gorgeous day in Scotland so Greg and I decided to go exploring.   We are members of the National Trust for Scotland, so with that membership there are many castles and gardens that we get to tour for free.  We were told when we moved here that there are so many things to see in Scotland that if we went somewhere new every weekend, after 3 years we still wouldn't have seen them all!  There are so many within 1-2 hours of our house, and many of them allow dogs on the grounds (obviously, not in the castles though).

Yesterday we visited Crathes Castle, which is just about 30 minutes from the house.  They don't allow you to take pictures inside the castles and have people standing around to make sure you're not being sneaky.  hehehe trust me, I try every time!!  Here are some great pictures of the castle from the outside.

 

 The leaves on the vines are even starting to turn red!  I picked up every red leaf I could find as we were walking through the parking lot.  Greg was so embarrassed lol.  He kept telling me "Baby, that's enough.  Save some for the other housewives that saw the same project on Pintrest" lol!

 

 

Since it was such a pretty day, they actually allowed us to take pictures from the top floor of the castle.  This is the view from the top floor.

 

My Puffin next to the little bitty window.

The castle gardens from the top of the castle.

 

Here are some pictures of the castle grounds.

 

I thought this building was an outhouse.  Greg said probably an old well.  There was no sign, so I'm not sure what it actually was.

A huge Cypress that was brought over from the States and planted in the 1800s.

 

Here are pictures from one of the 4 trails that wrap around the castle.  This is the part that the puppies got to come with us on.  And this is the reason they love Scotland!  Most of our walks are very similar to this.  We walked the trail first and then they took a nap in the car while we went inside the castle.

Pookie posing on a rock covered in moss.

Murphy posing on the moss covered rock.  Both of them were very focused on all the new smells and had no interest in a photo op.

This was an old bench that the family used to sit on while enjoying the view.

Murphy photo bombed my picture.

Right in front of this look out point was a sign that said there were bears and mountain lions in the area.  I took the picture a we got outta there!