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| Pineapple head |
It wa a rare alignment - both Ayrshire and my work choose the same long weekend, and Ciaran was at his mum's so we were able to get away Saturday morning.
Almost didn't though. We booked a castle from LateRooms but some sort of screw up meant the hotel didn't accept the booking (I'm still arguing) but we did finally manage to book somewhere else and despite my head cold we headed off.
The weather on Saturday was lovely so we headed up to the Wallace monument in Stirling.
The views from the top were breathtaking, especially since it was clear - though there was an unusual yellow object in the sky.
Dinner was at The Hollybank. The food and service was great. Fiona even managed to compete a massive dessert.
Sunday was a bit more overcast so we headed off to Culross, pronounced Cure-oss, (why? I don't know). On the way we passed The Pineapple. This is one of those weird things that rich people liked to spend their money on - a building shaped like a pineapple. It set the tone for the day.
Culross was a centre of industry 400 and 500 years ago, exporting coal, salt and iron griddles. During the good times there was a lot of investment by the main merchant and he managed to build himself a nice house. In looking after his interests the town prospered. Over the next 200 years it fell on hard times when the mines flooded and their other industries couldn't compete. The final straw was the Americans rebelling and not buying their shoes (or English tea, but thats another story) anymore. Basically since 1780 the town has been static - the original buildings and roads were kept and the town existed in a time warp. In the 1930's the National trust started buying buildings and by the start of WW2 the trust owned over 20 properties and over the next 30 years acquired more. This has saved many of these building from demolition.
Now the village is still as it was in the late 18th century - narrow cobbled streets, but since these are leased out, there are cars and electricity. The electrical substation is in one of the original houses.There are odd contrasts between old and new - the Palace looks out over where the salt pans were and across the Forth towards the Grangemouth refinery. Houses with lintels dated with 1669 have wheelie bins parked outside.
At first it seems a shame but then you realise that there always was industry. The salt pans worked by burning cheap coal and boiling the sea water off, so clouds of steam and smoke see appropriate.
Sadly my cold was getting worse. After the nice dinner the night before we tried another restaurant, Brea,this one recommended by a friend of Fiona. Unfortunately I could not taste anything at all so I couldn't really appreciate it.
Monday morning was a bit of a rush. Our plan to be at breakfast early was foiled by the alarm not going off, so in a bit of a panic we headed for breakfast just after 0930 to find no food left. It seems that, even if the alarm did go off as planned, we would have missed breakfast as it finished at 0900. Kindly they did cook us something.
After checking out we headed over to the Battle of Bannockburn site which was literally next door to the hotel. They are currently in the process of rebuilding in preparation for the 700th anniversary of the battle. This means the visitor centre has been demolished, a new building is currently being finished, the site is a building site, and there is only a portacabin where they are trialing the new branded merchandise.
I asked the National Trust staff where the battle site actually was and was surprised by her answer of "Not sure. No one actually knows".
It totally deflated my plans for a photo captioned "On this site, 700 years ago, nothing much happened. But over there..."
She went on to explain that their 'offical' site would have been a staging area, and may have seen fighting, but there has been a lack of artifacts. But artifacts have been found in the entire area. There are theories which include that the local school sits on the battlefield. I guess the serfs didn't care too much about history when life was so difficult. The redevelopment included a lot of archeology, including finding a neolithic fire pit, which was a disappointment as it didn't tie with the battle.There are a lot of plans to get the community digging.
As it was raining we decided not to walk out to the site and headed to the car to consult the guide books. Alloa Tower is nearby and indoors so that was our target. When we got to Alloa, parked and walked to the tower we found that closer inspection of the guide book would have shown that it didn't open until 1300. With 90 minutes to kill we did some shopping and tea drinking before heading back to see this oddly placed tower.
This is another legacy of medieval money, but unlike Culross time has not stood still. It sits in the middle of the village, with a Tesco occupying the site of the original stables. (long association with horsemeat). Again, fantastic staff with great knowledge and interesting anecdotes. We finished our tour on the ramparts where the rain came on again.
Then it was back home, a trip to the cinema to finish the weekend.
Good food, good times, and good company.
