EE & S Adventures

Culzean Castle is one of the more impressive historical buildings in all of Scotland.  Located on the coast just south of Ayr (right on the coast, the castle literally hangs over the sea cliffs), the castle receives many visitors each year who come to tour the house and enjoy the surrounding grounds. Inside the castle, the excellent guided tour takes you through the various rooms (except for the top floor which is now a very exclusive and expensive hotel).  The most impressive room is probably the saloon which hangs out over the ocean far below.  Also impressive is the grand staircase and the room covered by (decorative) guns and other weapons on every wall. The Kennedys kept a few arms handy in case of trouble. The castle grounds feature miles of walking trails as well as various attractions.  Down one end of the grounds, at the edge of a small lake, the Scottish National Trust has built an amazing kids playground featuring a children'...

Coming from England, once you cross the Scottish Border and head west you enter the region of Dumfries and Galloway.  We were just passing through, heading for more significant attractions further north, but we did have time to stop and see a few interesting things. The town of Ruthwell looks to be too small even for a Pub, but it does have a tiny nondescript church.  It's nondescript from the outside anyway, seeing it, you would never imagine such a valuable monument as the Ruthwell Cross was contained within.  The Cross dates from the 7th century and is covered in Saxon Runes and scenes from the Bible.  The Church isn't tall enough to hold the cross so before it was re-erected in the 19th Century they dug out a pit in the church floor so the Cross could stand fully upright.  It must make an imposing impression on the village parishioners. Not far beyond Ruthwell we made our main stop for the afternoon, Caerlaverock Castle, slightly inland from the...

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to the Lakes District.  We left by the scenic route past Ullswater.  Although all routes in the Lakes District are scenic routes this one was supposed to be one of the best.  It was.  We followed a tiny road between high stone walls up and across the bleakest, windiest and prettiest saddle high in the moor before descending to the lake. After a few short photo breaks we made a longer stop at the strangely named waterfall Aria Force.  It's actually a series of waterfalls (including the main one Aria Force) that you can walk past as you follow a stream up from the lake and then back down the other side.  The stream and surrounds are reputed to have charmed the famous poet Wordsworth and had inspired some of his best work.  The walk was well maintained and as a consequence was quite crowded although most people only walked up to Aria Force and back while we ventured a bit higher up the valley. Twe...

While not up to the epic scale of some of our treks in South America, the two hour afternoon walk from The Landcrigg up and around Easdale Tarn and back will surely rate with our favourite walks when our trip is over. Elise and Samuel consulting with a local about our route The climb up a side valley and stream branching off the river Rothay wasn't too strenuous.  The rocky trail followed the rushing stream with a pretty waterfall at the head of the valley.  Beyond the waterfall we climbed up a flatter section for about another half a kilometre until we reached the outflow of the tarn. Samuel stayed at the point where the stream flowed from the tarn while Eric and Elise did a lap of the tarn getting very wet and muddy feet in the process. By now the sky was darkening with a hint of showers so we decided it was time to head down by a different trail which wound through paddocks full of sheep and baby lambs.  Elise was quick to warn Samuel of ...

We decided to do the Lakes District in style, staying at The Landcrigg in the little town of Grasmere.  The Landcrigg is a stately country house with a fantastic restaurant and garden.  It was also a great place for hiking, being just a short walk from some beautiful fell country. Grasmere is a quaint village with tiny laneways and old stone buildings.  It's heavily dedicated to tourism with many B&Bs, restaurants and pubs as well as shops selling touristy type things.  While we were there the BBC was busy filming in the village for some very English show. Grasmere has another interesting claim to fame being the home of Grasmere Gingerbread - supposedly the worlds first and best Gingerbread.  It certainly was very nice.  We brought some on one day and made a special trip back to the shop when we were leaving town to buy some more. Lake Windemere was only a short drive away from Grassmere.  With Eric and Samuel both fa...

In Morocco on a cloudless, hot dry day we visited the Roman Empire's most south westerly frontier close to the Sahara Desert.   Now, a month later we were traipsing around high moorland in northern England in a wet, gloomy evening exploring what was the empires most northerly point for quite a few hundred years, Hadrian's Wall. Our location was Housteads Fort, the best preserved of all the forts that followed the course of the wall.  Arriving in the last afternoon when almost all the tourists had left for the day made the visit particularly enjoyable.  We marvelled at the quality of the stonework that was left, mainly foundations tracing out the wall, the soldiers barracks, kitchens, baths, the administrative centre and the villa belonging to the garrison commander in the middle. After exploring the fort until closing time, we then walked along the wall for a short distance watching it snake off into the distance across hill and dale. After a scru...