As we made our way from from Glencoe toward the area of Glasgow and Loch Lomand it meant leaving the beauty of the Highlands behind. Inveraray is known as the gateway to the highlands.
It appeared to be a charming little place - we were on a bit of a time crunch though and we may not have stopped at all - except.......
Ris and I are huge Downton Abbey fans (our cats are named Branson and Sybil!)
The Inveraray Castle is where one of the Christmas episodes was filmed. You may remember the one - when they shoot birds in the glen, the dance in Scotish kilts and Mary begins to feel unwell - leaving Matthew free to become the Beast, lol.
One of the plans that I had for this past Christmas before the flu took away so many of them - was to rewatch the episode that takes place at the castle and in this general area.
If you watch Downtown Abbey - rewatch the episode to get a much better feel for what we saw! (More information on the episode can be found HERE)
The weather was gorgeous! Daffodils were blooming everywhere. The yellow of the flowers, with the blue sky and the white that was remaining snow on the highlands in the distance..... so pretty!
If you have not watched Downton Abbey - then why the heck not?! It is completely delightful! The overall arch of change is a bit of how this day felt for me. As we began to head into the area where we lived - my memories of "my" Scotland were going to be zipped ahead from nearly 30 years!
There were cats. Everywhere we go - every country - we find cats! She was probably asking him if he had met the real Branson and Sybil.
Flowers were starting to bloom on trees everywhere! If we had only been staying another week or two I am fairly certain the landscape would have been vastly different!
If you have been following our journey along - you know that most places were not open due to it being March - the castle was due to open the next weekend. You can tour it and you can eat in the tea room. The trade off of it not being open is being able to walk the grounds and except for a couple of workers and the postman - we were the only ones there, making for some great pictures!
When you watch Downton Abbey, make sure to pay attention the garden scenes as they were filmed in the actual gardens here.
Had we had more time in the area, one of the things that you can do is Glamping. Camping in upscale accomodations! Something to add to my bucket list!
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