Scotland Day 22: Whisky and Castles

After our day of walking yesterday, we decided to sleep in and be a bit lazy. We walked along the ocean in the morning and took our time getting out the door.

At 11:30am, we booked a Glen Moray distillery tour. It was a lovely tour. The tour guide lady was really funny and I laughed a lot, which she liked. We ended by getting to taste a few whiskies. Paul and I ended up loving one of them, so we bought it to bring home with us a souvenir. 

Then we drove to Elgin Cathedral ruins. We were bummed to learn that they wanted $9.50 per person (!!) to see the ruins. Yikes. Too expensive for us, so we just walked around the exterior which was nice to look at, but kinda frustrating that it would so expensive to see it up close.

After that, we headed out to a castle Paul found called Duffus Castle Ruins (he is also the one who found Bolluch's Castle a few days ago, too....he certainly has a particular type of humor 😉). After we joked about the name, we checked out the ruins. 

This castle was interesting because they built it on top of wooden ruins on top of an artificial hill, so yeah...the foundation shifted and part of the castle fell off. It was pretty cool to walk the ruins (for free, thank goodness) and imagine where all of the rooms were and such. 

Then we went to Cawdor Castle and Gardens. This was another interesting castle because someone still lives in it. This castle has been in the same family since medieval times, which is very rare. This was also the first castle we have visited that is still lived in. So we got to see both old and new artifacts owned by the family, as well as kinda-modern couches and tv cabinets. 

This castle also built over a tree (part of their lore/history), so it was interesting to see that tree stump in the basement of their main old tower. They also found a secret hidden prison cell with a trap door in their basement recently (the family had forgotten it existed for many years). So it was pretty cool to see ancient kitchens and modern kitchens and all the other stuff.

Then we toured their gardens. They have multiple gardens and they were beautiful! Once again, I told Paul that I wanted to live in their gardens. Kevlar was very polite (along with Paul) as I drooled over tons of different plants.

After that, we ate dinner and then went back to our oceanfront airbnb to have a bonfire and play card games. Another lovely day!