Cawdor Castle is exactly what I think a lived in castle should look like and luckily we could take pictures inside (without flash), so I am excited to share with you a 14th century castle with a moat and drawbridge. It was built for the 3rd Thane of Cawdor and has been in the family since then (23 generations). The castle is open to the public from April through October and the Dowager Countess Cawdor moves into a cottage on the estate during this time. She does visit during these months and her driver was spotted while we were there so she was among us somewhere.
Okay, let’s go inside. We pass through an iron gate and walk on the drawbridge over the dry moat to enter the castle. We had these audio devices that allowed us to go at our own pace and repeat the message if we needed to. However, taking picture with one hand and holding the device with the other was challenging as you can see by my blurry picture below. I should have brought my earplugs to plug in to the device and let the device dangle. Lesson learned.
An old wheelchair but the pillow says it all!
Notice the tartan cloth on the walkway. I don’t think this would normally be there but might have been placed there for the tours to protect the carpet. It is the tartan for this family.
Not too tall doorways as indicated by the sign above the door.
Light switches (sorry about the blurry picture - couldn’t hold up the line so it was taken on the run).
We did have some stairways like this.
The dungeon
The famous holly tree that the tower was built around because the donkey decided to lay down here. The tree died in 1372. From their website it states:
"The legendary tale goes that the Thane of Cawdor, decided to build a new, stronger tower. Following the instructions received in a dream, he loaded a coffer of gold on to the back of a donkey and let it roam about the district for a day: wherever the animal lay down to rest in the evening, there his castle should be sited and it would prosper for evermore. The donkey lay down under a tree, which is now petrified at the base of the old tower at Cawdor."
Tapestries on the walls add warmth
Do you know what this shiny metal object is? It is a French duck press extracting gravy from the meat.
This kitchen wasn’t installed until 1971. They had kitchens elsewhere but they weren’t near the dining room (supposedly to make sure the food wasn’t too hot when it was served).
Looks like a heated towel bar. Nice.
Timeline working from past to current time.
There is an old kitchen that is in the basement and they had a well available there so they would always have water in the kitchen. There was always 6’ of spring water in the well year round.
The kitchen table would have been built right there in the kitchen.
The cook’s copper pots were their pride and joy.
19th century cooking range with a spit above. In 1760, this was the very latest thing - to have the spit rotator move by a fan in the flue. The hotter the fire, the more the fan moved, and the faster the spit would turn.
Just before the gift shop there appears to be a collection of a few very old items that may have belonged to the castle residents.
Now let’s go out to the gardens. Warning lots of flower pictures. Isn’t this a cute shady place to enjoy the garden!
Right next to the castle is a flower garden with many flowers in bloom.
Flowers, flowers, flowers, nearly all colors and I was so tempted to gather some fallen seeds and bring them back but I might get stopped at customs I’m afraid.
This is a fish fountain but it wasn’t working today.
Red currants - we have seen these berries and wondered what they were. It might it takes quite a few to make some jelly as they are tiny.
An interesting bird feeder that fed many birds at one time.
(I asked the custom agent on my way home and as it turns out, you can bring dried flower seeds back through customs. Next time I will try to purchase seed packets from my trips.) 😃
They had a golf course put in so the children could learn how to play golf. Not quite St. Andrew’s but it is in the back (front) yard.
We left Cawdor Castle and stopped at the site of The Battle of Culloden to take a few pictures before heading to the town of Culloden.
The Jacobites wanted a Stuart back on the throne and this climatic battle was a failure. On April 16, 1746, the Jacobites were defeated by the British army in less than one hour. 1,300 men were slain and 1,250were the Jacobites. The British were superior in firepower and bayonet tactics while the Jacobites were suffering from hunger and diseases. The memorial wall has brick protruding slightly that represent the slain men. Very few British bricks are protruding but many, many Jacobites are sticking out.
