February 08, 2010
Winter Drive, Feb. 4th
Filed under: TrespassingA winter drive in Scotland:
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The ORIGINAL plan was to hit Monymusk, but I became willfully distracted the second we stumbled across Scottish explorers' crack - a brown sign (the color of SITE OF INTEREST) with the word "CHURCH" in all capital letters. After a brief private castle, church, graveyard, graveyard and graveyard (YES, THREE SEPARATE GRAVEYARDS) diversion we eventually found our way to our original destination.
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Cluny kirkyard, complete with an impressively rotund mausoleum. (I'm absolutely desperate to see this graveyard in Spring, so expect more pictures of this cemetery in the distant future.)
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Cluny kirk, opposite the kirkyard. I read that it was either built in 1798 or 1804 (two different sources quote two different dates), but it's been "greatly altered" since construction. The church's site mentioned that the kirk above was built over a much older church that serviced the countryside.
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I don't know if this over-the-top stable/farm building is still in the possession of Cluny castle, but it was definitely part of the spread at one point.
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Finally, Monymusk (with Bennachie's (<- where this region's Old Woman/Cailleach lives) imposing figure above the treeline).
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Pitfichie Castle. If I remember right they tore off the roof in the late 1700s which caused it to fall into ruin. Someone intervened when they wanted to bulldoze the castle, although I don't know how long it sat before they began rebuilding. Construction ended in the mid-1990s which means a huge chunk of the castle you now see is relatively new.
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Italics having a slash while I wait in the car (while inconspicuously taking pictures).
