THE Castle

Who doesn't love a good castle?  They are recipes that include history, romance, drama, action/bloody battles, and of course the occasional ghost story.  There's something in castles for almost everyone and I thought little of all of it - until I saw THE castle on a calendar.  This one:

I looked at the caption - Castle Urquart.  I found myself pausing to stare at the picture.  There was just that something special about it and the pieces began to fall into place for a visit.

After a few years' break from traveling, I thought perhaps it was time to 'go' again.  I'd loved the coast of Ireland and wanted to see that lush green and wild rocky coastline again, but didn't want to go to the same place twice, so looked into traveling to England and signed up for a newsletter with a daily report for discounted flight deals.  A flight deal came up for Scotland and castles popped back into radar - specifically Urquart Castle.  Nice.  So I bagged a flight that included insurance for around $500.00 and began researching.  I'm not a fan of structure and despise schedules, but Urquart made my Must-Do-List.

Apparently the largest part of the remaining castle ruin included a tower called Grant Tower that had been built and inhabited by the Grant family.

 

Grants...Grants...wait.  Our family has Grants.  My grandmother had once described her grandmother (a Grant) as having waist-long, red hair that had later turned into waist-long, white hair.  She and her Grandmother Grant were close - much like the two of us.  Would that make her my Great, Great Grandma Grant?  As far as I knew, we were English as far as the family tree would go - but I ran with it.  I decided to explore Scotland with that loose, Grant tie.

History has it that the Grants did in fact hold Castle Urquart.  It was gifted by the crown and wasn't uncommon for castles to change hands as powers shifted and Urquart was a classic example of this.  Each family/clan/caretaker makes modifications as funds allow and as powers shift.  It seems this clifftop was a prime location way before the castle existed and was home to many attacks across the ages - from northern invaders...aka Vikings, and also faced clans, civil war, religious disputes.

Clan MacDonald decided to expand their territory/power from the isles and Urquart was on their radar.  They invaded and tried to capture from Clan Grant regularly - every spring for a while.  In their last invasion, they cleaned house and took every item of value from the castle, to include curtains & candlesticks.

I guess the candlesticks were a proverbial last straw for Clan Grant and they blew up their own castle and got the heck out of Dodge...er...Loch Ness anyway.  A large storm did more damage to the structure later.

I picked up the Grant family name in Inverness & in Speyside - whiskey country.  They have a town,  museum, hotel, a few distilleries, and a nice settlement on River Spey - more on that later.

The Grant name was pretty big in Scotland and admittedly, my research into them and into the family tree connection is far from complete, but the search took me to cemeteries, war memorials, and even a town called Grantown-on-Spey.  My 'spoils' include a crest, battle cry, motto, and a lovely red family tartan.

Hope you enjoy and are inspired to look into your own family history.  If I learn more about mine, I'll let you know...but for now, I'll claim the Grants as my clan.

There's No Place Like...Backward Blogging

Backward Blogging

I'm HOME.  

It's o'dark thirty A.M. i'm now at my guy's house and he's left a pot of French press coffee out and is off to work.  His dog, Leonidas, is snoring oh-so-loudly at my feet (more about him later).  He (my guy, not the dog) left sunflowers on the kitchen counter with a scrawled WELCOME HOME note.  Hanging across the stair rail is his worn-soft, green, Guinness sweatshirt - because I get chilly in his house.  I grab it and snuggle down to the DVR and press play to watch Hidden Potential.  I'm in the moment drinking it all in and the dog farts.  It's bad.  Welcome home.  Where was I?  Oh, it's the sweet little things that make wonderful...

It was crazy wonderful to get home to my place last night.  Is that truly the best gift of travel?  Travel home day started at Dunstane Hotel in Edinburg, a 5-mile drive in Lemon (hey, the rental car and I bonded), an 8-hour flight, seat-switching & ending up next to curious & fun Scots, losing an earring I'd purchased at Edinburgh Castle, a migraine, an Uber driver who got lost, D.C. metro traffic, the realization that (OTC) migraine meds aren't good on an empty tummy - and who wants to force feed themselves McDonald's chicken nuggets with migraine nausea & a tummy ache?  This girl.  Suck it up buttercup because...

Home is wonderful.  After travel, the odd mundane/overlooked things of home become appreciated:  Jeepers - Lemon was a treat but I couldn't wait to get into my good, old, familiar car.  The almost-unscented-clean smell of home vs. overly-scented hotels, musty castles & BnBs, going barefoot on soft carpet & on warm hardwood floors.  Bare feet (ahhh) in the shower & knobs that don't need puzzling out, water that's the perfect temperature at first effort, white towels that have not rubbed over strangers' naked bodies, tweezers & nail clippers a girl needs but didn't pack in effort to bring only a single carry-on for the 2-week trip.  Snuggling down to the best, most comfortable bed in the world, with a stranger-germ-free clean, down comforter and waking up the next day, migraine free.  Walking into a real closet then choosing & slipping into clothes other than the three pair of pants and 5 shirts i was oh-so-tired of wearing, and strangely, putting on a differently scented deodorant than I'd worn for two weeks!  Who knew!?  Oh.  Using a full-sized toothbrush (sigh).  Plug ins and light switches that don't have extra...switches. Window screens. Garbage disposals.  mmmhmm.  Hugging Mia-the-cat soooo hard.

I'm also looking forward to a green smoothie for breakfast and salad...omigosh salad!  Fresh raw vegetables.  Nothing fried - not for a while anyway.  Off to get wonderful real life started again.

Hugs,
~m