Saturday 14 September – Elgin – a marbleless cathedral; and castle that isn't a ruin.

We woke up on this, our penultimate day in Scotland and the British Isles, to a cold, windy, bleak outlook.  We set off from Inverness to Elgin to visit the ruins of the 13^th century cathedral.  This is a very impressive ruin – enough remains to provide a clear picture of the size and scale of the cathedral, and we were able to climb up a long spiral staircase to the top of one of the towers for commanding views over the entire site and surrounding town and countryside.  Elgin Cathedral was established in 1224 and had a continuous run of bad luck; regular fires, attacks by disgruntled noblemen who probably objected to the power exercised by the bishops (and the bishops were not always models of virtue - Bishop Patrick Hepburn, who held the post from 1538 to 1573, fathered thirteen children from at least five different mistresses and was criticised for his “excessive wealth and worldly possessions”).  The cathedral eventually collapsed under its own weight in 1711 and was virtually abandoned  until the early 19^th century, when the crown commenced restoration which lasted through to the end of last century.  It is a truly magnificent site that, incidentally, contains many Anderson tomb stones.

Adjacent to the cathedral site is a beautiful “biblical garden”, developed in the mid-1990s as a peaceful haven to bring to life biblical stories through plants and statues.  We had a pleasant stroll through the garden before resuming our travels.

Next stop was Crathes Castle, constructed in the 16^th century by the Burnett family, who are still very active and have family gatherings on a regular basis, bring together family members from around the world.   The castle is fully intact and was donated by the Burnett family to the National Trust, along with 600 acres of land, in 1950.  Incidentally, the male head of the family still inherits the title of baron.  In fact an Australian was deemed to be eligible for the title (by dint of male lineage) not so many years ago but he respectfully declined.  During World War I the castle was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers.

We climbed spiral staircases to access each of the four levels, chatting to the Trust volunteers (one of whom, Bertha, serenaded us with a brief rendition of “Annie Laurie”).  The castle has its mandatory ghosts but they didn’t reveal themselves while we were there.  It was interesting to view the ceilings in many of the rooms where the joists were covered with extracts from the scriptures.  We then left the castle and walked through the adjoining walled gardens, containing a most impressive display of flora, and visited the glass house where new plantings are being cultivated and many larger plants are espaliered against the back stone wall – including a bottlebrush!

Having missed out on elevenses this morning we had fifteenses at the nearby café then made our way to Aberdeen and our wonderful apartment accommodation.