Garlic in the Corner

There's a clove of garlic sitting in a corner of the downstairs loo. I haven't the faintest idea how it got there. Was it the work of some intrepid mouse? This prospect doesn't dismay me, let's face it if you're up for braving 3 old mad predators plus attendant humans in your search for condiments, all I've got is admiration. But why leave it?

Blair Atholl

Huh, that was hard dull work which I must continue on Monday, and therefore cast out of my mind for the weekend.

I'll record our visits, most of which involved fewer eyeballs than the Surgeons' Hall.

Blair Atholl was excellent. It's the ultimate chocolate box Scottish castle, gorgeous grounds, ancient history, a little magic too... a vast coven of over 2000 witches was reported to have met somewhere around here back in the witch burning days. The Countess of Atholl herself, Margaret Fleming, was accused of being a witch. She was a supporter of Queen Mary of Scots and a grand-daughter of King James IV. Being an aristocrat did not stop the accusations, in fact it might have provided political incentives for them, but few are the problems money and connections can't solve, and there can be no doubt of the power of the Dukes of Atholl. Outside the Crown these are the only individuals in the UK with the right to raise a private army.

Old the walls but the interiors at their best are Georgian and very good looking. Despite the nearness of food, clean water, and potential for a private militia, I'm not sure Blair Atholl would be the perfect holdout in the zombie apocalypse due to the windows. Still if the baddies broke into the castle, at least fight back would be an option. Several walls are abundantly decorated with guns and swords while almost every hall/corridor is covered in antlers, not forgetting the horn chandeliers as well as the heads of surprised looking ungulates. We'd be fine for stabbies.

I want to go back. There's so much to see in the house that I never got to explore the gardens and the land beyond the estate, where the baobhan sith, fairy hags of vampiric intent, are said to haunt, and Schiehallion can just be seen from the windows. That strange mountain is thought to hold a way into the fairy realm, though the cave called Tom a Mhorair. But the warning goes that if the stone doors of otherworld close upon one, there is no returning to this world.

Of course, some might argue that's not such a terrible thing.