The castle is used in many scenes of the movie (Nick remembers them all) and the castle is obviously proud of the part it played by displaying lots of Python memorabilia in the gift shop. Nick and I both absolutely loved this castle. We both love Monty Python but that's not the reason why. This is what you think of when you think of castles. The location was really beautiful set next to a river and farm fields and forest. And the castle itself had a lot of rooms and tiny, dark spiral staircases that you really had to watch your step on. I don't know if it just felt less touristy to us but we both really enjoyed Doune Castle. I'd even go so far to say it was my favorite.
As we made our way to the west coast, we drove along a single track road (read: VERY scary one car width road that is a two-way) along Loch Awe, which was beautiful. We stopped to get a picture of Kilchurn Castle (shown below) but you had to hike through a field to get the shot and it was pretty muddy and there was lots of sheep poo. So I left it up to Nick. What a trooper.
We then drove on to Kilmartin to see a cairn and some standing stones. These were interesting but I was getting antsy to get to Oban at this point and the weather had turned very cool and windy. So Nick had to take some rush photography in order to appease his wife who was freezing her toes off.
We arrived at our B&B in Oban in the early evening and started to make our phone calls for Sunday's adventures. Our original plan was to take a boat out to the islands, including Staffa, to see puffins and other sealife. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. All the boat operations were not going out on Sunday (I actually got laughed at for suggesting it) so we had to come up with something else to do. When we woke up Sunday morning, it was cloudy but didn't look too bad. We thought we could maybe manage a hike. So after breakfast, we headed north along the coast. At this point, the wind picked up and the rain was pouring down. We stopped to get a view of Castle Stalker (another castle in The Holy Grail, it's at the end of the movie). We were out of the car a total of maybe 3 minutes and we were totally soaked (luckily we had thought ahead and wore non-cotton trousers that could dry very quickly). Nick tried to get some shots of it but it was pretty dark. For the first few pictures, I held an umbrella against the wind so I could cover the camera while Nick took pictures. But then I abandoned him for the car. I know where my priorities lie. I think the picture shown below is one that he managed without me.
We then drove back to Oban but stopped at Dunstaffnage Castle since we are now such die-hard castle fans. We had hoped this would be an indoor viewing event but alas, it was another open roofed ruin. Nick took a few pictures of me in the rain but in most of them my eyes are closed because the rain was pouring horizontally into my face. Am I painting a vivid picture of our Sunday afternoon?
The rest of Sunday we spent in bookshops and cafes. We were hopeful for nice weather on Monday so we could fit a hike in before driving back to Dundee. Unfortunately, we woke up to another rainy and even more windy day. Mother Nature was against us this weekend. So we gave up and drove back to Dundee on Monday. Even though we didn't get to do what we had hoped, this is the first time the weather has foiled our plans so we really can't complain. And it was a relaxing weekend. I got plenty of knitting in!
Our pictures are posted here.
2 comments:
Oh, I LOVE monty python's holy grail and totally recognize the castle. It's the one where they had the swallow debate and threw the cow in the air, right?
Yes, great memory Katie! And it was also where Lancelot came in to rescue what he thought was a damsel.
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