Fri 1st May
Well, I could certainly tell I’d been for a walk yesterday. Sitting up was ok, but as soon as I used the muscles in my legs, I was stiff and achy, and not just a dull ache. I could hardly get down on my knees and then get back up. My knees hurt to bend them and my calves hurt to lean back on them and step up on them. It was very telling that I had not done a good long walk in a while. But the good thing was that I had done it, I’d gone through the pain of breaking the seal and now I just had to recover and keep the exercise going to maintain the strength and suppleness, that would come after a day or two resting. I always liked the pain you got the day after exercise; it was a good pain, it meant you’d done some good to your body. It did make we wonder though about people who have ailments, who are older, who are not fit and healthy. I would consider myself relatively fit, but when I’m aching the day after a long walk I wonder how other people must be feeling, either after having done the walk, or trying to do the walk in the first place, or just day to day with those ailments. Some people can’t even walk 100 metres without struggling, but they don’t say anything, don’t cause a fuss. It must play on their minds a lot, not being able to do these things without a thought. It made me consider when I’m walking behind slow walkers and get impatient. They must feel discomfort not being able to walk at a reasonable pace. It has made me more aware and to try not to judge people so quickly.
As I could hardly move it was already decided I would have a rest day, and as I had been so delayed yesterday that I had not been able to fit in a late afternoon visit to Brodick Castle, I would go today. It was a bit cloudier today, as was predicted, but the sun was still making an appearance. As soon as I arrived, I made a trip to my favourite place, the loo. I filled up my water here too, although the sinks were quite shallow, so it was hard to fill the bottles up to the max. I took these back to the van to fill up the sink bottle and planned to go back to the café later to fill them up for drinking. You can never tell if a tap is drinking water or not, so best to check if using water from the toilets.
As I was getting my ticket I noticed there was a free talk was at 11.30am, and with it being 11.20am I hurried to the castle to be prompt for it. It was quite a casual talk, just stood in the display room, with one of the volunteers talking to us about the snuff box, but it was interesting. While she’s been working there, she’d paid interest in the artifacts on display and in particular the snuff box, so had done her own research on it. Being the precursor to cigars/cigarettes, snuff was ground tobacco that you sniffed up the nose. It was widely used among the gentry as they could afford it, and with its addictive properties of nicotine everyone was using it. It was good practice to offer guests snuff when they came round to visit, as common as it is to offer tea now adays. It was also such a popular Scottish habit that the image of a highlander was often used outside snuff shops to advertise it was sold there.
I continued round the castle and discovered the family home was not really used as a castle, but more as a stately home, and one that was mainly used for holidays in the hunting season. As I approached the staircase I could see a wall of stags’ heads, looked on the next wall, more stags. I followed these as they adorned the stairwell, and looking up the flights of stairs, could see a larger wall on the next floor covered in stags’ heads. Apparently, they kept all of their hunting kill as souvenirs.
The 12th Duke of Hamilton was known for being a bit of a lad. He was expelled from Oxford, and on leaving didn’t know what to do with himself, so with an interest in sports, he started his long career in squandering the families fortune on buying racehorses, which he bet on, and lost a great deal. He worked up so much debt that they ended up having a sale at their other family home Hamiliton Palace, selling off £1.5 million of their assets including furniture, famous artwork, and properties. That would be about £250 million in today’s money.
The 11th Duke of Hamilton was set up to marry Princess Marie Amelie of Baden, who was notoriously used to living an opulent lifestyle. The 10th Duke and his wife decided to gift the castle to them as a wedding present, which they accepted, but on moving to the castle Princess Marie was not satisfied with the state and size of the place, requesting that her father-in-law extend the castle. What was meant to be a small extension of a couple of rooms, but ended up doubling the size of the castle!
It is a castle full of character and history, which was handed over to the National Trust from the 12th Duke’s granddaughter. They had lived in the castle very happily, but once the children had moved out they decided to hand it over to the trust. They are still allowed to return when they wish, and there is a wall on the ground floor with all the children’s heights marked on it. When they return, they are permitted to add additional heights from the grandchildren and great grandchildren. They are all a very tall family!
After spending quite a while in the castle I headed back to the van to make up a pasta shots in my flask and take it to the gardens. I sat for a time taking in the goings on, the people passing through the garden, the birds, the ferries coming into port in the distance. Although the sun was out it was a little chilly sitting still. While having my lunch I had a little visitor to my bench, with a brave robin hopping down to sit next to me, a lovely interruption.
I had been in the gardens the first day I had arrived on Arran and already been impressed with them, so I went to continue my exploration and see what else I could enjoy. I took the trail I had already been down then veered off down a track that seemed a bit wilder. It had boardwalks taking you through the trees and ferns, with rock steps taking you on little diversions. It was a nice change from the orderly, flowery gardens that normally pair with stately homes. I had seen on the map I’d been given that there was a red squirrel hide on the grounds. I was always on the lookout for them when walking in Scotland, so it seemed silly not to pop by to see if I could catch a glimpse. I found my way and saw the door and wondered if it would be worth it, or if it was run down and not really in use. I opened the door slowly and was greeted by 5 people all sat quietly on the benches by the open windows. I moved to the end of the row and started to sit down when one of the ladies said, ‘Can you see them? They’re over there!’ I looked in the direction she was pointing and could see, sat on the perch next to a feeding box, a little red squirrel nibbling on a nut. He finished his nut, turned and lifted the lid in the feeding box, stuck his head in and retrieved another nut, then sat back on his perch, with the lid clonking shut. It went through this routine the whole of the time I was there. Clonk, nibble, clonk, nibble… It was great to watch, and they do seem very shy, as people say. There was one squirrel trying to approach the one already sat eating, and it seemed like he wasn’t brave enough to muscle his way in to get a nut himself, so kept coming and going from around the tree. He eventually clocked that there was another feeder on a plinth and made his way there. We ended up with two squirrels stuck in a routine of retrieving nuts and nibbling them on their respective perches.
On leaving the castle and gardens I headed towards my next destination, I wasn’t 100% sure where. In Scotland a lot of parking is free, which is great, so you kind of have to be an opportunist with where you stop in your camper. I knew I wanted to make my way further south of the island (there’s only one main road after all) gradually making my way back to where I started, but wanted to leave enough distance to allow me to cycle from my new location towards Lochranza tomorrow. I had clocked a couple of parking spots so kept driving constantly keeping an eye on the signs for prospective parking spots and the ones I already had in mind.
I ended up stopping at Kings Caves car park, part of the forestry commission, a lovely spot next to the road. There were a couple of cars already there, but I assumed they were visiting the caves. As the evening went on the owners of these cars came back and drove off. It was at about 10pm though that we seemed to have an influx of campers; there must have been around 4 arriving in the space of 10 minutes. I wasn’t sure if this was usual habits of campers, arriving late at a site. I tend to like to arrive somewhere before dinner, so I can settle, make some food and set up my bed by 10pm.