My Muse's Musings

Timeless is Released in Paperback and Traveling back to Loch Maree

2012-02-05T06:32:00.000-08:00

Timeless has been released in paperback. I'm so thrilled! I know the book's been out for a few weeks in ebook format, but I just love holding the real book in my hand. The cover is a little different from the ebook. But just as dramatic. Check it out.

TIMELESS

When I first started doing research for the book nearly four years ago, my dream was to REALLY see the area I'd chosen to set my story. Traveling to Scotland had been a dream for me for a long time. I suppose being a Marine Corps brat and transferring every two and a half years had bitten me with the travel bug. I've blogged about the Loch Maree area before. Here's a recap:

Loch Maree is the highlands. It resides in Wester Ross in the Northwestern upper regions of Scotland. It’s known as the Jewel of the Highlands because it’s so untouched.

I was unprepared for the raw beauty and power of the place.

Scotland was carved out by huge glaciers that covered the entire continent hundreds of thousands of years ago. That fact never seemed so evident until I saw the Loch Maree area.

This is Mount Slioch. It stands 3219 feet high and dominates its surroundings. It’s very popular with
climbers.

Loch Maree has a maximum depth of 375 feet and an average depth of 125 and is nearly 13 miles long. It is the 4th largest loch in Scotland.

The loch has around 30 islands, Isle Maree being the most important. It is on that island that a small chapel was built in 766 AD. by St. Maol Rubha. He came to spread Christianity and to try and wean the Druids away from their practices of sacrificing bulls.

It seems he was not completely successful. The last sacrifice was in the 17th century.

The island is said to have a well on it that will cure mental illness and has oak and holly trees that were at one time important to the ancient Druids who worshiped there. There are also graves of a Viking prince and princess.

A wishing tree with coins hammered into it was there when Queen Victoria visited in 1877.

Loch Maree even has it’s own monster called the Muc-sheilch (Pronounced Mook Helluch) .Perhaps a kind of selkie. I kept my eye out for it every time I stopped to take a picture but it must be as camera shy as I am.

Queen Victoria stayed at the Loch Maree Hotel in 1877. She stayed six days and there is a plaque that commemorates her visit outside the building. It seems strange to see motorcycles parked outside it, knowing that.

The area is a favorite camping site. Hiking, climbing, and fishing seems to be the favorite pastime for anyone who visits. The light seemed to change every few minutes as you can tell from my pictures. And the area is known to have unexpected, sometimes violent storms blow through, a fact that I have used to my advantage in my story.

I guess you can tell why I wanted to set my story here.

Teresa Reasor

TIMELESS THE PROOF

2012-02-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

I got my proof today of the print edition of Timeless, my new release. And it's beautiful as you can see.

It will be available at Amazon and Band N for purchase in a week to ten days. It's a beautiful book and a big one. 443 pages.

It's like nothing I've ever written before. And probably the best thing I've ever written. Here's the blurb:

Archaeologystudent, Regan Stanhope, lands the chance of a lifetime when she’s chosen towork on a summer dig in Loch Maree, Scotland. The ancient monoliths hiddenbeneath the loch are the most important discovery since Stonehenge. And forseven hundred years, they have been waiting—for her.

Saturationdiver Quinn Douglas is contracted to recover some of the megaliths from theloch’s bottom. The job will breathe life into the struggling salvage businesshe and his brothers are building. But from the moment he arrives, Quinn isplagued by dreams and feelings from a past he did not live. Or did he?

Regan andQuinn are drawn to each other as they research the monoliths and the reasonbehind their shared visions. But both sense something mystical at work, delvinginto their minds, manipulating their emotions. And when they finally discoverthe monoliths’ extraordinary secret, they know they must seal them away fromthose who are desperate to unlock their power. Even if it means remainingcaught in a timeless struggle between the past and present forever.

Write on,
Teresa J. Reasor

Celebrating ONCE AGAIN a new YA release by Amy Durham

2012-01-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

We're celebrating today with YA author Amy Durham on her release Once Again (the Sky Cove Series).

Amy, I’m so thrilled to have you on my blog today. Andtickled to be one of your first blog interviews to publicize your first YoungAdult release :

Once Again

With the book's release andanother book started in the series, how does it feel to see Once Again on the cyber shelves of Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords ?

It’s really kind of surreal. I’ve been writing and pursuingthis for almost 9 years, and at times it seemed like it would neverhappen. Actually seeing my bookand my name on the “cyber shelves” is crazy exciting! Also very exciting is thesupport and enthusiasm of my friends and family. So many of them havecongratulated me, helped spread the word, and even bought the book. Thosepeople… like YOU… who’ve helped make this dream a reality… I’ll never be ableto say “thank you” adequately.

Please share the blurb with us so other readers can get afeel for what the book is about.

Reincarnation sucks! Unless it comes with a cute guy. That’s whatsixteen year-old Layla Bradford discovers when she moves to Sky Cove, Maine, asmall-town she thought was ordinary, but turns out to be an episode of “ColdCase” on steroids.

Layla doesn’t want to fit in; she wants to blend in and stay out ofthe spotlight. But the spotlight is where she winds up when she catches the eyeof school cross-country star and all-around-nice-guy Lucas Ellis. She quicklylearns there’s more at stake than high school reputations when she and Lucasdiscover they are the reincarnations of a young married couple from themid-1800s who suffered a horrible tragedy at the hands of a madman who wasnever brought to justice. After a series of frightening visions show Layla andLucas glimpses of their past-lives, they realize that the villain of theirprevious existence has also been reincarnated, in the form of a fellow highschool student who targets them with teenage pranks that soon turn dangerous.As they grow closer, will Layla and Lucas be able to uncover the truth in timeto stop the same tragedy from unfolding once again?

Tell us a little about your journey from Music Teacher to Published Author.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 11, even before Idiscovered my musical abilities. Even though I studied music in college andwent on to become a music teacher, I never stopped wanting to write, and in theback of my mind was always the thought that “someday” I would do it. When I was29, just before my second child was born, I decided that if I kept saying“someday”, it was never going to happen. So, I joined a writer’s organization,began networking with other authors, and most importantly, really studying and learningabout the craft of writing fiction. That was almost 9 years ago, and while I’m still a music teacher, it’svery cool to be able to add “published author” to the list of hats I wear!

What has been your biggest challenge writing?

Making time for writing is always a challenge, since I havea full-time job and a family of 5! But I’ve learned that I can always find the time, because writing isimportant to me. Fortunately, my husband and my three boys are supportive andunderstanding, and if I need some quiet moments, they don’t blink if I hide inthe bedroom or plug in my headphones and turn the music up!

Having already read Once Again I’m waiting impatiently forthe next book. Do you want to share just a hint about where the other books of the Sky Cove Series is goingfrom here?

The next book is titled Onceand For All. It follows twosecondary characters from Once Again,as they encounter their own reincarnation mystery. These two characters notonly deal with the drama and danger of their reincarnation, but also an ancientcurse that has never been broken.

I know you have your own blog and I know the readers herewill be interested in that. Please share links to your blog and website ifyou’d like. I’m sure the readers will want to keep tabs on what you’re up toand when the next book will be released.

Absolutely! I love connecting with readers andbook-enthusiasts! You can find meonline at the following places:

Blog; amy-durham.blogspot.com

Twitter: @Amy_Durham

FB: facebook.com/AuthorAmyDurham

Email: amybdurham@gmail.com

Feel free to stop by and strike up a conversation!

Thanks Teresa, for having me here today, and for being oneof my biggest “cheerleaders”!

You're completely welcome. I am thrilled to have you. I'm looking forward to hearing big things from the book and the others in your series!!

Timeless by Teresa J. Reasor Excerpt 6

2012-01-25T02:55:00.000-08:00

Timeless

This is the 6th excerpt from the book. I'm still waiting for my proof, I hope to get it tomorrow!!
Read on,
Teresa J. Reasor

The deeper she drew Regan intothe trance, the tighter Quinn’s shoulder muscles knotted. The depth of hertrance during her first dive in Loch Maree had been life threatening. What ifshe should go so deep the hypnotist couldn’t bring her back? Was that possible?God, why hadn’t they discussed this more?

“Your eye lids are growing heavy,so heavy you can’t keep them open. So heavy you have to let them close.”

Regan’s dark lashes flutteredthen lay still against her cheeks. Her breathing appeared shallow, and her skinpale against the darkness of her hair and brows.

An air current circulated aroundthe room, cool and moist, and with it the scent of herbs, sage and rosemary.Dr. Reinhart frowned and glanced in Quinn’s direction.

Chill bumps rose on Quinn’sforearms. His heart began to pound against his ribs. There was more thanhypnosis at work in the room. He swallowed back his anxiety. “Ask Regan thequestions she gave you.”

“But I haven’t taken her back,yet.”

“Braden?”

Quinn jerked in surprise at thesound of a woman’s voice interrupting their conversation. It was Reganspeaking, but her vocal tone sounded huskier, and she’d rolled the R in abrogue she didn’t speak.

Dr. Reinhart’s gasp jerkedQuinn’s attention to Regan’s face.

Her eyes were open, the irisesno longer dark blue but a blue-green in color. Was that a trick of the candlelight?She focused on him with such intensity it sent a chill coursing down his body.

She spoke in a rush. The Gaelicsyntax she used fell on his ears like strange familiar music. She repeated thequestion and he captured the rhythm of her words.

“Braden how is it you are here?”she asked.

Though he had spoken Gaelic allhis life, the unusual cadence of her words gave him pause. Would his grasp ofthe language be up to the task? He drew a deep breath. He’d been a part ofBraden, was a part of the man. He knew how he felt and thought. His familiaritythrough his dreams would help him. He could do this. “To see you, Coira, and toask you some questions.”

“Of what would you ask me?”

“Are you well?”

“Aye.”

“And the bairn?”

Her smile sprang free radiantwith joy. Though Regan never touched her stomach, she moved her hand as thoughto caress a rounded tummy. “Aye, the babe is growing.”

“When do you expect him, Coira?”

“You know ’tis due the first ofNovember.”

So he had been right. They stillhad time.

“What the hell is going onhere?” Dr. Reinhart asked. Her features, powder pale, appeared stiff withcontrol. A twitch worried one eye. The cool, moist air looped around the room,brushed her hair, and caused it to move against her cheek like tiny fingers.She jerked and pushed it aside. Her expression tightened with anxiety as hergaze darted around the room.

Quinn waved, motioning for herto keep her voice down. “You said you didn’t believe in past lives, but Reganhas one. That’s what’s going on here. Part of that life is in the room withus.”

Her features stiffened. “That’simpossible.”

“It isn’t.” Quinn turned back toRegan. “How long have I been away?”

“Five full moons have passedsince you left. I am so pleased to see you. You are well?” She reached for himand Quinn shifted his chair close to hold her hands. How would Braden greet herafter so long a time apart? He bent his head to kiss her hands.

“Aye, I am well. But I havedreamed of you and the babe often. One dream disturbed me. When your timecomes, if I am not there, I dinna wish you to allow Nathrach or Ross to bealone with the bairn. Keep the midwife close to you and the babe.”

Her features settled into solemnlines. “Has my gift become a part of yours, Braden?”

So Braden too had a gift. “Aye,mayhap a wee bit.” The trust, the love he read in her expression tweaked hisguilt. “’Tis truly afraid for you I am, Coira. And the bairn.”

“Aye, I can see that. What placeis this? Where are we?” she asked looking about. “This is a dream, is it not?”

“Aye ‘tis a dream. And ’tis agrand house. But the place doesn’t matter. The future is what is important.Your future and the babe’s.”

“Have you become a wizard now? Asoothsayer of what is to come?”

“Aye, in this I have.” Hepaused. “The stones will play a part in that, too.”

“As we have both known theywould.” Acceptance and grief flickered across her face.

“We dinna have to accept it,Coira. There are actions we may take to prevent what is to come. You can goaway from the area until I return.”

“Would you have me return toUist after all that happened there?”

Quinn revisited dream images offorce fires and threats breathed against her. Were those from Uist? “No. Isthere not some place you can be safe, Coira?”

“Only within the circle. Theothers are afraid of the power there.”

“But not Ross.”

“Nay, he is not afraid. Of latehe has been more open to the ways of the old ones.”

Her tone triggered an urgentprotective need. If they were to save the bairn she had to know she couldn’ttrust him. “You must be wary of him. Keep yourself and the bairn safe at allcosts, Coira. Trust no one.”

I'd love for you to comment.
Teresa R.

Timeless 5th Excerpt

2012-01-24T12:02:00.000-08:00

Timeless

Here's the 5th installment from Timeless. Hope you enjoy it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

The guard shack was actually asmall building set above the site. Lights shined out the two windows on theeastern face of the structure. Regan stopped as she spied Kennedy sitting in achair before a desk reading a book.

“Well that’s a relief,” she saidon a sigh as the tight band of anxiety tying her stomach into knots released.

“Let’s leave him to his book andgo back and open the wine.”

“Or we could go down and seewhat effect, if any, the lightning had on the monoliths. The strikes have toscrew with the magnetic field of the stones?”

“Have you not tested it yet?” heasked, his tone laced with surprised.

“They’ve kept me busy analyzingthe data from our dive and helping in the preservation lab for the last fewdays.” It had more to do with liability for her injury than the need for herhelp in those areas.

“We could go down and see ifthey register any type of magnetic qualities now that the lightning haspassed,” he suggested.

“We didn’t bring anything totest it with.”

Quinn withdrew a pocketknifefrom his jeans. “If they’re magnetic this will stick to the side of a stone. Itwon’t be scientific, but we’ll be able to tell if the lightning charge has hadan effect.”

The crunch of the gravel beneaththeir feet had a soggy sound. The rain stopped as they reached the scaffoldingand Regan lowered the umbrella and folded it into its compact form.

Quinn caught her hand as theystrolled through the arch of the first monoliths. The air felt waterlogged,almost muggy, and smelt like the loch.

He paused by the second stone,the one that had received a direct strike, and touched it with his pocketknife.The metal adhered to the stone as though glued there.

“I’ll be damned.” He pulled freethe blade and replaced it several times.

Curious to see if all themonoliths were affected or just a few, she tugged at his hand and they strolledaround the henge in a counter clockwise direction. In a random pattern, theystopped at several stones to test them. Each showed the same magnetic ability.

“I’ve never seen anythin’ likethis,” Quinn said.

“Neither have I.”

She paused before the stoneshe’d been working on before her dive. Hannah had finished removing the algae.The flashlight’s illumination made the hieroglyphs look as though they writhedupon the face of the stone.

“I haven’t looked at themarkings up close. They appear alive somehow,” Quinn said as he rested his handon the side of the stone and rubbed his fingers over it.

“Alive. That’s a good way to putit.” Regan touched one deep groove in the center of the monolith. Warmth searedher fingertips and the stone latched onto her skin with the ferocity of ahungry leech. A shudder, soul deep raced through her system as prickles of fearand power raced through her system.

“Quinn—“ His name was jerkedfrom her, a plea and a warning. But it was too late.

Light blazed between themonoliths bathing Quinn’s tall form in fire.

Teresa J. Reasor

Excerpt 4 Timelss by Teresa J. Reasor

2012-01-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

TIMELESS

Timeless the print edition will be released in a few weeks.My Galley Proof is on its way!!! I'll post a picture when it gets here. Hope you enjoy this excerpt.

Teresa R.

Regan retraced her steps and kneeled before the altar to run a quick questing touch over the base. A thinseam became evident four inches from the edge. She fluttered the bristles ofher brush over it and a crack where the stones met became visible. It wasconstructed like a box, just as she had thought, not a single thick block ofstone. Had it been built that way just to hold the weight of the top? Or was ita burial chamber for some important person? If they opened it, would they findCoira or Braden inside?

She pushed away the thought. Thecouple was too alive for her to think of them interned inside the altar. She begancleaning the face of the structure from the bottom up. Where normal Ogham wasusually carved along the edge of a stone, these were incised into the face ofthe slab, just like the others. Who had done all this? It would have takenyears of dedicated determination to cover each block with words in an obscurewritten language that spoke volumes but hid their true meaning.

“How does it work Coira?” shemurmured as she cleaned away the brownish gray residue with circular swipes ofthe brush dipped in the soapy water. Sticking the brush into the bucket tosoak, she wiped the residue away with a sponge. She removed her glove and ranher fingers over the grooves of the inscription that ran down the center of thestone.

Power. The word came to her like a whispered.

Fear wove through every fiber ofher body, turning her muscles to sludge. Dear God was she becoming unhinged like her mother had been? Was allthis just in her mind. Tears burnt her eyes and she used her sleeve to coverher face blocking out the stone before her.

Her wrist ached. “It wasn’t allin her mind. The burn on her wrist was a real thing. Could someone’s mind causea real physical injury?

She lowered her arm. It wasn’tjust in her imagination or a figment of a mind suddenly demented. This was real. Every muscle tensed as she placed herhand on the stone again.

Power.

Her breath left her in a whooshand her heart beat so hard it was almost painful.

Whose power? What kind of power?

The desire to run leapt throughher driving her to her feet. Muscles, cramped from being in one position toolong, protested.

Her attention swung toward thescaffold. Should she signal Hannah to get the boys to tow her back in?

A cluster of people stood on thescaffolding. She recognized Dr.Fraser and his wife but the two men with them were too distant for her toidentify. All four paused before the stone she had partially cleaned the daybefore. As she watched, Hannah pointed out to the altar. The group turned andone of the men stepped to the edge of the platform and shaded his eyes againstthe glare of the midday sun.

Dr. Fraser cupped his handsaround his mouth and called to Regan. “Come in, Miss Stanhope. Mr. Nicodemuswishes to meet you.”

“Shit.” She raised her hand in ahalfhearted wave. Leaving the bucket where she had placed it, she started thestep, slide, rhythm that had gotten her out to the stone.

Six or seven steps away from thealtar, the ground suddenly gave way, and she went knee deep into the mud. Thesurface she stood on felt spongy and unstable. A long drawn out creaking noisecame from beneath her followed by a snap. She threw herself forward grapplingat the muddy ground for a handhold. Water, brackish and cold folded around herand ran into the rubber waders, weighting her down, dragging her deeper. A cryof fear broke from her and she dug her fingers into the ground trying to holdon. A shout sounded from across the dig site. The rope around her waisttightened and yanked her grip free. She gasped one desperate breath as blackwater covered her head.

Timeless Excerpt 3

2012-01-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

Timeless will be available in print in a couple of weeks. It's a big book 610 pages.

Regan studied the two women fromIreland. They had naturally gravitated toward one another, both being from theGreen Isle. As they greeted the rest of the group, their brogue fell on the earwith a softer music, but no less rich a cadence than the Scots one flying aboutthe room. Regan nodded a greeting and glanced toward the small stage where thehigh clear notes of a flute captured her attention.

Surprised, her brows rose as sherecognized Quinn Douglas. With his lids partially lowered over his green gazeand his lips pursed to blow into the instrument, there was a singularconcentration on his face that brought a flutter to the pit of her stomach. Ascruffy five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw and chin. His collar lay openleaving a dusting of dark chest hair visible along his collarbone. There was araw, dark sexuality about the man that triggered an innate response inside her.Every time she looked at him, she felt hot and needy.

Was it only the lingeringeffects of the dream? Vision. How could she have dreamed about a man she hadyet to meet? Having been intent on just surviving the afternoon before, herfeelings had been pushed aside as the experience unfolded. Now, after havingtime to think about it, analyze it, her hands grew clammy, and her heart raced everytime she allowed her mind to even tap the subject.

Was she growing as delusional asher real mother? The drugs she’dbeen addicted to had caused her ranting and raving. Hadn’t it?

But what if the next time shephysically touched the stones, something similar happened? What if it hadn’tbeen a dream? The idea clogged her throat with anxiety making it hard for herto breathe.

She was a scientist. It couldn’tbe real. She’d had nitrogen induced hallucination. Her depth could have createdthe conditions conducive to the situation, or her gas mix may have been off.That’s all it had been. It had to be.

Applause drew her back to thepresent. Sheary nudged her arm and Regan turned her head to see the girl’shazel eyes squinting with laughter. “Has the sight of all that manly muscletoying with his instrument put you into a sexual fantasy induced coma, Regan?”

She blinked and her eyestraveled from Sheary’s wide smile back to the stage, where Quinn was puttingaside his flute, in a long case and joining his brothers at a table close by.The rest of the musicians, a trio with fiddle, keyboard, and guitar startedanother song. Lord, had she been staring at Quinn all this time?

“Actually, I believe between thethree of them, there’s enough testosterone there to put us all under.” Helenwinked at her. “Even the brother grim has something worthy of a few heartpalpitations.”

“The brother grim?” Regan asked.

She leaned her arms on the tableflashing a small bit of cleavage. “The oldest. Quinn. I’ve been here three daysand never seen him smile. He’s always serious and all business. Now the twoyounger ones are open to a bit of fun. They bought us drinks the first night wearrived here.”

Regan folded a napkin to act asa coaster, salted it, and slid it beneath her glass. He had smiled at her thatfirst morning they had spent together. And been angry and biting, as well.“Logan and Rob do seem a little more laid back.” But not much of a challenge.Regan shook her head at the thought. Since when had she needed any morechallenges in her life than she already had?

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt. I'd love to hear your comments.

Teresa Reasor

Timeless Excerpt 2

2012-01-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

The is the second excerpt from Timeless.

Braden led her beneath thecrossbar spanning a narrow path between two of the stones. Atop the limestonealtar in the center of the site set her basket, the long stems of severalplants sticking over the sides. The edge of her tartan shawl, bunched besideit, fluttered in the breeze. Braden paused in the shade of one of the slabs, asudden wary tension in his stance.

Warm moist air looped aroundthem. A prickling sensation fluttered over Coira’s skin as though a lightningstrike had just dispersed. The smell of smoke lingered on the breeze. Braden’sgrasp tightened upon her hand, holding her at his side.

More curious than alarmed, sheran a soothing hand down his arm. “Be at ease. There is nothing to fear in thisplace.”

She closed her eyes and embracedthe power that lingered on the air like mist. Pulling away from Braden’s grasp,she walked clockwise along the edge of the circle. A low hum traveled throughthe bottoms of her feet to the top of her head, the vibration intensifying asshe neared one particular stone. The Ogham designs carved into the pillarwrithed black, against the reddish light the setting sun painted upon theslab’s surface.

The air grew still and weightedwith moisture. She tasted it, like dew, on her tongue. Her skin grew damp. Thesound of the wind, the movement of the trees, her own breathing, ceased. Herears felt full as if she had climbed a tall peak and needed to swallow to clearthem. What was about here?

“Coira—” Braden spoke behindher, his tone taut with wariness.

An area, head high, on the blockwavered like something live wrestled within it. A bulge appeared pulsing,panting, as if the stone were giving birth. A shape thrust forward. Coirastaggered back in surprise and fear, a startled cry torn from her.

Shoulders bowed, the figurestretched its neck back as though attempting to relieve the cramped pain ofrelease. The head turned. A strange oval structure covering the top third ofthe face, a round disk covered the mouth with a black piece as thick as an eelattached to it. For a moment, the form retained the gray color of the limestonein which it was imbedded, and then the stone slid away like liquid leaving theflesh exposed. The features were feminine, her head, neck, and shouldersencased in something gray-black as a seal’s pelt. With a wiggle, and a soundlike the release of suction, a single arm and hand flopped free reaching towardher.

The pale blue eyes that gazed ather from behind the strange mask reflected her same horror and fear. The widecheek bones, the dark slash of her brows, the narrow bridge of her nose,mirrored hers in exact detail, and for a moment Coira thought she gazed at herown image.

With a twisting movement, thewoman tried to break free of the stone, her chest heaving in and out as sheattempted to breathe. Coira’s eyes stung with tears of pity. She could notstand aside and watch her die. She had to pull her free. Coira reached up tograsp the hand extended toward her.

“Nay!” Braden bellowed.

A current passed through Coira’sfingers and a force, invisible but strong, looped around her wrist like a ropeand pulled. Fear lanced through her, bone deep. She braced her feet and leanedback, fighting against the power that sucked her forward against her will. Asshe looked up, the hand above her reached out like a black claw to grab her.

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt. I'd love to hear from you.

Teresa J. Reasor

Timeless Excerpt 1

2012-01-20T07:14:00.000-08:00

For the next week I'll be posting excerpts from my latest release, Timeless. I hope you'll tune in each day and check them out.

The water made the structure appear to lean toward her. Dwarfed by the dam’s looming height, she struggled to suppress her cloying claustrophobia. She swung her dive light back and forth searching for any sign of Henry. The ground gave way to a long downward slope. She drifted, following the deep ruts cut into the bank.

At the sudden inexplicable increase in the water temperature, she hesitated. It didn’t feel like a natural current, but warmer, like a hot spring. Had the seal along the wrists and ankles of her dry suit broken, she would be experiencing the chill of the water, not a surge of warmth. For a moment, the circle of illumination her dive light provided seemed to expand as some of the sediment cleared. Worry brought a hollow emptiness to the pit of her stomach. Where was Henry?

She couldn’t search any longer. She’d secure an emergency line, release her buoy, and follow it up. And hope and pray Henry had already surfaced. She looked below for something on which to fasten her line.

Just beneath her, white PVC pipes delineated a grid around the site. Nearly all the squares blocked in showed signs of digging. In the center of the underwater dig, a long, rectangular object, gray-black in color, lay on its side in the mud. It appeared that the hieroglyphs marking the surface of those already recovered were absent on this one. That couldn’t be right.

Regan swam down and rested a gloved hand on the block. A cloud of sediment kicked up obscuring visibility, but the deep recessed edge of a design became evident beneath her fingertips. Her satisfied sound forced bubbles from her mouthpiece past her ear.

Water and mud sealed off the stones protected by the cofferdam above ground. And until the scaffolding was completed, she could only view them from a distance. But these she could touch. And what could it hurt?

Regan pulled loose her glove and tucked it beneath her weight belt. The water temperature seemed warmer than when she had entered the loch. The pitted surface of the rock felt slick and slimy.

The sensation of warmth intensified to a prickly static that tingled almost painfully against her bare skin. She tried to lift her hand and break the contact, but her palm felt welded to the top of the stone. Fear bit into her, sharp as an eel’s teeth. Pinpricks traveled, with liquid speed up her arm to her shoulder and across her chest. Was she having a heart attack? Was she experiencing an embolism?

Burning heat raced to the rest of her extremities. A current of power surged like electricity through her entire body. Energy hummed along her nerve endings like a dance of fire until it reached her groin. Regan groaned as an orgasm hit her with such intensity she bowed her back. Jets of sensation rolled outward from the very depths of her body. She remained locked to the stone, yet she was projected someplace else as well. In an instant, her consciousness splintered.

Thanks for reading!!!
Teresa Reasor

Monumental Discovery Made in Scottish Loch

2012-01-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

Monumental Discovery Made in Scottish Loch

Byline by Teresa J. Reasor

Thousands of years ago great glaciers clawed their way across the northwest regions of Scotland before gasping their last shuddering breath near Inverness. Their agonizing journey gouged out a place of such raw powerful beauty it catches your breath and refuses to relinquish it. In the valley squeezed between rocky naked peaks lies Loch Maree.

It is in the deep cold depths of the loch a discovery is made, a henge similar to the great monolithic circle on the Salisbury Plain. But unlike Stonehenge, these monoliths are etched with an ancient Celtic language called Ogham.

Such a find draws the interest of billionaire Sebastian Nicodemus and for ten long years he urges the Scottish government to accept his patronage to uncover the stones and study them. Early in 2011 they decide to take him up on the offer.

Ill with pancreatic cancer, Nicodemus has researched the henge and discovered some obscure texts that hint at the healing power of the stones. Having exhausted the options of modern medicine and desperate to be cured, he pours his money into uncovering the henge and learning its secrets.

A cofferdam is constructed to seal off the site and the water pumped out. The stone circle tastes the air for the first time in nearly seven hundred years.

Archaeologists from all over the world come to study its language, age and purpose. It is here Regan Stanhope and six other brilliant archaeology students, chosen from a list of over two hundred, come to study and learn.

And others, like Quinn Douglas and his team of salty Saturation Divers, come to help reconstruct the site as it was three thousand years before.

Thus begins the story of TIMELESS a Paranormal Romantic Suspense set in Loch Maree, Scotland in the year 2011.

TIMELESS

Never Too Late for Romance: Teresa Reasor talks about Alpha Males (Guest Author)

2012-01-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

Never Too Late for Romance: Teresa Reasor talks about Alpha Males (Guest Author)

TImeless

2012-01-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

January 13, 2012 my novel Timeless will be available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble in e-book format. I just wanted to share this with everyone. This book has been a three year journey but it was worth it. I believe everyone will be as thrilled with the story as I am. I got to really stretch my creative muscles with this one. It is a Paranormal Romantic Suspense.

Here's the blurb:

Archaeology student, Regan Stanhope, lands the chance of a lifetime when she’s chosen to work on a summer dig in Loch Maree, Scotland. The ancient monoliths hidden beneath the loch are the most important discovery since Stonehenge. And for seven hundred years, they have been waiting—for her.

Saturation diver Quinn Douglas is contracted to recover some of the megaliths from the loch’s bottom. The job will breathe life into the struggling salvage business he and his brothers are building. But from the moment he arrives, Quinn is plagued by dreams and feelings from a past he did not live. Or did he?

Regan and Quinn are drawn to each other as they research the monoliths and the reason behind their shared visions. But both sense something mystical at work, delving into their minds, manipulating their emotions. And when they finally discover the monoliths’ extraordinary secret, they know they must seal them away from those who are desperate to unlock their power. Even if it means remaining caught in a timeless struggle between the past and present forever.

I got so attached to the characters in this one, I cried for two days after finishing it.

Hope everyone who reads it feels the same.

Teresa Reasor

The PROOF

2011-07-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

Being a writer is not always easy. There are days I never look up from my computer. And others I wander through the house from room to room brainstorming to try and get a clearer picture of what I want to happen in my story. Some days it comes easy and others it's like pushing a jelly bean up a mountain with my nose.

But yesterday was one of the good days. I got my galley of Breaking Free. I haven't okayed it yet.

I have to read all the way through the book and make sure that every t is crossed and every i dotted. But there's nothing wrong with the cover. It's a beauty. And my man is something that dreams are made of. Just as is my hero Adam "Hawk" Yazzie.

As much as I'm enjoying my kindle, I have to tell you that holding that print book in my hand really thrilled me to no end. I believe it's because it is a concrete representation of all the work that has gone into writing a novel. Part of it is knowing that every one of my 93,000 words is in there. And those words have come from inside my head and my heart.

I hope when a reader picks it up and opens it to that sea of words he/she will know that I believed in every one of them.

Write on,

Teresa Reasor

Computer Gremlins Stay Away or Adventures in Self Publishing

2011-06-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

I have to say that writing is a great deal easier than some of the other things that go with it. If we all think the publishing world is going through a monumental change---well so are the writers. In a way there has been a creative revolution in the publishing world that has led authors to seek more control over their careers. And self-publishing plays into that.

Recently, I made the decision to self-publish a manuscript. And I have to say, aside from the excitement of putting my words out there, this has been a learning experience. Luckily I have a wonderful network of supportive friends who understand the technology of publishing. They just hadn’t run up against the Reasor curse.

When Tracy, my cover artist and friend, got together with me to help me format my work, I warned her straight up that I had a history of technological snafus and that anything that could go wrong--would go wrong. Seven hours later, she admitted that I might have some kind of computer gremlin hanging about me ready to hit the wrong key at the wrong time and wreak havoc on the formatting of my document and even the punctuation. And we both decided that as wonderful as Macs are, Word For Macs Sucks!!!

We discovered that the publishing world didn’t like my idea of using a different font other than Times New Roman. And as soon as I switched the font, it knocked out all of my chapter and scene break alignments, and all my italicized words. One format demanded two hyphens as apposed to an m-dash. All the formats demanded italicizing phrases instead of underlining. And none of them wanted any extra spaces. And removing those spaces sometimes caused a shift in sentences on the page and sometimes deleted punctuation and indents. And there could be no tabs. If I had a quarter for every time I ran spell check and grammar check, I could have retired a rich person without ever publishing anything.

Four days later I had uploaded my document 3 times and was still struggling with the indents and other issues. BUT I HAD SOLD 12 BOOKS. The only problem was that each one of those downloads were sprinkled with weird things, like equal signs in strange places (don’t have a clue where they came from (unless I sleep walked and added them to the document.) and other issues from deleting spaces. And I hope those brave readers will still love the story despite those few issues.

THANK GOD FOR CHILDREN. Every household now days has at least one technological whiz kid and though mine no longer live at home, they’re still just a phone call or an email away. My whiz kid happens to be finishing his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. And also, when his mother calls he’s willing to jump into the mess and try and make some sense of it. Daniel immediately took the bull by the horns and looked for Mac compatible software that would convert the files into a Kindle friendly format.

He didn’t download any software but he had me save my document as an HTM document and send it to him. With that he was able to convert it for me into a mobi file that I could upload and the formatting would stay in place. And, God love him, he experimented with the original while I made one last attempt to find every weird thing that Word had done to my document. (Like flip all the quotation marks after an mdash backwards.)

I sent him the clean file, and since he’d worked things out, he was able to convert the file to mobi for me and within an hour I uploaded it. YES!!! And if there’s anything I missed, I hope the reader will be so lost in the story, they’ll overlook it.

Next time I’ll talk about how many different ways you can screw up on your dashboard at Kindle and mess your stuff up. Yes, I have done that too.

Teresa Reasor

Exploring Northern Ireland in 2 Days, Part 3, Armoy Harbor, The Belfast Zoo, The Belfast Castle and The Cat Garden

2010-07-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

We stopped at White Park Bay overlook to take pictures of the beach on the way to the Armoy Harbor. I couldn't take enough pictures of the water. It's a pure blue that's just beautiful. Because it was early morning, it was hazy just as an Irish morning should be.

The harbor was beautiful. I love being on the water. And there was a little restaurant there serving breakfast, but we'd already eaten. Darn. But we were so focused on the scenery and taking pictures we didn't really need to eat too.

I swear the water looked like glass.

We checked out of Lime Park and had a few hours before we had to catch the ferry in Larne. We decided to go to Belfast.

We went to the Belfast Zoo. I'm not a big fan of zoos I really think the animals, though they probably don't live as long, deserve to be free. But I had a few favorites that I got to see. Like the mercats.

Don't they look comfortable laying in a pile. The ultimate family unit.

I loved this rhino sculpture. How funny.

I love the elephants but they were so unhappy. Their enclosure was being worked on and they were stuck

inside.

Since I started this blog with an exploration of Scotland and its castles, I thought it only fitting that I ended it with the last castle we saw. Belfast Castle in Belfast, Ireland.

The original Belfast Castle was built by the Normans in the 12th Century. It resided in the heart of the city. It was the home of Sir Arthur Chichester. The castle burned down in 1708 and instead of building back on that site they decided to rebuild in the suburbs.

(This is the side of the castle)

The current castle was built between 1862 and 1870 by the 3rd Marquess of Donegall.

The Castle was designed in the Scottish Baronial Style by Charles Lanyon and his son.

(This is the entrance side of the castle)

After Sir Donegall's death and his families finances kept them from keeping the castle and it was sold to the 8th Earl of Shaftsbury. He completed the castle.

(This is the back side of the Castle.)

In 1934 the 9th Earl of Shaftsbury presented the castle to the city of Belfast.

We were allowed to take pictures of parts of the interior. it was beautiful.

( The ceiling was gorgeous. I think the designers in Scotland and Ireland are sky light crazy. You saw them everywhere. )

In 1978 the city of Belfast refurbished the castle over a 10 year period.

The Garden is refered to as the Cat Garden. It is beautiful.

I was sorry to leave Ireland so soon. I'd have liked to have stayed another two weeks and seen more. Maybe one day I'll get to return to both Ireland and Scotland and see all the things I didn't get to see this trip.

I want to thank all you readers who have followed my efforts so faithfully. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Being able to reflect and write down my thoughts and feelings, as well as all the historical significance of the places we visited has been a wonderful experience.
Thank you all for coming along for the experience with me.

I'm not sure what my next blog will be about. It's going to be tough to top this one.

I'm going to take a few days off to ponder that. But I'll be back soon.

Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Northern Ireland in 2 days, Part 2, The Giant's Causeway, A Train Ride and The Rope Bridge of Carrick-a-Rede

2010-07-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

The Giant's Causeway is the 4th most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland. It was created when hot lava or Basalt cooled too quickly and formed unusual rock formations. On the way down to the site, which is about a 20 minute walk from the tourist center, I took some pictures of the coastline.

50 or 60 million years ago, the Antrim area of Ireland was subject to intense volcanic activity. During this period a lava plateau was formed by the eruptions.

As the lava cooled it contracted and the flow was constricted thus creating the unusal rock formations. And they really are most unusal.

Some of them are hexagons, octagons, and they look as though they were hand cut to fit together.

Some look like giant prisms.

And others like stepping stones.

What facinated me was how they shot straight up and factured vertically instead of horizontally.

Some of these columns shoot 36 feet into the air.

The Irish are known for their blarney. Just some. One version of the legend that goes along with the Giant's Causeway is that it was created by a giant whose name was Fionn Mac Cumhaill, ( Finn McCool). Fionn spent many days trying to create a bridge to Scotland so he could face another giant named Bennandonner. Exhausted from his labors, Fionn lay down and fell asleep. Bennandonner grew weary of waiting for his apponent and crossed the bridge to meet him. Fionn's wife, Oonagh saw how much larger Bennandonner was than Fionn and grew concerned for her husband. She covered Fionn with a blanket and told Bennandonner that he was her baby. Seeing how big the child was, Bennandonner grew concerned about just how big Fionn could be. He ran across the bridge destroying it and throwing the stones into the ocean so that Fionn could never get to him.

There are similar stones to the Causeway found at Fingals Cave on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland.

After leaving the Causeway we walked back up the hill, about a 2 mile walk and then down to the bottom on the other side to a small miniature train station. Having driven all over Scotland and having done a fair amount of driving in Ireland already, we decided to take a ride on the small train. I borrowed Mitsi's picture of the engine because her's turned out much better than mine.

I hope the engineers of these small trains were paid well, because they came off of them pitch black from the smoke. They were steam engines and the oily smoke that billowed out of them stained their skin. It did give you an idea of what it would be like to travel on a train in the 1800's. I've often read in westerns and in some books about India how the smoke would come in the windows and stain the peoples clothing. But in the heat, I suppose you'd do anything for a breeze.

I did manage to get some wonderful pictures of the Irish scenery even though we couldn't lower the windows of the train.

We left the train and went on to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Carrick-a-Rede means "a rock in the road". For 350 years there have been rope bridges built to span the space between the mainland and this small island. The first were built by fishermen so they could salmon fish from the island. From earliest time until the mid 1960's almost 300 fish a day were caught. Then it trickled to 300 a season. Now the salmon are gone and fishermen don't bother any longer.

Walking down to the bridge we were able to take some wonderful shots of the Irish coastline.

I suffer from Vertigo. Very -very-bad vertigo. James Stewart had nothing over on me in the movie Vertigo. I knew I couldn't walk across the bridge so I took pictures of Mitsi while she did it. So, she has proof she walked across.

The current bridge was created in 2008 and is made from wire and rope so it is very safe.

For those of you who are like me and suffer with vertigo, you can take a vertual tour of what it's like to stand on the bridge and look around at this site.

http://www.virtualvisit-northernireland.com/gallery.aspx?dataid=49105&title=Children_and_Family

While I waited for Mitsi to come back a little bird kept me company.

Tomorrow we'll go to the harbor at Armoy, Belfast Castle, and the Cat Gardens and take a peak at the Zoo.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Northern Ireland in 2 days, Part 1, The Ferry Trip and Lime Park

2010-07-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Ireland on the 6th of June. I hadn't been on a Ferry since I was very young. The guys who load them really know what they're doing.

The ships now have certainly taken a turn for the better. I felt like I was in the bar of the Starship Enterprise.

I don't know what it's like to travel in bad weather on the sea in a ferry, but our crossing was so peaceful that we both fell to sleep for at least and hour.

They even have stores inside. I bought my son, Daniel, a Guinness Shirt and baseball cap. Guinness beer is his favorite, and of course it's a very popular beer in Ireland and Scotland.

Here's our sister ferry that docked just ahead of us. We weren't allowed to go out during the trip so this was my only shot at a picture. Look at how blue the water looks. It was that way the entire time.

We chose to take the ferry and take the car since we were going to have to fly out of Edinburgh on June 8th and would need the transportation to the airport. As long as we stayed in Northern Ireland we didn't have to pay any extra fee to take the car. If you go to Southern Ireland--The Irish Republic there was an extra fee for insurance.

It cost about 225 pounds round trip for 2 people and the vehicle. About $345.00.

We drove off the Ferry and headed toward our B and B, Lime park, in the Antrim area. We got into a discussion of whether or not Ireland looked any greener than Scotland. What do you think?

This is still Sheep country. Every field had them in it. After they're sheered the farmers mark the ones they intend to send to market with paint. We came over the hill and one of the farmers had marked them with red paint and they all look wounded. Mitsi and I groaned aloud.

We arrived at Lime Park in the late afternoon. At one time the complex was a working farm. The buildings there are about 300 years old. They have been converted into self-catering apartments and artist's studios. It's a lovely- lovely place and I spent some time taking pictures of it.

Look at the sod roof on this farm building. It's used to store feed. The owners still have horses.

Our apartment was called the Long Barn. Which at one time it had been. We burnt peat in the fireplace at night. It was great!

This is the downstairs door to the Long Barn.It was beautiful there. Around every corner was something pretty of which to take a picture.

This is one of the back doors of the Long Barn. Each bedroom had it's own little door out into a courtyard.

This is the little Pigs house. They call it that because it's very small with only one bedroom.

The buildings had real slate roofs. I was facinated with them.

Yes, that is a bathtub and No, I didn't catch a leprechan taking a bath in it.

This is the front door of the Long Barn.

Tomorrow we'll go to the Giants Causeway and take a train ride.

Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 28, Dunvegan Seal Trip, The Isle of Skye, and Minard Castle

2010-07-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

(The Boat House at Dunvegan)

I didn’t want to leave Skye without sharing some of the pictures I took of our seal boat trip we took at Dunvegan Castle and of the surrounding area of Skye. First the seal boat trip.

(The shoreline, remember this is a sea inlet.)

(This gull wasn't at all interested in us)

(These are common seals and we learned there only about 2000 of them left IN THE WORLD)

(Mom and Baby)

(How could anyone hurt anything with a face like that?)

(This one looked as though he was waving bye to us as we left)

Skye is the largest and most northen island of the inner Hebrides. The areas on water are mostly dominated by the fishing industry, distilleries, and tourism. The inner parts of the island are mostly sheep ranching areas. The wide open spaces there are unimaginable.

These pictures will show you Skye in all her many moods. The light changed every few minutes and even the color of things would change.

I guess you can tell I went over the top photographing the area. I was picture crazy everywhere we went.

We left Skye and drove straight through to the Inveraray area in Argyll. Not a good idea. The distances in Scotland are deceptive. Some things appear closer and others are actually farther away. So, if you go, look closely at the map and pay attention to what your GPS tells you. It took us nearly 5 hours to get to our B and B.

We arrived too late to see Inveraray Castle. This is the borrowed photo of it.

And we didn't get to see Kilchurn Castle either. I will always-- always regret not getting to see them. So, if you get to go to Scotland be sure to go to those two castles. And I’d appreciate an email of the pictures you take. The Campbell strongholds throughout history reside along Loch Awe. And there’s a Loch Awe hotel there that looks very much like a castle at which you can stay.

We stayed at Minard Castle on Loch Fyne.

The Castle isn’t a real Castle but a Scottish Manor house the past owners built onto to make it look like a castle. That's what the current owner told us. Which was interesting in itself because we got to see what a manor house would have looked like inside. And we were allowed to take pictures of the interior which was great.

This is the entrance. I loved the room that was positioned over this.

We enjoyed being there and were very comfortable there.

I loved the upstairs ceiling. It was gorgeous.

And the surrounding area is very picturesque and quiet.

I’d have loved to have stayed a few days there and explored the area.

And Loch Fyne was gorgeous. The light on the water was glorious.

Tomorrow we'll be going to Ireland on the Ferry.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 27, Portree and Dunvegan Castle

2010-07-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

We didn't get to spend nearly as much time on Skye as we'd have liked. Portree is the major town on Skye. At one time it was called Kiltraglen. In 1540 King James V sailed into the harbor with a fleet of warships demanding the island lords support. The name was changed to Portree which comes from the Gaelic Port-an- Righ which means Kings Port.

Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed in what was MacNabs Inn at the time and which is now the Royal Motel. He bade Flora MacDonald, and Scotland, good-bye from there in 1746.

In the early 1700 overpopulation and poverty forced the citizens of Portree onto ships bound for America. Sir James MacDonald developed the port as a fishing port and brought new industry into the town preventing a larger exodus.

In 1846 the potato famine hit Portree followed by the clearance and a large part of the population once again boarded ships for America and Australia.

Today it is a thriving town built around the harbor that has been it’s heart since the beginning.

We went from Portree to Dunvegan Castle. Because of the popular TV series The Highlander EVERYONE knows about the Clan MacLeod. Or they think they do. I wanted to find out more.
Dunvegan Castle sits on a knoll of basalt in a protected inlet.. At one time at high tide the castle was completely surrounded by water and could only be accessed from steps leading up from the water.

The castle has been the home of the MacLeod family for 800 years. Just typing that makes you go WOW!
When we arrived, it was mmediately apparent that the castle was going through a period of repair work. We were disappointed to find that we couldn’t go all the way around it to explore the exterior. In it’s eight hundred years it’s been built onto several times and has about 10 different architectural styles melded into its structure.

(Notice the crenellated edge on the top of the wall. This was actually part of the original curtain wall. time. )

Clan MacLeod can trace its roots back to Leod Olafson. Leod was the son of Olaf the Black, the Norse King of the Isle of Mann. His grandfather was the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada.
Leod married the daughter of the Rulers of Sky the Macarilts and thus the clan was born with their two sons, Tormod and Torquil. Tormod became the Clan chief of the Dunvegan MacLeods and Torquil the MacLeods of Lewis.

During Tormod’s time, the Norse and the Scots were at odds over whose rule the islands surrounding Scotland fell under. That dispute was settled when in 1263, Alexander II won the battle of Largs and the Norse retreated from the Isle of Skye. Their King Hakon died on Orkney. and with his death, the Norse lost control of the islands. The Norse people who lived on the islands quickly aligned themselves with the new Scots Lord of Isles and adopted Gaelic as their second language.

(Since we couldn't photograph the castle's exterior from up close we decided to do a Seal trip and photograph it from the water.)

In 1350 Malcolm, the 3rd Chief, built the Keep within the curtain wall that had stood since the beginning. In 1500 a free standing tower called the fairy tower was built. In 1660 and 1680 more additions were made by the 18th Chief. In 1748 the first landward entrance was constructed though it had to be reached by a long flight of stairs.

( From this angle you can see how the sea could rush in and surround the castle at high tide.)

In 1657 during the battle of Worchester 800 MacLeods lost their lives in support of Charles II. ( 800 MEN. 800 MEN from the same clan. That number is mind boggling even now.)

(Notice the MacLeod flag flying high over the fairy tower)

In 1790 wings were added to the castle by the 23rd chief Norman MacLeod to act as a barracks for the 2nd Battalion of the 42 regiment he had banded together from local men.. (Later the Black Watch Guard). His son is the one who built the current front entrance and the bridge that permanently crossed the mote which had been filled in little by little over the centuries.

It was the 25th Chief during the Victorian era who tried to tie the whole structure together in a more cohesive manner.

(Notice the small door at the foot of the Curtain wall where boats would have docked and allowed entry into the castle)

In 1850, the 25th Chief went bankrupted in his efforts to ease the suffering of his tenants from the Potato Famine that had hit Ireland and Scotland . He ended up in London working as a clerk.
It wasn’t until 1929 that the 27th Chief returned to Dunvegan to live but the upkeep of the castle was a financial drain on the family and in 1939 the castle was opened to the public to try and raise money for its upkeep.
In 2000 the 29th Chief, John MacLeod put some of the property up for sale for 10 million dollars, the cost of the repairs of the castle. Though the sale never went through, public awareness was raised and he received help in restoring the castle and reopening it to the public.

I couldn't stand to leave you with this lasting impression of a shrouded castle so I found a lovely pictures of what the castle looks like without the protective covering.

(I don't even mind that the color shows my photos up.)

The interior of the castle was beautiful. The thing I remember the most is the very very pink entrance foyer and the Drawing Room. It had a floor to ceiling painting on one wall of one Lady MacLeod and one of her children that was lovely. Also the ceiling as you went up stairs to the bedrooms was exquisite. And the decorative railing as you went up the stairs in the foyer caught my interest. The collection of ginding stones in the cellar were interesting as well.

The main thing we had come to view was the Fairy Flag of the MacLeods. For indeed Skye is Fairy crazy with it's Fairy Pools, its Fairy Bridge, and the Fairy Flag. Or maybe it was just the MacLeods, who have been blessed by the Fairies.

After much looking, I found a picture of the Fairy Flag which looks gold now but may have been Green when first woven. It is made from silk and it has been suggested it may have been brought back from Constantinople during the Crusades by Harald Hadara. Regardless of when it was created or how it became a Macleod possession, it is said to be imbued with magical powers. And the MacLeods have believed in it for centuries. Before the battle of Brittain, Dame Flora MacLeod, 28th Cheif of the MacLeods, cut small squares of its fabric for every MacLeod RAF pilot who flew in the battle. Supposedly, not a single one was shot down.

The story the MacLeods tell about the flags origin is much different from the version of its travels from the Crusades..
Lain Ciar, the 4th Laird of the Clan MacLeod, was handsome and well spoken and all the ladies found him attractive, but none seemed to suit him. One evening, during a walk he became lost in a dense fog and stumbled into a dwelling. It was there he met a beautiful woman. He became instantly enamored with the woman and asked her to marry him.
The woman, no woman at all, but a fairy princess, went to her father for permission to wed, but he refused. He explained that she, being a wee bean sidhe, one of the Shining Folk, would not age and die as humans do. So being married to a mortal human, would only bring her heartache later. The Fairy Princess was devastated.
Unable to bear seeing his daughter so distraught, the Fairy King relented and told her he would allow her to go with the Laird and be his wife for a year and a day, but after that time she would have to return to the fairy kingdom. Unwilling to be parted from Lain Ciar, she agreed.
The young couple wed and returned to Dunvegan Castle. Nine months later the Princess delivered a child. The couples days were filled with love and laughter and their young son. But alas the day arrived that the Fairy Princess had dreaded. Her father came for her with his Knights of the Fairy Raide. Unable to break her promise, the princess kissed her child and bade her husband to always protect and watch over him. She told him not to allow him to cry because she would hear it in the Fairy rhelm and not be able to bear it.
Lian Ciar had no way of fighting the oath they had both sworn to her father. Devastated by grief he swore to never allow the baby to cry.
Months passed and the young Laird grieved for his wife. His only joy remained his young son. The tenants of his land decided to try and cheer him by throwing a feast. They brought the food and wine to the castle. Once the pipers began to play and the crowd began to dance the Laird began to throw off some of his unhappiness.
The party became so loud and bolsterous that the young maid hired to look after the Laird's child came out into the hall to watch the merriment.
Noticing the girl peering over the stair railing the Laird rush up to check on the bairn. From outside the door to the nursery he heard a familiar lullaby being sung. He opened the door to see his wife standing next to the craddle rocking their child to sleep. She lowered the sleeping babe back into his craddle and gently kissed him. As their eyes met she disappeared.
Lian Ciar strode to the babies craddle and looked down at his sleeping child. The baby was wrapped in a blanket that glittered with red spots of fairy dust.

The faded gold cloth of the Dunvegan Fairy Flag does have red dots woven into the fabric. And it is said to have just one protective wish left to protect the MacLeods in future.

I'll end the blog with some photos of the gardens around the castle. They're well worth the walk to explore.

Tomorrow will be traveling to Minard Castle and taking the ferry to Larne, Ireland.
Write on,
Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 26, Urquhart Castle

2010-07-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

I know that Eilean Donan is the most photographed castle in Scotland but I believe Urquhart Castle probably comes in a close second. It was packed the day we went and I had to break my rule about not taking pictures of people in order to photograph it.

Perched atop a jutting finger of land that points out into Loch Ness, it triggers thoughts of romance, scorcery, and of course Nessie. I did look for Nessie. I just couldn’t resist. But I have to say, if she's there, she's picked the pretties loch in Scotland in which to reside. The water was so blue it hurt to look at it.

It is thought that St. Columba stayed at Urquhart Castle on his way to Inverness. Of course at that time, around 600, the castle would have been a Pictish fort.

This is a Trebucket, a medieval catapult, created to fling the stone balls you see lined up behind it at the walls of the castle and anyone within.

The precise time the castle was built isn’t known but it is believed that the Durward family built it during the early 1200’s after the land was granted to them.

In 1296 Edward I was using it as a defensive position when the Scots attacked it. He was able to hold out against them. It may have been under his influence that this wide trench was dug around the castle. It's very similar to the one at Kildrummy.

In1303 it was in Scots hands when Andrew de Moray took in the course of clearing the English from northern Scotland.

(The upper part of the Gatehouse)

In the mid 1400’s the Earl of Ross attacked the castle and captured it, but it was recovered shortly after.

The Grants were given ownership of the cast in 1509 but warring factions often disrupted their possession of it. The MacDonald’s took it in 1545.

In 1692 King William’s troops held the castle during a Jacobite uprising, and before leaving, the troops blew the castle up to prevent it from being used by them. It was never repaired.

(The Tower)

(This is a corn drying kiln in one of the guard houses on either side of the entrance.)

(The view from one of the tower rooms.)

(The Bake House)

The Constables quarters. In 1329 Sir Robert Lauder was constable of Urquhart Castle and then in 1359 his grandson Robert Chisolm took over his position.)

(An alcove for a bed)

I wish I could have taken a picture of the castle at night. It would have been beautiful with the moonlight touching on the stones and the loch.

I could have spent hours just looking out on Loch Ness.

Next we're going to Skye and Dunvegan Castle. Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 25, Eilean Donan Castle

2010-07-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Eilean Donan Castle sits on a small island connected to land by a bridge. At around 600 a monastery, or actually just a small group of huts that housed the monks, occupied the island. St Donan was responsible for their being there and thus the island and the castle attained its name. Evidence of a small iron age fort still occupied the land when the current castle was constructed.

(When I took this picture, I almost cried. This is the exact angle and composition for the cover of my book, Highland Moonlight. Had I traveled to Scotland 3 years ago they could have used my picture for the cover.)

In the year, 1200 Kenneth MacKensie built a massive castle that nearly enclosed the entire area of the island. It had a four story tower house with walls over 4 feet thick, a keep and a curtain wall that bordered the island. From this fortress he fought the Norse invasions that plagued the area.

Some time around 1400 parts of the castle were dismantled leaving a much smaller fortress. The keep and some outbuildings were just about it. The curtain wall and the massive tower house were destroyed. In the 1500’s a platform for canon was built to more easily defend the entrance to the castle.

In a Jacobite uprising in April 1719, William Murray, Earl of Tullibardine, and George Keith, the Earl of Marischal landed in North west Scotland with a garrison of Spanish Marines and took Eileen Donan as their headquarters. To follow them was a Spanish armada of 7,000 men to invade Southern England. The fleet hit a storm in the channel and turned back. In the meantime, a call for the Jacobite clansmen went out and about 1200 showed up.

In May, three royal Navy frigates sailed down Loch Alsch and attacked the castle. The men surrendered and the castle was blown up by the Royal Navy using 320 barrels of gunpowder the Spanish had brought with them. (I groaned aloud when I read this) Damn pesky Jacobites!

The uprising was quelled, the clansmen melted back into the countryside, and the Spanish marines 250 of them were captured..

For the next 200 years the castle remained a ruin. Until, Lt. Col. John MacRae- Gilstrap, the current laird, and his clerk, Farquhar MacRae,(How's that for a character's name) designed and started construction on a castle that would be a family home.

The structure was begun in 1913 but work was delayed during World War I. After the war, work began in earnest and the castle was completed in 1932.

We arrived at Eilean Donan by way of Loch Maree. I was later told by a very entertaining and helpful gentleman named Richard, who worked as a guide in the Billeting room, that we were brave women because tourists don’t normally take that route to Eilean Donan. It was a one lane road with lay-bys and went over mountains the size of the grand canyon. It is that route they advertise ferry tours down the loch to Eileen Donan. So you can take your car down Loch Duich to the castle. Had I known I’d have done that in a heartbeat!!!

If any of you have seen the latest movie featuring Eilean Donan, Made of Honor, featuring Patrick Dempsy, the people invited to the wedding ferried down the loch to the castle, just as he mentioned.

We entered the castle through the Billeting room. I actually got to lay my things down on the table there so I could write the name of our guide, Richard, down. The plan was to leave one of my books there, but Richard talked me into signing it for him since he collects things about Eilean Donan castle. He even promised to read it.

In the billeting room, you could imagine military men sitting around the table planning a campaign to quell the next Jacobite uprising because it was certainly a room for men. Stone walls, stone ceiling, and stone floor covered by a neutral colored rug. And the large table in the center. There were single shot muskets hung over the fireplace. The vaulted ceiling arches over your head.

Eilean Donan did what we had seen in a couple of other castles, they had figures depicting life in the castle set in place. They had created some that represented Lt. Colonel MacRae- Gilstrap and Farquha MacRae as they studied plans on how to construct the castle.

They also had figures in the scullery that were very humorous. I would have loved to have taken pictures but was afraid it wasn't allowed.

The Banqueting Room was beautiful. Oil paintings of family members hung on the walls and a tartan rug woven specifically for the castle by the grandson of the Colonel covered the floor depicting the MacRae tartan. Wooden beams crossed the ceiling. Weddings are often performed there. You can see the hall up close and personal in the movie I mentioned earlier.

I loved that there were window seats in the bedrooms so you could look out on the loch. I pointed out a set of bedwarmers that hung on the bedroom wall. Wish they were still in style today.

Mitsi and I have laughed at how many of my pictures have her back in them. She said she was going

to create a slide show of them and set them to music.

I didn't get a picture of the portcullis and we weren't allowed to take pictures in doors, but I'd have loved to take pictures of the winding gear that controlled it. (A portcullis is a spiked gate that is lowered to bar the castle entrance.)

Here's the flag that flies over the MacRae War Memorial honoring the soldiers of World War I.

Here's the castle at a little different angle so you can see the bridge.

My final image of Eilean Donan was the hardest to get since it doesn't get dark until after 10:00 at night during the summer. It's a trick of the light that makes it look dark and mysterious.

And just like the cover of my book.

Tomorrow we'll be taveling to Urqhuart Castle on Loch Ness. Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 24, Forres and Fyvie Castle

2010-07-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Our B and B at the Old Kirk was in the Dyke area just a few miles from Forres, in Moray. We stopped at Forres to go to the library and I wandered around the village a little while. I don't have a clue why I didn't take pictures of the town itself. I guess because there were so many people going about their business that I felt it would be a infringement on their privacy. I tried to avoid taking pictures of people because of that.

I settled in the park in the center of town and enjoyed the sunshine and a quiet moment. So I thought I'd share a couple of those pictures. Forres is one of the oldest villages in Scotland.

Everywhere we went people were so helpful and nice. I bought minutes for the cell phone at a small market here in Forres. (I purchased it from the T-mobile store in Edinburgh and you could purchase minutes at any of the markets and just call a number and they'd add them to your phone.) I thought this small church next to the library was beautiful.

After a visit to the library we moved on to Fyvie Castle.

(Fyvie from the East)

Fyvie Castle was built in 1211 by William the Lion. It was one of a chain of medieval strongholds built by the crown. William stayed at Fyvie in 1214 after it was finished. At that time it was probably just a tower house with a curtain wall around it. Alexander II stayed at Fyvie in 1222.

( The west entrance)

In 1296, the structure had probably grown to include domestic buildings when the English king Edward I was making his campaign across Scotland trying to subjugate the clans and the Scottish crown.

In the early 1300's Robert the Bruce lived at Fyvie for a time In 1370 his son Robert II gave the castle to his son Robert III. Robert the III passed the castle onto his cousin Sir James Lindsay. In 1388 the battle of Ottenburn was fought and an English knight Sir Ralph da Percy was captured by Sir Lindsay's brother-in-law Sir Henry Preston. Robert the III transfered ownership from Linday to Preston which caused some major strife between the factions involved. The Prestons didn't take possession of the castle until 1402.

In 1433 the castle was passed on to Sir Preston's oldest daughter and the Meldrum family. Both of these families added towers to the structure that were named after their families.

(Fyvie from the South)

In 1596 the castle was sold to Sir Alexander Seton who latter became the Chancelor of Scotland.
The Preston tower stands on the left corner and the Meldrum tower on the right and in the middle is the Seton tower. Sir Alexander Seton is responsible for the way the castle looks today. He did a wide range of l building to tie the structure together more cohesively.

The castle passed on to Sir Alexander Seton's son, the 4th Earl of Dumfermline. The Earl got involved in the Jacobite uprising and had to leave the country. He died in exile in 1694. The crown had already confiscated his property and the castle remained in their possession until it was purchased in 1733 by William Gordon, the 2nd Earl of Aberdeen. He too added a tower to the castle called the Gordon tower. he also did most of the landscaping and gardens.

In 1885 Fyvie was put on the market and bought by Alexander Leith for 170,000. Gosh he got a bargain!!! Leith had made his fortune in steele in America. He built the Leith tower and added a collection of armour and tapestries to the interior.

In 1982 the castle was placed on the market again and Historic Scotland purchased it in 1984.

In the interior, the most wonderful feature of the castle is the Great Wheeled Staircase. It was amazing. They held weddings at the castle and there were signs that said, no stilettos on the stairs.

Armor and weapons decorated the walls as you climbed them.

The Gallery, where weddings are held, had organ pipes at one end. It was a beautiful room. And the ceiling was amazing.

The fireplace in the main hall had a relief sculpture over it that was well worth a look and a picture, if they'd have let me take it. (darn)

The bathrooms had the wonderful claw footed bathtubs. My two favorite rooms in the castle were the library (of course) and the Morning room. I'm always on the lookout for places to curl up with a book.

The gardens were lovely. And the area wildlife came out to say hello and pose for a picture.

There were three interesting stories associated with the castle that our tour guide told us. One was about a curse placed on the castle by a visitor. He started to come into the castle and the Yett swung closed in his face. ( A Yett is an iron gate woven together in such a manner that it's nearly indestructable. ) He placed a curse on the castle that said no direct heir would be born to Fyvie if three stones that he cursed weren't found and kept inside the castle. Only one stone was found and thus Fyvie has passed from family to family.

The other story was that Lillie D. Drummond, the wife of one of the lords of the castle died. Her husband soon remarried a woman he had been involved with before his wife's death. While waiting for their appartments to be redecorated, the couple slept in one of the small bedrooms down the hall. During the night they were disturbed by soft noises. When they rose, they discovered that the name of the dead wife had been carved in the window facing outside the window, 3 stories in the air.

There was also a story where one of the lords of the castle had discovered a skeleton buried within a wall while having some renovations done. He had the bones buried in a local churchyard. For days after the burial there were noises and other disturbances. The servants saw a woman in the stairways and wandering the grounds. The lord had the bones exhumed and replaced inside the wall. And the disturbances ceased.

I hope you've enjoyed the blog. Tomorrow we'll be going to my next favorite castle. and the castle used on the front of my book, Highland Moonlight. Eileen Donan Castle.

Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 23, Cawdor Castle

2010-07-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

My 2nd favorite castle in all of Scotland, of the ones we got to see, was Cawdor Castle. I’m Campbell crazy. Anyone who has read my first book Highland Moonlight probably deduced that. But who wouldn’t be blown away by Cawdor Castle, Campbell obsessed or not? It’s very existence came about because of a dream.

The first Thane of Cawdor (Calder) was created in 1180 by William I. A Thane was the equivalent of a Baron and a traditional Scottish title. Thane Cawdor was appointed sheriff of the royal castle at Nairn. Soon after the original Cawdor castle was built on a marshy piece of ground about a mile from the current Cawdor castle. There is nothing left of it.

In 1310 the second Thane, William Cawdor, had his title confirmed by Robert the Bruce.

In 1370 the third Thane Cawdor, William, began a search for a location for a new castle. He had a dream that led him to load gold on the back of a donkey and follow it as it roamed the area. The donkey finally stopped and lay beneath a tree and went to sleep. That became the site of the current castle. But the most unusual aspect of the story is, the castle was built around the tree where the donkey slept. It protrudes from the floor of the cellar today though it died in 1372 from lack of sunlight. It is said to possess magic qualities that have protected the castle since its construction.

(I had to borrow this picture because we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the castle. The tree in the legend says it was a Hawthorne tree but scientists have studied it and discovered it was a holly tree. Which doesn't matter, they were both considered powerful magic by the Druids.)

By the time the 7th Thane of Cawdor , another William, married Margaret Sutherland, of Dunbeath Castle, the family was very wealthy and influential. John, the 8th Thane of Cawdor died in 1498 and soon after, his daughter Muriel was born and became heir to all the power and wealth of Cawdor Castle.

Now, I never said the Campbells were always good guys. All through Scottish history they have been known for being ruthless warriors and politicians. I have even heard them referred to as Robert the Bruce’s SS soldiers.

Thus, it wasn’t surprising to learn that Archibald Campbell, the 2nd Earl of Argyll, ordered Muriel to be kidnapped and held at Inveraray Castle. She was held there for 10 years where at the age of 12 she was married to Archie’s youngest son, Sir John Campbell in 1510. With a beginning like that, you wouldn’t think the marriage would be either happy or productive, but in fact it was. Talk about fodder for a romance novel.

In 1520 John’s sister, Catherine, was married to a man named Lachlan Cattanach Maclean of Duart Castle. In 1522, blaming her for the lack of children in their marriage, Maclean rowed her out into the bay at Mull to Lady’s Rock and marooned her there to die. Lucky for Catherine, passing fishermen saw her and came to her rescue. She made her way back to Inveraray Castle. Lachlan rose the next day and seeing the rock empty, assumed she had drowned. He sent a message to her brother Archibald, the 4th Earl, that his sister had drowned and he would be bringing the body to Inveraray for burial. Of course he didn't even go out to see if there was a body to recover.

(This is a borrowed image of Lady's Rock just off the coast of Mull. It can be seen from Duart Castle when it is low tide. At high tide the whole thing is covered thus the bouy that is set upon it to keep ships from hitting it and running aground.)

Lachlan showed up at the castle with a casket and was shown into the dining room for a meal where Catherine sat waiting. Nothing was said and Lachlan was allowed to escape without punishment, perhaps to allow him time to stew and become afraid, very afraid. In November of 1523, during a visit to Edinburgh, he was stabbed to death in bed.

John Campbell was suspected of the murder and he and his wife Muriel moved to Cawdor Castle, out of sight of those interested in the crime. Immediately, Muriel’s four uncles decided that no Campbell was going to take over and they laid siege to the castle. Two of them were killed and the other’s withdrew and the Campbell Clan settled in.

Cawdor Castle became a satellite property of the Campbell Clan as the real traditional homesite was the Argyll area, where my book Highland Moonlight is set.

John Campbell, the 7th Thane of Cawdor, acted as tutor and guardian of the 7th Earl of Argyll, Archibald. John was assassinated in a plot to overturn the power structure within the clan. The situation was settled by a series of marriages that followed the incident.

(Cawdor Castle was the only castle in Scotland that I ever saw a real draw bridge built before.)

In 1612, the 12th Thane of Cawdor, John, purchase the Isle of Islay from the MacDonalds. It took troops and one of King James IV’s war ships for him to take possession of it. It proved a drain on the family finances until between 1680 and 1700 a cattle breeding program was put in place on the island by Hugh Campbell, the 14th Thane of Cawdor, It was fortunately a success, since Hugh had nine children and had to expand the castle to accommodate them all.

(This is a borrowed picture of some of the scenery of the Isle of Islay. If I had the money to purchase an island, this would be it. It's absolutely beautiful. It lies on the coast of the Argyll area of Scotland behind Jura Island. It is the 6th largest island off the coast of the United Kingdom. Not too shabby eh?)

Hugh died in 1716 and his heirs became absentee owners. The 15th Thane, Alexander Campbell married a Welsh heiress. His son John, the 16th Thane was Lord of the Admiralty and Treasury. He sold the Cawdor estate and the Argyll holdings and moved to Wales.

The 18th Thane of Cowder, John (Jack)Campbell, became the first Baron of Cawder. In 1827, King George IV, promoted his son, the 2nd Baron of Cawdor, to the Ist Earl of Cawdor.

The castle under Jack and his son went through a series of repairs and is today as it was then. The Campbell family members that followed into the 20th Century went on to produce military men who distinguished themselves in battle earning, between the 12 of them, a total of 6 Military Crosses, 15 Distinguished Service Medals and 3 Victoria Crosses.

Today, the Baroness of Cawdor, stepmother to the 7th Earl and 25th Thane of Cawdor,Colin Campbell, still lives in the castle in the winter when it is closed to the public.

With all that facinating history who wouldn't be wild about the Campbells and want to write about them!!!

The castle grounds have extensive gardens that the public can wander. It is truly beautiful.

They have a maze garden that's facinating. And I haven't even touched on the interior of the castle. They did something that was very smart, they laid tartan runners all through the castle to protect the antique rugs and floors where tourist traffic was the heaviest.

The dining room had beautiful tapestries hung on the walls as did several of the other rooms--the Tapestry Bedroom in particular. It had a beautiful four poster bed with a heavy canope that was gorgeous.

The Woodcock Bedroom had a beautiful bed layered with draperies.

My two favorite rooms were the Tower Room and the Yellow Room. They were cozy and welcoming and it felt like you could truly settle in with a book and a snack. They had thickly stuffed chairs and the furniture was arranged so you could enjoy the warmth of the fireplaces.

They had a collection of Victorian bicycles in one room that I was facinated by.

It was truly one of the loveliest places to which we traveled.

Tomorrow I'm going to take you to Fyve Castle. Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 22, Loch Maree

2010-07-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

We went to Loch Maree because it’s the setting of my current work in progress and I wanted to see the highlands up close and personal. And Loch Maree is the highlands. It resides in Wester Ross in the Northwestern upper regions of Scotland. It’s known as the Jewel of the Highlands because it’s so untouched.

I was unprepared for the raw beauty and power of the place.

Scotland was carved out by huge glaciers that covered the entire continent hundreds of thousands of years ago. That fact never seemed so evident until I saw the Loch Maree area.

This is Mount Slioch. It stands 3219 feet high and dominates its surroundings. It’s very popular with
climbers.

Loch Maree has a maximum depth of 375 feet and an average depth of 125 and is nearly 13 miles long. It is the 4th largest loch in Scotland.

The island is said to have a well on it that will cure mental illness and has oak and holly trees that were at one time important to the ancient Druids who worshipped there. There are also graves of a Viking prince and princess.

A wishing tree with coins hammered into it was there when Queen Victoria visited in 1877.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about Cawdor Castle, the stronghold of the Campbell Clan.
Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 21, Culloden

2010-07-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

We stopped at Culloden on June 1st on the way to Loch Maree. Anyone who has visited the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, can identify with the feeling one gets while standing on this moor covered with thick clumps of gorse and other course greenery. The first thing that occurs to you is the quote from Will Henry Thompson's poem The High Tide at Gettysburg.

Above the bayonets, mixed and crossed,

Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost

Receding through the battle-cloud,

And heard across the tempest loud

The death-cry of a nation lost!

The pain still vibrates in the air like an echo. It's still etched in every Scottish face. Not only because the blood of Scots brothers, fathers, and sons was spilled, but because of the repercussions that followed the battle.

The defeat at Culloden was the death of a political idea to replace the Hanoverian King George II with a Charles Edward Stuart (the Young Pretender).

But the Jacobite cause was much more than a fight to replace the King with a man they felt followed the royal blood line more dear to their hearts. It was also waged because of the fear of religious repression under King George's rule. Most of the highlanders who fought on the battlefield of Culloden were Roman Catholic or Scottish Episcopalian.

And added to the mix was the power those clan chiefs, landlords, or clan superiors had over the clansmen. Centuries of tradition was hard to shake off. Most of the men were farmers and were untrained for warfare and poorly armed. But when the Laird of your clan insisted you rise to the call, you followed him into battle. And they did. Between 1500 and 2000 men were killed or wounded and 154 were captured.

Jacobite clanmen weren't the only group to fall at Culloden. With them were French soldiers enlisted for their cause by Charles Stuart. 222 of them were captured.

Of the Hanoverian Government troops who fought, made up of English and Scottish soldiers, 50 were killed and 259 were wounded.

This burial Carne has been constructed in the middle of Culloden moor in memorial to all who lost their lives.

The repercussion of the Battle of Culloden and the entire Jacobite uprising ricocheted through the highlands.

Under the Duke of Cumberland's orders the clansmen were given no quarter. Every injured man still found alive on the field was bayonetted to death. Indiscriminate killing went on for days in the area with any man seen bearing arms hanged wherever he might be and his women raped. Whole families were burnt out of their homes, and their possessions and livestock confiscated. They were left to starve while 20,000 head of livestock, both sheep and goats, were driven to market at Fort Augustus and the money split among the soldiers.

Prisoners were taken to England for trial. The high ranking lords were charged with high teason and executed and their property confiscated, and sold. The common man fared better. 120 were executed, 936 were transported to the colonies, and 222 were banished. 382 were freed as exchanged prisoners with

France. 905 were actually released.

With the physical repercussions exhausted the political ones took over. The clan system of Laird justice was disolved. No longer would the chief of a clan have judicial or military power over the clansmen. A special act was passed by Parlament that forbad any clansman or woman from wearing highland dress except as part of a military uniform. The bagpipes were banned from being played and an attempt was made to do the same with the Gaelic language. In other words, Scotland was supposed to become an integral part of Great Britain and leave it's culture behind.

But the Scots were made of sterner stuff than King George II knew. Their culture is alive and well today.

The new Culloden Memorial Center opened in October of 2007. It has wonderful exhibits which help you understand the conflict and the sacrifices made during and after it. You can actually go up on the roof and view the entire moor.

This small bouquet of flowers placed so lovingly at the base of this marker seemed so poignant, it brought tears to my eyes.

Happy fourth of July to you all.

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 20, Haddo House

2010-07-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

What can I say about Haddo House. OMG!!! Anyone who travels to Scotland, and who stays in the Aberdeen shire area, should by all means see Haddo House.

Why? Because it is magnificent, outside and in. The house was built between 1731 and 1736. It’s still a working estate. And open to the public.

(The Haddow Stables and Carriage House has been converted into a tea room and visitors center.)

The main hall has a stunning fireplace and warm wood paneling.

The anteroom off of the hall has a beautiful ceiling.

Queen Victoria spent the night there and they have a bedroom named her honor with a huge canopied bed.

In the Giles room is a stunning collection of paintings done by James Giles of 85 of the castles in Scotland.

The library is wall to wall books, just as a library should be, and the curved quadrant leading to the library also has curved book cases filled with books and topped with marble busts.

The Morning Room would be my favorite room in the house. Intimate, beautiful, with chairs pulled around the fireplace and bookcases built into the wall on either side.

The room called the Square has the robes worn by the Marquees and Marchioness to the coronation of Queen Victoria.

Haddo House is a house, not a Castle. And you can tell it was a much loved home.

(Haddo Hall used as a theatre used by the Haddo Arts Trust and the Haddo Choral Society. It was being changed from blue to black while we were there.)

( The Southwest side of the Haddo House)

James Haddo was a descendent of the Gordons, the Marquess and Earls of Huntly who can trace their ancestory back to the 1100. In 1469 he acquired the Haddo estate. After building a tower house in the area James and his descendants began to acquire other estates all across Aberdeen shire. One of them being Torquhon Castle that I talked about yesterday.

( The Northwest side of Haddo House)

In 1640 George Gordon inherited the estate from his brother. Later he was appointed High Chancellor of Scotland and made the first Earl of Aberdeen. Upon his death at age 83, his son William became the second Earl and commissioned William Adams to build Haddo House in 1731.

In 1745, William died suddenly, bad for him, but fortunate for his children because he was a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie and had he lived this estate and everything else the Gordons owned would have been confiscated.

(The West Side Staircase)

William’s grandson, George Hamilton Gordon the IV Earl inherited the house in 1801 and he is responsible for expanding the house and planting the trees on the grounds that make up the extensive gardens now. He had an extensive political career becoming Prime Minister in 1822-25. It was he who talked Queen Victoria into buying Balmoral Castle.

His son inherited but died after just a few years leaving it to his son another George the VI Earl. The young man packed up and left Scotland to become lumberjack in Canada and mariner. He was killed in an accident at age 30 off the coast of Australia.

(The chapel on the West corner of Haddo house)

In 1870, George Hamilton Gordon, the VII Earl, inherited the estate which had continued to grow despite George VI’s absence. He went on to be Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of Ireland. He was also made the Ist Marquees of Aberdeen and Temair. He and his wife built the Chapel on the west corner of the house in 1916.

After the IV Marquess, David Gordon, died in 1974 leaving the house to Historic Scotland and opened to the public in 1979.

While we were there we ran into the gardeners working to refurbish the flower beds in the manner that they were designed during the Victorian Era. We watched them for a time at work. It was they who told us that Haddo House had been used as a home for pregnant women during the Ist World War.

The place is truly impressive and a must see by anyone traveling in the area.

Tomorrow I'll be blogging about a place haunted by loss for which the Scottish people still grieve.
Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 19, Tolquhon Castle

2010-06-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tolquhon Castle is one of the few remaining Scottish castles that still has a standing curtain wall.

In 1200 Tolquhon Castle was a property of the crown located in the Thanage of Formartine. In 1390 Robert III granted the property to Sir Thomas Preston.

At the beginning of the 1400 Sir Thomas built the tower house with several auxiliary buildings like the great hall and the kitchen. Sir Thomas died in 1433 without leaving a male heir and the castle passed to his second daughter’s husband, John Forbes.

The gate towers.

In 1544 Sir William Forbes inherited the castle and in 1584 he began expanding and improving the castle. In 1589 he built for him and his wife Elizabeth Gordon a monumental tomb in the south isle of Tarves parish kirk. In 1596 he was laid to rest there.

In 1651 the 10th Earl of Torquhon, Alexander, saved Charles II life during the battle of Worchester and was knighted in reward.

The main house.

The 11th Earl lost what was left of the family fortune by backing a failed plan to start a Scottish colony on the Darien peninsula.

In 1716 the property was sold to the owner of Haddo House becoming an enormous land holding of that family. In 1718 William Forbes the 11th Earl of Torquhon had to be forcibly removed from Torquhon Castle.

The laird's bed chamber.

The castle was used as a farmhouse in the 1800. In 1929 it was transferred to Historic Scotland.

The great hall.

Upper part of the main house.

The day we visited Tolquhon there was a group of school children visiting the castle. A man dressed as an archer took them through the courtyard and out into the field for a demonstration of archery. You can see how the curtain wall extends from here.

I love this next picture of the lower level hallway that extends the length of the main house. Off of this hall would be the kitchen and other rooms. Then stairways led up to the great hall and the families living quarters.

Tolquhon was a beautiful ruin. We enjoyed being there. Because the roofs weren't there to block our view, we were able to study how a castle of this type was constructed while standing at the highest levels.

I was facinated by the stone tile in the great hall and how beautifully the windows were constructed.
I know that most people think of castles as cold and drafty and they probably were, but the Scottish aristocracy lived in their own kind of opulance.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about Haddo House.
Write on,
Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 18, Brodie Castle

2010-06-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Brodie Castle too early and it wasn’t open, but we still wandered around and enjoyed the grounds and took pictures of the castle and of course the Rodney Stone.

Malcolm, Thane of Brodie, was an ancestor of the Pictish aristocracy and there is evidence that he was in possession of the land in 1160. Because of the right of ancestory, Robert the Bruce chartered the property to Malcolm’s son Michael. The castle was constructed in 1567 and 35 generations of Brodies lived in it until recently. It is under the protection of Historic Scotland and the Brodie heirs no longer live there.

Mary Queen of Scots for a brief time confiscated the property when the 12 Earl, a Presbyterian, voiced his opposition to her rule.

In 1645 Lord Lewis Gordon plundered and burnt the castle because the 15th Earl, Alexander, was a Covenanter. ( A covenanter was a Presbyterian who had signed a covenant to uphold that the Presbyterian faith was the sole religion of their country.) Documents that recorded the Brodie lineage were destroyed.

Alexander also helped destroy paintings and carvings in Elgin Cathedral because he thought them idolatrous. He went on to participate in negotiations with Charles II at Breda and the Hague in 1649-1650 and incurred a large debt on Charles behalf for which he wasn’t repaid. The family struggled for generations to pay for the castle’s upkeep.

In 1745 the 19th Earl of Brodie, another Alexander, became Lord of Lyons, King of Arms, responsible for the heraldry in Scotland. His wife Mary Sleigh designed the gardens around the castle.

In 1832 the 24th Earl married a wealthy heiress and it was she who paid for the repairs that were done in 1824 to both the grounds and the castle and wiped out the debt that burdened the Brodie family.

The 1567 castle was incorporated an earlier structure into its design. The five story towers are from that time, while the long extension on the right was designed in 1824 by William Burn. I enjoyed the Victorian dairy Historic Scotland had renovated. And enjoyed reading about who worked at it and etc.

It gave me a feel for how a real castle worked with the herb garden, the dairy, you could picture how such a place could be self sufficient.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about Tolquhon Castle.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 17, The Old Kirk andThe Rodney Stone at Brodie Castle

2010-06-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

We stayed in some beautiful unusual places. The Old Kirk was one of them.

It was a traditional Scottish kirk built in 1856 converted into a bed and breakfast. Hillary and Herbie McFarland were our hosts. The McFarlands had retired, moved from Ireland to Scotland and bought the place specifically to run as a bed and breakfast.

It’s a gorgeous place. Its location was just outside Forres in Dyke which is in the Moray area.

It had a very large double sitting room upstairs for the guests so you could relax there if you didn’t want to stay in your room. I’m a night owl so I enjoyed being able to write late at night without disturbing my traveling companion.

Excuse my clutter on the table. I had set up my lap top on the table in the center to work on and was the only one up.

And the stained glass window that took up one whole wall didn't hurt to look at every time I was thinking something through. Talk about great working conditions.

We stayed at the Old Kirk for two nights and used it as our home base to explore the area of Moray.
About a mile from the Old Kirk was Brodie Castle so we decided to make it our first stop our first morning there. And what should I see as soon as we pulled into the drive to the castle A PICTISH SYMBOL STONE!!!

This particular stone is known as the Rodney Stone. It was discovered in 1782 while they were digging the foundation for a new parish church for Dyke and Moy. It has been dated from the 9th century. It was moved to its present location in 1842.
It is named the Rodney stone because it was, at one time, used as a commemorative stone of a victory fought by an Admiral Lord Rodney. Perhaps more appropriately it should have been named after the gravedigger who unearthed it, his name was Rotteney.
There are Druid symbols on this side but a cross on the other. The double disks at the bottom could mean the sun and moon, since the Druids worshiped the sun. Light and Dark, Male and Female, also Life and Death.

Above the discs is an animal. It has been speculated that it could be either a horse or a stag. There was a horse cult near the area but most of the carved horses recovered have had riders. The article in Archaeology that I read said it was too solid to be a Kelpie, the Caledonian equine personification for water. It is more likely a stag because that was a known totem of the more ancient Picts in areas that were highly forested, and at the time this stone was carved the area was covered by forests.

At the top are two sea serpent like mythical creatures gnashing their teeth at one another. It is believed that these represents some kind of upheaval like a flood , an approaching war, some pestilence that invaded the area or some horrible loss.

On the other side is a beautiful Celtic cross.

For both Druid Symbols and Christian Symbols to be carved on one stone, it has been speculated that the person who carved it was conflicted about giving up the old beliefs for the new and were sort of covering all bases during a time of strife. The cross bar of the cross has been defaced at some time, but it is still beautiful.

Along the edge of the stone Ogham has been carved but is very warn. The translation proposed was EDDARNONQ. It is speculated that it may be a name, a spell, or just a boundary mark. It isn't known for certain. Or even what language might have been used, since Scottish Ogham could have a mixture of Old Norse, Gaelic, or Latin mixed in.

Since seeing the stone I've spent hours going over the pictures I took of it. It was one of the highlights of my trip, since druid symbols and Ogham are an important part of my story line for my current work in progress.

Tomorrow I'll talk about Brodie Castle and the history of the Brodies. Having the stone placed here may have brought it exactly where it needed to be. It may have been returned home.
                                                                       Write on,
                                                                       Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 16, Kildrummy Castle

2010-06-28T05:23:00.000-07:00

In the Ballater area, in the middle of a green field surrounded by sheep pastures, stands the ruins of a once magnificent castle.

Kildrummy castle was built in 1250 by the Earl of Marr. But the Earl wasn’t the only one who had a hand in seeing the castle completed. Master James of St. John, Edward I’s master stone mason, was paid a large sum by Edward in 1303 after a visit to the castle. So, it's implied that Edward paid for some of the work to be done on the castle. It is known that he suggested to the Earl that the wide trench that surrounds Killdrummy be dug to make it more difficult to attack.

As you come upon the Castle from a narrow track the possibility of the place, the beauty that it must have been, is there within the grasp of your imagination.

Kildrummy was built in a D shape with seven story tall barrel towers on each end of the long straight bar of the D. Equal distances between the back towers, which were the families living quarters, and the front guard towers were two more drum towers.

The Great Hall was structured against the back wall of the castle. And the chapel on the East wall closest to one of the large seven story towers.

In 1306 Edward invaded Scotland and dispatched an army under his son’s command to attack the castle being held by Neil Bruce for his brother Robert. Neil fought off an extended siege, but was betrayed by the castle blacksmith, a man by the name of Osborne. Neil and all his men were hanged. And I’ve read that Osborne was rewarded with gold, melted and poured down his throat.

This is an artists rendering of what the castle may have looked like in it's hay-day. It's on a sign at the sight.

After being repaired, in 1335 the castle was attacked again. Robert the Bruce’s sister, Lady Christian Bruce, commanded her husband’s forces in his absence and defended the Castle. She was successful in holding off the attack until her husband, Sir Andrew Murray, arrived. Go Lady Christian!

In 1357 King David II attacked the castle and defeated the Earl of Mar. In 1435, King James I took control of the castle and for several decades the structure was strengthened and improved.

In 1507 the Elphinstone Family took possession of the castle. The family settled in for the next 182 years. But in 1686 the Jacobites occupied the castle during the uprising and damaged the castle. In 1715 the 25th Earl of Marr led a Jacobite uprising that was defeated. He fled to France leaving the castle to fall into ruin. In his absence, the Castle was used as a convenient quarry for building materials in the area.

In 1898 Colonel James Ogston acquired the castle and tried for the rest of his life to restore the castle. After his death the castle was placed in Historic Scotland’s care.

Kildrummy may be a ruin but it's beauty and the beauty of the surrounding area makes it well worth the drive to explore it. I would have loved to have seen it at its most glorious.

Tomorrow I'll be blogging about Brody Castle and the Pict stone discovered there. Also, I'll be posting some pictures of the Band B we stayed at called the Old Kirk. It's a B and B created, you guessed it, from an old Scottish Kirk, it was truly beautiful.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 15, Corgarff Castle

2010-06-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

One of the most unusual castles that we saw while in Scotland was Corgarff Castle. Perched atop a high ridge in the middle of a plateau that stretches for miles, it’s a lonely sight. When I first saw it I thought it looked more like a huge manor house.

Corgarff used to have gray harling on the outside. Now it’s a striking white. At one time the Castle would have been surrounded by a rectangular curtain wall. The stones littering the ground may have been part of that wall.

The curtain wall is actually an eight pointed star shape with a narrow stone courtyard between the wall and the house. While we were there they were doing some repair work and we couldn’t photograph the structure completely.

Corgarff was built in 1550 by John Forbes of Towie. It was built within the path of the quickest route between Deeside and Speyside. The Forbes were supporters of James VI. Their neighbors the Gordons were supporters of Queen Mary. Their different political views sparked a feud between the two clans. In 1571 Adam Gordon tried to take Corgarff. The Forbes men folk were gone and Margaret Forbes refused to surrender and shot at the Gordons striking one of the men in the leg. Adam Gordon set fire to the castle and burnt it to the ground killing Margaret and 27 other women and children inside.

In 1607 the castle was taken over by a local bandits until 1628 when the Earl of Marr acquired it. In 1645 the Marquis of Montross used it as a base during the Civil War. Then in 1689 the castle was burned by Jacobite supporters to prevent supporters of William of Orange from using it.

In 1715 the 25th Earl of Marr launched the Jacobite uprising from Kildrummy Castle. Corgarff Castle was burned again when the uprising was defeated and the Earl’s estates were forfeited.

The castle was returned to the Forbes family. But during the next Jacobite uprising it was used as an arms storage facility by the Jacobites. 300 government troops surprised the Jacobites and they fled leaving the stockpile behind which was confiscated.

In 1748 Corgarff was converted into a military barracks. The 50 soldiers who lived there patrolled for Scotsmen who disobeyed the no kilt edict after Culloden, or smuggled whiskey or weapons. It was the army who built the two small wings onto the tower house.

By 1802 it was a farmhouse. But the government purchased it again to run patrols searching for whiskey distillation. The army left in 1831.

Before the first World War it had become the home of the Ross sisters.

After they left it began to decline. Historic Scotland acquired it in 1961 and restored it to the condition it was in in 1748 as a barracks. This would have been the view the troops would have seen from the windows above. A lonely call to duty to be sure.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about a castle I mentioned in this blog. Kildrummy Castle. Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 14, Craigievar Castle

2010-06-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

We decided to visit Craigivar Castle because our hostess told us how interesting it was and it proved true. The first thing you notice is how PINK the tower house is. The process that produces the color is called harling. The castle itself is created from stone but on the exterior a layer of lime based cement has been adhered to it to weatherproof it. Lime is pourous and allows the stone to breath and the moisture to evaporate so that it doesn't get trapped inside the material and damage the stone. While the surface is still wet, the pigment, which is actually red sandstone, is pressed into the material. Thus, Craigievar attained it's lovely pink color. The red sandstone is even in the gravel of the drive giving it a pinkish cast too.

Another interesting architectural feature of the Castle was the corbelling used to support the weight of the drum towers builting into the structure.

The Castle reminded me of the Disney world castle because of the Cone shaped roofs.

Craigievar was started in 1610 by the Mortimer family but financial problems kept them from finishing the structure. William Forbes, a very rich merchant, bought the Castle and completed it in the 1620's. It remained in his family for 350 years.

It has many of it's original features. An iron yett hangs at the door. A yett was an interwoven gate created with iron strips welded together in such a way that they couldn't be dismantled by anything less than a blow torch. They are indigenous to Scotland. In all the castles we went to, we only saw two, the one at Craigivar and one at Dunvegan Castle on Skye.

In the great hall, they had a screens passage which is like a doorway with a platform built high above it where minstrels would sit and play for the Lord of the castle and his guests. Craigievar is the only castle in Scotland to still have one.

The plaster ceilings date from 1625 and 1626 are similar to the ones at Glamis Castle.

The small windows and doorways of the castle prevented furniture from being moved out of the castle, thus some of the pieces were actually built inside the castle. And some of them have been inspired by changes in needs. Like the bathtub built inside a box bed--a bed framed into the wall like a captains bunk.

We were so lucky to be able to get to tour the castle. It's been closed nearly three years for repairs to the exterior harling. The finishing touches to that were being done while we were there.

The castle originally had a walled enclosure around it with small towers at each corner. This was called a barmkin. The walls weren't as high and the towers attached much smaller than in a larger castle. Cattle would be brought into the enclosure to protect them during raids.

I think Craigievar was interesting because of the untouched quality that it retained. Because of the small doors much of the original furniture and fittings have been inside the castle since it was built so it retains that frozen in time element. That may be true for now but during World War I it was used as a hospital and housed injured Belgian troops.

There were pink crabapples and red maples behind the castle that created a beautiful backdrop to the pink of the castle.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about one of the most unusually constructed Castles in Scotland.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 13, Donnattar Castle

2010-06-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Dun is the Gaelic word for Castle. But it is also a pictish word that means place of strength. Dunnottar is certainly that. Perched upon a flat-topped rock with steep cliffs reaching for the North sea on three sides and a narrow finger of land the only tie to the mainland, the castle, though in ruins, sparks visions of battles, romantic trysts, and ghost stories.

In 400 AD, St. Ninian brought Christianity to Scotland and used Dunnottar as a religious retreat. Later, the property became a Pictish fort.

Late in the 9th Century, King Donald was killed defending Dunnottar against a Viking Invasion. The castle was taken and destroyed. But later rebuilt.

In 1276, a stone church, built in the Norman style, was consecrated in St. Ninian’s name on the property.

Following King Alexander III death, and the death of his children, Edward I, used Dunnottar as a base to dominate the Scots. William Wallace led a small army to attack it and when the garrison retreated into the chapel, he set it afire and burnt everything to the ground.

In 1329, Edward III of England seized Dunnottar and shipped in carpenters and masons to rebuild the castle. The castle was retaken by Sir Andrew Moray and burned again.

The first Sir Robert de Keith rose from caring for the king’s horses—not as trivial a station as you might thing—to commanding the king’s cavalry for both Robert I and his son. He gained a confirmed position within the Scottish nobility.

In the 14th century, Sir William de Keith, one of the King’s officers, built Dunnottar as a symbol of his power. During his lifetime he amassed property and money enough to gained political pull. His son, George, the fifth Earl of Marischal, educated and traveled, returned to Dunnottar to finish the building his father had begun in high style.

Dunnottar was sometimes used as a prison and in 1595, after a particular aggressive period of witch hunting, a man named John Crichton was brought to Dunnottar to be burnt at the stake.

Queen Mary visited Dunnottar several times and her son, James VI, often visited his friend George and wrote to him even after he became King of England in 1603.

In the mid 1600’s, Oliver Cromwell rose to power and threatened the monarchy, during that time the seventh Earl of Marischal banded with James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose and moved against Cromwell’s forces in the area and took Aberdeen.

But 6 years later Marishal and Montrose were at odds during the Civil War . The Earl refused to even admit Montrose’s envoy into the castle. In reprisal, Montrose set the the towns of Cowie and Stonehaven afire and burned the boats in the harbor.

The tide turned once again, and after King Charles I was executed, Montrose returned to Stonehaven a fugitive. It was from there he caught a boat to Norway and exile. Upon his return, King Charles II had him hung, drawn and quartered.

Charles II was crowned at Scone and Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland. “The Honours of Scotland”, by order of the King, were smuggled by a minister’s wife, Mrs. Drummond, out of Scone. Dressed as a peasant woman, she made her way from market to market until she reached Dunnottar.

In the meantime, the Earl had been captured and taken prisoner in the Tower of London. George Ogilvy of Barras, a friend of the Earl, assembled a garrison of 69 men and retreated into the castle to protect it. By 1652 the only place in Scotland that still flew a royal flag was Dunnotar Castle.

For eight months Ogilvy held Cromwell’s forces off. When heavy artillery began to systematically destroy the castle and kill his men, he was forced to surrender. Cromwell’s forces moved in to search for the “Honours of Scotland”. They were not there. They’d been smuggled out by a servant woman pretending to gather kelp on the beach at the base of the cliffs. They were buried in a Kirk cemetery by a Reverend James Grainger and left there.

After the siege, Dunnottar was once more destroyed in retaliation because of this show of defiance and Ogilvie and his wife held captive there. He survived but his wife died.

In 1660, when the monarchy was restored, the Earl of Marishal and his two brothers, John and George, carried the “Honours of Scotland” back to Edinburgh. The family never recovered financially from the upheaval of war.

Next, Dunnottar was used as a military depot. And as a prison for Presbyterians known as Whiggamores. 122 men and 45 women, who defied the King and refused to accept a new prayer book that professed the King head of all spiritual matters, were transported to the castle. They were put inside a small vault, which has since come to be known as the Whigs vault. For two months they were held in the small space, the only water and food delivered to them what they could buy from the soldiers. Many died of starvation, dehydration, and disease during that time. 37 finally agreed to take the oath of allegiance. 25 escaped and 15 were recaptured. They were thrown into the guard house, tied to a frame, and matches placed between each finger and set alight.

William of Orange seized the throne in 1688. George, the 8th Earl of Marischal offered him his alliance and was given a garrison of 60 men at Dunnottar. But it wasn't until 1695, that the 9th Earl of Marischal regained possession of Dunnattar. There was little left to take possession of. And on the horizon, James II’s son tried to take the crown and the Earl of Marischal was suspected of being involved and was imprisoned, but later released.

In 1715, the 10th Earl was accused of being a Jacobite supporter and relieved of his command in the British Army. He immediately took up the Jacobite cause and when the Pretender landed at Peterhead December 22 the Earl hosted him at his home. The two fled to France together when the uprising was defeated before it even started.
The 10th Earl returned to Scotland in 1763 after Fredrick the Great of Prussia wrote a letter to King William asking for a pardon. The 10th Earl never married and the title died out with him.

In 1727, the Keith family did recover the castle but lacking the funds to repair it, it was allowed to crumble into a ruin.

I guess you can tell I was crazy about the castle and the surrounding area. Tomorrow we'll move on to one of the pinkest castles in Scotland.
Write on, Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time, Part 12, Crathes Castle

2010-06-24T04:07:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Crathes on May 30th too late to go inside, but we still took pictures of the castle and the gardens. There were several late visitors enjoying the gardens and walking their dogs. That’s something I was really pleased about in Scotland. People take their dogs everywhere with them. And I never saw one that wasn’t well behaved. I really missed mine while I was there.

Alexander Burnard the founder of the Burnetts was one of a group of Norman Knights who followed King David I from England and settled in the Aberdeen area in 1107. He was a supporter of Robert the Bruce and was awarded the lands where Crathes Castle now stands by the Bruce.

The founder lived in a Crannog (a loch dwelling) on the Loch of Leys. I've always been facinated by the Crannogs and wish we'd had time to visit one and see exactly how it was constructed. I borrowed this image from Wikipedia so you could see what one looked like.

His successor several generations later started building Crathes in 1553. It took over 40 years to construct. The outer courtyard wall and outbuildings that would have surrounded the castle are gone, replaced by gardens that stay open to the public year round.

Crathes never faced any military action though the Burnetts did produce many soldiers. The castle was “captured” by the Marquis of Montrose in 1644. Thomas Burnett and he sat down and ate dinner together in the dining room afterward, and the Marquis moved on the next day. Nothing ever came of the capture, and Thomas remained at Crathes helm throughout the Civil War.

The next Sir Thomas Burnett married in 1680 and he and his wife Margaret produced 21 children. They built an entire wing on the castle to accommodate their brood that burnt in 1966, it was replaced by a two story structure that’s there now.

The last Burnett heir, the 13th Baronet, a resident of Australia, signed Crathes over to the National Trust of Scotland in 1951.

The castle is 6 stories tall and the gardens cover more than 3 acres of property.

I have inservice today. If anyone leaves a comment, I'll read them when I return home this afternoon.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about the most dynamic castle in Scotland and my number 1 favorite. I have so many stories buzzing in my head because of it.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time Part 11 Drum Castle

2010-06-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

Drum Castle was awarded to William de Irwin by Robert the Bruce in 1325. The Irvines were in possession of the castle for six hundred and fifty years until the last Laird of Drum, Henry Quinton Forbes Irvine bequeathed the castle and three hundred acres of land to the National Trust of Scotland upon his death in 1975.

Drum castle was probably one of the most interesting castles we visited. It was actually a castle with three time periods enclosed within one skin. One side of the castle was Jacobean with an addition along the backside of it that marked the Victorian Era and a large rectangular tower distictly Medieval. And what was so interesting you could tell which was which. The Jacobean part of the castle had narrow spiraled stone stairs and the Victorian part of the castle had wooden spiral stairs with bent wood railings.

This is the front of the Jacobean part of the castle.

With this image of this side of the castle you can get an understanding of how different each section truely is.

This is the very back of the Castle and the entrance into the Medieval courtyard. The Rectangular Tower is the greatest part of the original castle constructed in 1200 then added to in the 1300's. It was used by Robert the Bruce as a hunting lodge when he visited.

Inside the courtyard you can look at the back of the castle and see the Victorian addition that runs along the length of the entire keep.

Inside the castle on the first floor there are a series of rooms that follow the normal plan of a Jacobean Castle where you have to go through one room to get to the next. I loved the Jacobean fireplaces in the drawing room and the diningroom. Both those rooms had beautiful wooden ceilings.

The next floor up there's a galary that runs the length of the house and offers access to the bedrooms there.

The Jacobean parts of the house had four foot wide window ledges with wooden shutters mounted inside.

After we viewed the interior of the house we went outside to go into the 13th century tower.

The tower was a great contrast to the finished beauty of the rest of the castle. The dirt floors and rough hewn walls seemed stark and primitive in comparison.

The Structure has 12 foot thick walls in spots and narrow spiral stairs are a real challenge to navigate but once you get to the top it's wonderful to look out on the surrounding area.

Drum Castle has a beautiful Chapel on the grounds and we went there next.

The Chapel was built in the 1500's and renovated in the 1800's. Weddings are still performed there today.

Tomorrow I'll post my photos of Crathes. I hope you found Drum Castle as interesting as I did.

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time Part 10 Castle Fraser and Gight House

2010-06-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Aberdeenshire was our next destination and Gight House was the self-catering cottage that we stayed at. If--when I get to go back to Scotland, I think I'm going to do nothing but self-catering. I'm going to pick about five. One in Aberdeenshire probably the same one we stayed at this time bacause it was wonderful.

One in the Argyll area. One in the Midlothians (Edinburgh) One in the Inverness area. And one on Skye. Way- way out on the tip of the islands. I'm going to use those places as my home base and just meander and explore. We did that this time, but I think we were too intense in our efforts at times. There were several places I didn't get to see this go round, and I'm going to next. I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took of our Cottage and the neighboring areas. It was beautiful. Even in the rain.

Everyone had gardens. If ever I decide to relocate to UK I'd open a garden center. It's a sure fire way to make a living.

I've decided that I could never be a sheep farmer, which is how much of the Aberdeen area make their living. Sheep and cattle. I have a tendancy to name my critters and there'd be no way I could eat them. Besides, sheep have that cute factor that makes you want to cuddle them. But I've heard they're really dumb. They're very skittish, so I couldn't get close enough to find out.

On May 30th we traveled to Fraser Castle. By the time we arrived the sky was clear and we got some great photos of the castle.

The castle in this metamorphosis was created in the 15th century around the original tower. The rectangular part of the castle you see at the very back of the photo. It is designed on a Z-plan which means that the cylindrical parts of the castle were added at each corner of the main rectangular structure then others built at each corner of the courtyard. At one time a wall would have completely enclosed the castle but it doesn't any longer.

It does have a spectacular tree lined road-way that leads up to it.

And a walled garden that is lovely. But I much prefered the one at Scone Palace and some of the other castles we visited after this one.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside but I'll recap some of my favorite areas of the castle and you can go to the Undiscovered Scotland to see some photos that are wonderful of the interior.

I loved the Peacock Parlour because of the movement in the wallpaper and the circular table in the center of the room.

I admired the Worked Room because of the decorative woodworking over the doorway and the embrodery work in the canopy and bedspread of the bed.

The Red Turret room was spectacular and I loved the bowing of the wall where the turret curved.

And in Major Smile's room, Mitsi, my travel companion, and I both lusted after the Major's desk. I even made a drawing of it on a piece of paper in case I should decide to build one like it. I'd have transported the whole room home if I could have. Save for technology, it would have been the perfect writer's office.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kenmay/castlefraser/index.html

The Frasers were real rebels and bad guys. They hung Robert the Bruce's sister in the courtyard of the castle for six months and she actually survived to tell about it.

In 1644, Andrew Fraser opposed King Charles the Ist efforts to Catholicize the Church of Scotland. As a result the castle was sacked by Royalist forces.In the end, King Charles did lose his head over the controversy.

And in 1715, Charles Fraser transfered the castle to John Erskine, the 23rd Earl of Mar, to make the estate solvent, but it put him in the position of having to support the Earl of Mar's Jacobite call. Because of that, the Fraser clan took heavy losses on the Culloden Battle Field and Charles became an outlaw. He died in an accident while still on the run.

One of the legends that intrigued me was about a princess who had come to visit and was murdered. Her body was dragged down the stairs from the Green Room leaving a trail of blood across the stone. No matter how hard the servants scrubbed the stains could not be removed, so the stairs were covered by wood. She still stalks the castle halls.

Here's one last peak at Fraser Castle through the canopy of trees that borders the drive.

Tomorrow I'll talk about Drum Castle and Crathes.

Write on,

Teresa R.

Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time Part 9 Glamis Castle

2010-06-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

Glamis Castle was my third favorite castle that we visited. (I'll be telling you about my favorite in a later blog.) Our guide was entertaining and informative. We soon found out that it's much more enjoyable when you have people who could tell you about the place you're standing in, than reading it off of a sheet of laminated cardstock as you passed through.

Glamis is still used as a family home and it was wonderful to see family photos on the desk in the library. And they had numerous paintings of the Queen Mother.

I admit to a prejudice about the Royal family. I always thought the Queen Mother the classiest and most Royal of them. Thus, I was very interested in her family home.

Glamis Castle has a long and varied history. It has been home to the Earl of Glamis since 1372. In 1034, King Malcolm was murdered there. It is known as the setting for Shakespeare's play MacBeth and also has several ghost stories attached to it. I'll get into them later.

I really wish we could have taken pictures inside the castle, but because it's a private residence we weren't allowed. I do have a children's guide book that Glamis puts out. I'll share the address so you can go and download it and see some of the interior for yourself.

http://www.glamis-castle.co.uk/File/Children_s_Guidebook_08.pdf

First of all, there are lions in every room save one. And the guide invited us to look and try and figure out which one didn't have them. I'm not telling. That would spoil the fun for those of you who travel there. And I hope that's everyone who reads this blog.

The dining Room was magnificent! The silver Galleon that acted as a center piece amazing. The table was set with precious china and crystal. Our guide spoke about guests flicking the crystal to make it ring. I'd have flicked their head.

An ornate fireplace dominates the room. And the family paintings that covered the walls were a sorce of interest because I was searching for paintings of the Queen Mother.

Every ceiling was done in ornate plaster work and carried the combined crests of the Bowes-Lyons family and the other families who have married into the clan. That was also true of the stained glass windows in some of the rooms. That someone had taken the time to record history in such a way appealed to me.

The Queen Mother's bedroom had a canopied bed that had her name embrodered into the canopy. The Kings Bedroom had a chest of drawers so tall that servants had to stand on stools to get the clothes out of it when they were needed. The heavy drapes upon the canopy reminded me of how they would draw the curtains closed around the bed to hold in the heat of their breaths and their bodies. Because I'm sure the room was draft and cold even with a fire in the fireplace.

There were several ghost stories told associated with Glamis. And a monster associated with the family. It is rumored that a deformed child was born October 21, 1821 to George Bowes-Lyon and his wife Charlotte.The Queen Mother's great-great grandparents. It is recorded that the child died a couple of days later but the rumor is, he survived into his 50's and was imprisoned inside a room in the castle his entire life. There are several hidden rooms in Glamis to add food for thought.

Another story that the paranormal writers out there will enjoy is that every few generations a Vampire child is born who has to be hidden inside the castle.

A white lady is supposed to wander the grounds. Possibly Lady Glamis who became Lady Campbell after her marriage. She was burnt at the stake for witchcraft by James V.

And there was the story about the Lord of Glamis and the Earl of Crawford who played cards with the devil on the sabbath and following the episode, there were so many disturbing things happen inside the room it had to be sealed. Our guide offered to allow us to press our ear to the wall and see if we could hear them playing still.

Also in the sixteen foot thick walls there's supposed to be a family named Ogilvie who sought protection from their enemies and instead were sealed inside a room to die of starvation.

Outside at the back of the castle and in front of the gift shop was a fountain dedicated to Fergus,17th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

In the center is the Bowes-Lyons lion.

In the parking lot an oyster picker had decided to nest. And some kind employee had put up a small announcement warning off anyone who tried to park in the slot.

And surrounding the castle are enclosed fields with highland coo, the cattle indigenous to Scotland. This one wasn't very interesting in having his picture taken.

I loved Glamis because I thought it lived up to the reputation of what a castle should be with its legends and history. It had both the cone shaped roofs on the towers and the crenellated tops on some of the structures.

Until tomorrow.
Teresa R.