WINGS OVER FORGANDENNY
Day 1 Tuesday 11th April 2023
Another trip to Forgandenny, but this time, we had Robbie and Millie with us for a little treat during the Easter Holidays. This gave them the chance to see their Great Grandmother for the first time in a while. Sandra had picked her up from the home and taken her to Forgandenny for lunch. Here is Bunty with Millie.
And, with Robbie.
After lunch, Grandad took the children to the park.
Pretty soon, it was time for Grandma to go home, so she came to the park to say goodbye.
Nana and Auntie Sandra took Robbie and Millie on a surprise visit to the shows at Perth before dinner.
It looks like they had fun, despite the rain.
Happily, Grandad wasn't there - he would have been sick!
He certainly wouldn't have been smiling!
Hoop-La is more Grandad's level.
A good start to the wee break away and before you knew it, it was time for bed. There was more excitement to come tomorrow.
Day2 Wednesday 12th April 2023
We had an early start this morning as we had to get going to Fife to pick up on Sharon's birthday gift from Bunty, Sandra and Chris. She had missed out on this due to Cameron's accident in March. She didn't realise, but she was to be flying birds at a falconry centre. It was called Elite Falconry, presumably the birds and the falconers were elite. That might not be
wholly true of all of the guests!
As we were indulging in some country pursuits, wellies were obligatory.
In a corner of the car park were huge bags of used shotgun cartridges, which didn't seem to sit too well with falconry. Only later did I make a connection with a nearby clay pigeon range. At least, I hope it was a connection. As always, Robbie was seduced by the bright colours, especially once he found out what they were.
Once we had washed our feet - bird flu precautions - we walked through the yard where there were a number of very big birds perching.
Once we had been given the safety briefing by Becca, the ace falconer, we jumped in a big Chevvy and drove slowly into the countryside, stopping near some woods, ready for action.
First up was Oi! the Tawny Owl.
Becca might be happy to offer up a finger, but nobody else was keen.
Oi sat on the roof of the Chevvy, while we walked down to the woods. Oi followed in instalments, flitting from tree to tree.
Eventually we stopped and Oi sat in the nearest possible tree, because she knew that this was the closest place to the food and like me, for her, food was everything.
She does look a bit grumpy here, but I'm sure it was a bit of an act.
It didn't take long for her to realise that Sharon was a food source and, therefor, she was worth spending some time with.
Sharon was just as pleased as Oi.
Becca was really good with Robbie and Millie and they got to act as food trees for OI as well.
Even Millie enjoyed this, despite Oi's diet of dead chicks. This was interesting, given that she had been at her friend's to see some live chicks a few days before!
Oi didn't want to be too far away from the food, so it was a bit tricky to catch her in flight, but I did get one or two good shots.
Her reluctance to be far from food, might be because, as Becca told us, she has really poor eyesight. We weren't here just for fun, we were here to learn as well.
Owls have very soft feathers. This allows them to fly silently. As their eyesight is so poor, they rely on a highly developed sense of hearing to find prey, so silent flying helps hugely with that.
Becca explained that Oi has a flat face, like most owls, so that noise is gathered in to this bowl shape and that allows the owl to hear so much more than we can. Here is Oi listening intently as Sharon tells her not to eat the children.
Oi is a beautiful bird and she performed very well for us, so now it was time to give her a rest and let out her companion Strike, the Harris Hawk.
Strike was pretty majestic and followed a similar routine to Oi, by sitting on the Chevvy until the levee was dry. Well, actually he followed us down to the woods as well, but he prefers higher trees.
He is quite a regal looking bird.
It took him no time at all to discover that Sharon had treats to dispense.
He was pretty fickle, switching his allegiance to Millie when she held the chicks.
Then, on to Robbie. No loyalty points for hawks.
He hardly had time to get one beakfull down, than he was on the lookout for the next titbit.
He didn't need to be asked twice.
He was good for Millie and Robbie as well.
It was all pretty spectacular.
All good things come to an end, and it was time to say goodbye to Becca and her birds. Sharon, Robbie and Millie had a great time and Sandra and I enjoyed seeing them do it.
Sandra took us to a non-existent café for tea and cakes. Luckily, there was a real one nearby, which we enjoyed. From there we went to the Fife Leisure Park - first stop, Crazy Golf.
You don't have to be crazy to play golf, but it would seem that some of us were!
You can still be happy even if you are a bit crazy.
All this stuff makes you hungry. Luckily, there were some restaurants about to sort that out.
Apparently, the sticky toffee pudding was good.
Everybody was happy.
Well, they were, until Grandad and Uncle Fish thrashed everybody at the bowling!
Nana and Auntie Sandra did have some issues. If they had been drinking you would say they were guttered.
Even Millie managed to get her ball down to the other end. She did have bumpers, mind.
Robbie was super cool and managed second place in the two games.
There is, of course, no such thing as a free lunch, or dinner, if it comes to that. So, while Grandad went home with Uncle Fish to get the dinner ready and walk Blue, Robbie and Millie were put to work at the stables. They weren't the Augean ones, but I bet they felt like it to Robbie..
And, to Millie, even with Auntie Sandra's help.
They all seemed to really enjoy being with Piper and his band.
I think the feeling was mutual.
Who doesn't like having their back scratched?
Then it was home for dinner and a good night's sleep after a very hectic day all round.
The next day was pretty damp. We were going home, so we decided we would get some culture in before we headed up the road.
We called in on Huntingtower Castle, near Perth.
It certainly looked quite impressive.
Like almost all castles in Scotland, it has changed a great deal over the centuries. In this case, it was a bit different from most castles. Originally there were two separate towers, which are now joined together. Nobody knows for sure why there were two towers built very close to each other. The best explanation is that, in 1480, the Master of Ruthven granted a division of lands to his two sons and each of them needed a tower. As you do.
At that time, and before, the the castle was known as Ruthven and not Huntingtower.
Something that supports the idesa of two towers being built around the same time, is that they are built in the same style.
Although some of the floors in the towers have gone, there are indications of how big the rooms were and the roof timbers are pretty substantial. Huntingtower is famous for the number of bats which live in the roof timbers and elsewhere in the castle. We didn't see them.
In 1913, removal of plaster revealed this painted wooden ceiling. It dates from 1540 and is one of he oldest painted ceilings of its type in Scotland. It is also unusual in that the joists run length wise along the room rather than side to side as is much more normal.
There are also remains of painted plaster walls in the towers. Again, these seem to date to 500 years ago.
Naturally, there is a roof you can walk around, which is irresistible to children.
It isn't just children who found the roof irresistible. There is a gap of about 9 feet between the battlements of the two towers, known as the Maiden's leap. It is so called because the daughter of the First Earl of Gowrie, who owned the castle in 1581, had an admirer, of whom her parents did not approve. The admirer, on visiting the castle, was given a room in one tower, separate from the bedchamber of the daughter in the other. She, however, found her way to his room. Somebody discovered this and told her mother, who rushed to try and catch her. The daughter then dared to leap back from the roof of one tower to the other and pretended to be asleep. The mother, apologised to the daughter for her suspicions.
These suspicions were, of course well founded, as the daughter eloped the next night and married her beau!
Nearby to the Maiden's Leap is a small doocot, where pigeons were kept to feed the the castle residents. It looks like pigeons still find the space attractive.
The castle has a very chequered history.
The first owners of estates hereabouts were the Ruthvens, who took the name from part of he estate near Perth. They were descended from Swein, son of Thor, a Viking who moved to the area in the 1100's from East Lothian.
In 1487, William Ruthven was made Lord Ruthven. He died at the battle of Flodden, but his successor greatly expanded the family estates through marriage.
By now they were becoming well connected. The 3rd Earl entertained Mary, Queen of Scots and her second husband Lord Darnley at Ruthven in 1565, shortly after they were married.
The Earl was not so hospitable when Mary became involved with her Secretary Riccio and he was one of the ringleaders in Riccio's murder in front of Mary. He fled to England and died three months later.
The 4th Lord Ruthven, despite being implicated in Riccio's murder, returned to Scotland and ultimately was involved in Mary's imprisonment and forced abdication. He attended the coronation of Mary's infant son James VI in 1567 and in 1581 he was made Earl of Gowrie. Remarkably, a year later, the Earl became involved in a plot to separate the young King from Catholic influence. The King was kidnapped and held at the castle for 10 months until he escaped. The King was, at first forgiving, but following further threats to his power, Gowrie was ordered to leave the country, However, he was arrested in Dundee and ultimately beheaded in 1584. The castle was forfeited to the Crown.
The castle and estates were restored to the family a couple of years later and the 3rd Earl, John died in very weird circumstances in 1600. The King's version is that he was enticed into Lord Gowrie's town house in Perth and locked up - again! Shouting from an upper window, he was rescued, but in the struggle to release him, Gowrie was stabbed and killed, along with his brother. That wasn't the end of the story.
The corpses of Gowrie and his brother were taken to Edinburgh, indicted for treason, found guilty and then hanged, drawn and quartered. The name of Ruthven was abolished, the family arms were deleted and the surviving family members barred from holding any office honour or possession and Ruthven was to be known as Huntingtower for evermore.
Huntingtower then passed through the hands of a number of keepers appointed by the Crown, including the Duke of Atholl. His wife gave birth to Lord George Murray in Huntingtower who became the military commander of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.
Which takes us neatly to Culloden and home - the end of a great few days away!
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