Cawdor Castle

On the last full day at Nairn, we went to Cawdor castle. We needed somewhere indoors as the weather was beautiful one minute and trying to flood the next. 

This is the castle which was the original home of MacBeth. But there was nothing as sinister as you would expected given that. 

Though there was a disturbing story of a toddler who was the heir to the house when her dad died so someone kidknapped her to take control. Lukily (if you call it that), this was anticipated. So the nurse bit off her little finger and brand her to make sure they could ID her. Practical but really harsh. 

Draw bridge

Serious oven

This castle had some of the most hideous bedrooms I have ever seen. And someone had created a modern kitchen and decorated it in the most eye-bleeding orange wall paper in the 1970's. I didn't take photos of that. It was just wrong! 

As with any good castle there was a dungeon. 

Apparently the castle location was chosen by a donkey when he stopped to rest here. They decided to keep the tree and built over it. Unsurprisingly it died (though apparently they were shocked back then when it did.) They kept the tree. And a few years ago they found a real dungeon (in the back of the photo, there is a 'door' on the floor which is the entrance). None of my photos turned out but it looked unpleasant. 

After coffee and cake (obviously), we went around the gardens while the weather was holding. 

There is a maze with a Minotaur in the middle. I hate mazes so stayed out. I was quite happy with the pathways around the maze which had wonderful twisted trees along them. 

Wether descending.

We did get catch in a shower but were heading back anyway. We had to pack the car for the next part of our trip.