Eastfield Farm, Saline, Kingdom of Fife

25 July 2017:-  The itinerary was mine but more complicated than we finally undertook; my husband is a better time manager than I, or at least better at understanding how much can realistically be squeezed into one day. And even then, we were pushed to fit the abbreviated schedule in before home time.

Today was to be the last fine day while based near Saline, so it was better to be spent on a tiki tour rather than a “city” style agenda, so we headed off to Dollar, only about five miles to the north. This was to be the first of several urban settlements seen today that we found most pleasing to the eye, contrary to my scathing remarks of previous days. 

We headed up into the Ochil Hills beyond the small town, into the steep ravine of Dollar Glen to visit Castle Campbell aka Castle Gloom. At the end of the narrow road one and a half miles above the town, we reached a car park then set off on foot for the last half mile or so to the castle itself. On either side of the striking remains, flow the Burns of Care and Sorrow, down into the Dollar Burn. Doesn’t that capture the imagination!?

The castle was built as a demonstration of the wealth and power of the Campbell family of Argyll, who used it as their lowland home until 1654. The Campbells were one of the most successful dynasties in Scottish history, first rising to prominence in the 1300s. 

Archibald, 8^th earl of Argyll, was high in the favour of Charles I and was elevated to the rank of marquis in 1641. Following the execution of the king, it was Argyll who placed the crown on the head of Charles II at Scone in 1651. However he later came to support Cromwell and the Commonwealth and Castle Campbell was used as a base by English troops. It was in retaliation for this that the castle was burnt in 1653. Argyll was executed for disloyalty in 1661 after Charles II had been restored to the throne.

The family was further elevated in 1701 to a dukedom but by then Castle Campbell was a ruin, and was no longer liveable as a family residence. The decision was taken to sell the castle in about 1810, when the 6^th Duke’s finances were already heavily over-stretched by his decision to build a grand new house on the north bank of the Firth. The Campbell connection with the castle was thus ended but the name remains.

There had been some sort of structure here before the Campbells arrived although the details are sketchy, however the initial tower house was completed in about 1470. The Hall and Chamber Range which were subsequently burnt down, were added to about 1500, and the east range which ended similarly, was added or remodelled about one hundred years later. 

Certainly by the time that Glasgow businessman Sir Andrew Orr bought the property in 1859, the castle had fallen into serious disrepair. His son, James, carried out major repairs in the late 1870s. Much later, in 1948, the then owners gave Dollar Glen to the National Trust for Scotland, who arranged for the castle to be cared for by the Ministry of Works. Restoration works have included a new roof on the tower, and excavations in the 1980s revealed charred timbers from the 1654 burning. The castle is now managed by Historic Scotland.

Even in its semi-ruined state, it is indeed a solid structure and we were able to climb the spiral staircase of the tower onto the roof to enjoy stunning views down over Dollar, over the resurrected gardens and beyond, even to the fuzzy outline of the new Forth Bridge yet to be completed. 

After spending some time chatting with the guide at the entrance gate, on matters pertaining to this Castle, our dilemma of destinations to the north and other matters, we wandered all about, then took a path through the woods to see the waterfall we could hear roaring down into glen. Alas the actual path of the water was camouflaged behind a screen of vegetation, but we agreed that it was wonderful to be walking in steep bush land very like that “back home”.

From Dollar, we travelled westward up Glen Devon on the B823, over a pass on the Ochil Hills, then down Glen Eagles, that which gives its name to the famous golf course. As we followed the River Devon toward its source, we pulled into the Glen Devon Woodlands Park, or more particularly that part about the Glen Sherup reservoir. There are walking tracks all the way down the Glen linking up the five reservoirs, the Glen Sherup the middle one situated between Ben Shee and Innerdownie. We had seen a “Beware of Red Squirrels” sign and I thought we might do a bit of squirrel spotting given my great success at spotting wild koalas in Australia. 

We set off into the forest on foot up a service track and passed by a house where a woman was tending her garden. We called out greetings and asked if there were red squirrels hereabout, to which she replied that yes, indeed there were. They were often seen scampering along the garden wall in front of her kitchen window. She also told us that if we continued on for a further half mile, we would have views of the loch and were likely to spot birds of prey swooping about the skyline. It was a long half mile, but then a mile is longer than a kilometre and an uphill mile is longer still. While the view was lovely, we spotted a couple of field mice but nothing more. She had mentioned fishermen out on the lake, but we were still surprised to see about four identical little craft each bearing a fly-fisherman.

Back down in the car park we picnicked before pressing on through the picturesque countryside, turning south onto the A9 toward Dunblane, travelling down the wide valley of Allan Water, Strathallan (“strath” being the Scottish word for “wide valley”). 

Dunblane proved to  be yet another attractive town, best known as the hometown of the tennis playing Murray brothers and more infamously for a mass shooting of schoolchildren and their teacher way back in 1996. It was the tennis connection that I brought to Chris’s attention when suggesting that we call into the town.

The Cathedral, still known as such only because it was once, before the Reformation, a place of bishops, dates mainly from the 13^th century, although has a rather on and off architectural history. When England’s Edward I came north to wipe out the northern competition just after the first version of the cathedral was completed, he demanded that the lead be stripped off the roof for melting down and providing shot weights for his massive trebuchet with which he blasted nearby Stirling Castle. 

When we arrived we found the church closed for an hour, which we later decided was so that the Heritage Scotland guide could break for lunch and a comfort stop. We spent the interim in the little museum opposite and learned a little more about Dunblane. Here can be found a 4,000 year old necklace found in archaeological digs nearby, older than the Egyptian pyramids!

We were glad to have stopped by Dunblane, but were also aware that the afternoon was half gone by the time we had checked out Allan Water and the High Street where we bought the day’s newspaper. Our next destination was Culross (pronounced Cooros) on the northern bank of the Firth, beside the Longannet Power Station and opposite the Grangemouth Refinery, neither particularly complimentary to scenic tourist destinations. 

Had I been left to the navigation myself, I would have had us travel via Clachmannan down the eastern side of the River Forth, however our Tomtom considered it more efficient to travel via the major motorway system, south to the west of Stirling then across the Kincardine Bridge. It was about 3pm when we finally parked on the shore on the edge of Culross.

Culross is the best preserved 17^th century in Scotland, having started its life as a Cistercian Abbey, established in 1217, and its future was guaranteed with its reputation as a source of coal. The monks, or their minions, scraped as much of the black gold as they could but gave up when their pits continued to fill with the waters of the Forth.    

George Bruce arrived in the town in the 16^th century ready and modernised the extraction of the coal, by using an early form of pump, thus allowing coal to be mined from under the firth. With the extracted coal, he had a successful industry turning seawater in to salt for preserving and the dinner table. In time, after obtaining a royal licence to do so, both salt and coal were exported and exotic imports arrived to add to his manna, further added to by the title, Sir George Bruce.

And such a fine gentleman required an equally fine dwelling place, and so the “Palace” of Culross was built and later added to. It is a grand house and well decorated in the style of its heyday, these days managed by the National Trust of Scotland as is most of the town. The painted and panelled rooms and stunning walled and terraced gardens are two of the most impressive features, or at least were for us.

The National Trust for Scotland was set up in 1931 to preserve threatened buildings and places of natural beauty for the benefit of the nation; Culross Palace was the first property the National Trust for Scotland bought in 1931 for £700. It was then given over to the State for safekeeping until 1991, when it was handed back to the Trust’s care.

We walked up to the top of the town to visit the Abbey Ruins; not a lot to see here but reached via cobbled narrow streets full of charmingly appointed period houses. Needless to say the abbey went the way of most such institutions with the arrival of the Reformation of 1560. The parish church attached to the ruins is still in operation, as a rather plain Presbyterian place of worship and also the resting place for Sir George Bruce and his wife.

By the time we arrived back at camp, it was after 5 pm, and tomorrow’s forecasted rain is already standing by to complicate our last full touring day in the Kingdom of Fife.