Rainy, Quiet Day Around Kilmarnock

Today we awoke to a wonderful breakfast of porridge, eggs, fresh fruit and coffee at the Woolly Rock bed and breakfast.  Our hostess, Sue, was very friendly and helpful and I would highly recommend her guesthouse to anyone in the Ballachulish area.  She offered us advice and ideas for getting around on foot and for meals, which is always appreciated, too.

We set out on our journey towards Kilmarnock after breakfast.  The road was again very windy, narrow and at times pretty crowded with other cars, large tour buses and trucks.  We stopped at the Glencoe Visitor's Centre to check out what was there and found a couple of trails that were set up for walking through the hills.  The landscape was so gorgeous - lush, green and serene. The walk promised us a glimpse of roe deer and Highland cattle but unfortunately the cows were not out (we did see one deer hopping through the grass).  

On from the Visitor's Centre we decided to stop along Loch Lamond, another huge and enticing Scottish lake.  The lake seemed to go on forever with little islands of land dotted throughout. The weather wasn't very great today - cloudy, rainy, misty, and foggy - it seemed as though the lake never ended.  It was tough to get a picture with a frame of reference to show how lovely the lake is but rest assured, it is a gorgeous lake!  

An old bridge opening up into Loch Lamond

Loch Lamond - so foggy it is hard to tell if it ends!

After a quick lunch, we make our way to Kilmarnock, traveling through Glasgow and on the busy highways, without incident!  We arrived in this smallish town, found our hostel and checked in.  The Foxbar Hotel is an old, brick building that reminds me of either army barracks with its mess halls and lounges and many, many small rooms, or a residential hall for college students or young teachers.  It's creaky and dark, with corridors and rooms leading off into a maze.  Not the highest quality but it's nice to have a place to sit outside of our room (we are sitting in the bar drinking tea tonight).  People seem very friendly here, which is great.

We found a park called Dean Castle Park and went on a brief tour of the Dean Castle on site.  It's not as old, apparently, as some Scottish castles, but it is a few hundred years old still.  Unfortunately, the castle did not have the architectural history I was looking for - I'd like to see the castle set up with the rooms as they may once have been, rather than the pieces of history (musical instruments, clothes) that really were not a part of that particular castle.  However, the fact that these castles are still standing 400+ years later.  

Dean Castle Entrance - not the original doors but still a good perspective!

Dean Castle from the Courtyard

Dower House (adjacent to the Castle, aka My Dream House)

Interesting tree in the Dean Castle Park

(Now there is a guy in this bar talking gibberish (Gaelic?) to us and he won't go away.)

After the castle and park, we found the Robert Burns monument and another lush, green, wonderful park.  There was a section set aside for what appeared to be a bicycle track in the formation of the city streets, complete with traffic circles and road markings...we wondered if this is where kids went to learn to drive before getting into cars!

Robert Burns Monument, Kilmarnock

Canopy of Trees over the Park Path
(canopies abound here, over most roads, so beautiful!)

Lee wanted to go see the Hillhouse Farm outside of the town because her parents stayed there a few years ago and learned that our grandfathers' mother had grown up in the farm across the road.  We think we found the farm, although there is no distinguishing signs saying that the Dunlops ever lived there.  The buildings were quite old, so it is entirely possible.  

We stopped for a walk through the Kilmarnock cemetery, which was interesting in that people seem to bury their entire families on top of each other rather than beside each other to save room.  There was a special (creepy) section for babies born stillborn, full of toys and animals and such.  It was well kept overall and someone must come along and inspect the headstones, mark those that appear to be 'unsafe', and ask the families to replace them with new ones.

We managed to find the town centre, park the car, and walk through the streets a bit tonight, too.  As we arrived, around 5:30pm, most shops were closing so the downtown area seemed very quiet.  We found a restaurant called Riverbank, which is an old bank turned into a beautiful, spacious restaurant and lounge.  The waitress was friendly, the prices very reasonable, and the food delicious!

Starter - Lentil Soup / Drink - Woo Woo (vodka, peach schnapps, cranberry)

Entree - Beef Chili with Rice

Now we are trying to arrange part of our day tomorrow.  I think we are both feeling the need for a morning run so I plan to get up early to get out for a few miles.  I haven't been sleeping great so I am very exhausted, but I am trying to still keep going and see as much as I can on this trip!  I'm very excited that we are heading to Ireland tomorrow - I think that that is the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to.  Our original plan to take the ferry across to Belfast fell through because we couldn't really find an easy or convenient way to get down to the ferry dock in Scotland.  So, we extended the car for 1 day and will return it to the Glasgow airport, and hop on the regional EasyJet flight over to Belfast tomorrow afternoon.  I hope it all works out!