On the Road with Toby

 

I got to tag along on one of Toby's tours.  It was good for me to be shown something different and not just going to the places that I'm always picking out for myself based on my studies.  We went to South Queensferry, Hopetoun House, Dunfermline, and Culross.  A couple of these places get used a lot in films and shows; for example, Hopetoun House has been used in filming Downton Abbey and also Outlander, and Culross has been used for Outlander - and some older movies such as Kidnapped in 1971 and Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011.  We started in South Queensferry, which is very near Hopetoun House.  This was a stop mainly for taking pictures of the Forth Bridges.  The bridge in the picture at the top is the Forth Rail Bridge.  It was opened in 1890 and has been designated a UNESCO World Hertiage Site.  There were many new techniques used in the building of this and in the construction materials involved.  It also remains one of the longest multi-span cantilever bridges in the world today.This is so close to Hopetoun House that I was able to take pictures of the bridges from the roof of the house.

The piano, covered with pictures, is in a room that also has a pool table.  If you look closely at the pictures in the picture above, you'll see that the homeowners run in some pretty prestigious circles!

Pictures speak louder than words, but I'll state the obvious, which is that there are some very nice interiors and some very nice exteriors here, so it is no surprise that filming takes place here.  The Hope family still does live here, when they are not living at one of their other homes.  Adrian Hope is the 4th Marquess of Linlithgow, and when the family is here, they occupy the south wing of the building.  At some point in the rather recent past they had their books catalogued since they didn't really know what they had.  It turns out that the collection included a Gutenberg Bible, which they were able to sell for quite a good price.  While I'm sure it was hard to part with, maintaining a home like this doesn't come cheap!

I wish we'd had time to walk the grounds here.  From what I've seen since, I realize that there is an amazing view of the house from beyond the pond in the images above and below, but we had multiple stops today, so we didn't do an extensive tour.  The next two pictures are from the rooftop viewing area.

Just off the dining room is a butler's pantry with a dumbwaiter, warming oven, and bells for some (but not all) of the rooms in the house.

Before we left I ran back from where we were parked in order to get a picture of the ha-ha.  I had never heard of a ha-ha before, and it's probably hard to tell from this picture what it is.  What looks like a stone wall below isn't actually a wall.  The grass beyond it is at the same level as it is so that there is an unobstructed view of the sweeping lawns from the house.  This allows for cattle to be grazed in such a way that they can't get near the house but also so that it looks from the house as if it is all just one long sweep of lawn.

Then it was across the bridge and on our way north.

The next stop was Dumfermline, which, as with everything else out here, has so much history related to it.  A few connections here include St. Margaret, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots, James I of England, and Andrew Carnegie.

At first glance, you may not notice this in the picture above, but near the top of the tower the brickwork spells out the word KING.  I didn't notice it while I was there until someone pointed it out to me.  This is to honor King Robert the Bruce who is buried here.  I think that this way of honoring him was done in the Victorian Era.  I've posted a closer view of the tower from another angle below.

The ruined refectory of the abbey

Our final destination was Culross, parts of which you might recognize from various shows and movies.

The yellow-ochre-colored building is Culross Palace.  The rest of the images on this post, except for the very last one, are from this palace.

They had games set out on various tables, representative of life in those times.  I'm all about the games!

This room is known as the Painted Chamber.  The paintings date from 1597-1611, and the room may have been used as a retreat where the life lessons and moral codes painted on these panels could be contemplated.  I think the phrase painted above is: "Men's pleasures fond, do promise only joys, But he that yields, at length himself destroys."  (If anyone can "translate" it better, please let me know in the comments.)

The garden yielded a lot of areas to explore and has multiple levels that gave many views.  I stopped at some point and let Toby and Nadia to up to the top-most level.  I finally waved the white flag!

We ended our day with a quick drive up the road to Culross Abbey, which ended up being closed - not sure whether due to time or due to ongoing COVID restrictions - but we did walk around the exterior and look out into the kirkyard a bit.  Off the the side is a manor house belonging to some member of the nobility.  The abbey is in ruins, but part of it is able to be used by the community as their local parish church.