After our visit to Dundee we were heading for Edinburgh. We drove a bit cross country and considered a stop in St Andrews that is famous for golf and its university, but it looked too busy so we carried on to this quaint little castle. Kellie Castle dates back to the 14th century and may never have been very fortified, but the guide did say that the inhabitants may have lived on the upper floors and pulled up the ladder after them.
In more recent times it got quite run down but was taken over and restored by the artistic Lorimer family. Sculptor Hew Lorimor was one of the last inhabitants and his studio can still be seen there. I do not have a photo, but there are some on the National Trust for Scotland site. Our National Trust membership is accepted at their properties. We had something to eat from their cafe.
You can only go in on a guided tour, but that was very informative. It is grand, but not too over the top. As with another house we visited the doorways are quite low and I had to duck.
We went all the way up to the nursery that is called the blue room as it is mostly in that colour. Even the books had been re-bound to match. It has the feel of a family home, but on a large scale. A number of the paintings are of the house and gardens.
There is a nice walled garden. The house overlooks the Firth of Forth with Bass Rock in the distance so it is fairly exposed and the walls would protect the plants from the wind.
They had flowers as well as the edible plants. A house like this would generally have flower displays inside.
It is not a bit place, but we enjoyed it. You can walk around the surrounding woods and there was a maze cut into the long grass.
From there we crossed the new Forth road bridge and on to Edinburgh.
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