Flat Susan goes to Beauly and Cawdor Castle with Elizabeth

Hi Everyone,

More adventures of Flat Susan for you - a trip to the nearby town of Beauly. Mary Queen of Scots, back in the sixteenth century, described this little town as ' un beau lieu', a beautiful place, and it certainly is. 

Beauly Priory, located in a secluded spot in the centre of town, fringed by trees and framed by wooded hills, was founded around 1230 by monks of the Valliscaulian order who came from Burgundy, France, settling by the side of Beauly River, just where it enters the Beauly Firth. They were invited to settle there by the local lord, Sir John Bisset, and so members of the order lived a cloistered and contemplative life in the Priory for 300 years until 1560 when the Protestant Reformation brought it all to an end. 

Here's one of the abbots, carved out of wood, begging for donations towards the flowers that would soon replace the weeds growing in the wheelbarrow and tub beside him.

 Beauly is famous for its beautiful floral displays, window boxes and hanging baskets and last year won the Large Village in Bloom competition. 

From the priory there's a short path that leads down to the beautiful Riverside Walk. Flat Susan was impressed with the river, the wild flowers in bloom, especially the honey-perfumed yellow broom, frothy white cow parsley and bright purple rhododendrons which were to be seen everywhere. And, a real treat,  bright little yellow hammers kept flitting about, seemingly not too worried that we were on the path.

After Beauly there was a trip to Cawdor Castle, a romantic fairy-tale castle that has been the home of the Thanes of Cawdor since 1370, east of Inverness and close to the town of Nairn. The castle is associated with William Shakespeare's tragedyMacbeth, in which the title character is made "Thane of Cawdor". Sadly, it's all fiction, the castle was built well after the 11th century King Macbeth existed.

The grounds are beautiful and lovely to walk around. We happened on this colourful caravan just before the entrance gate to the castle ... Flat Susan and I thought it would make a wonderful craft studio :)

And that ends another wonderful day on holiday in Scotland. 

There's more but you will have to wait for the next episode in Flat Susan's adventures in the Highlands.