I've been in Bonnie Prince Charlie's bedroom! (Drumlanrig Castle (Thornhill))

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	Drumlanrig Castle (Thornhill)
Date:	21/08/09 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great day out

Disadvantages: Easy for foolish people to get lost !

Drumlanrig Castle is located in the Dumfriesshire area of Scotland and it's still home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE.


Directions

Drumlanrig Castle is situated just off the A76 just 17 miles from Dumfries. The Castle is signposted from the A74M at Abington and Elvanfoot.

You can also arrive by bus; there is a bus service (246) from Dumfries in the South and from Glasgow or Ayr in the North via New Cumnock, which will drop you at the Estate entrance on the A76. From the castle gates you will need to walk to the Castle itself, which is a walk of approximately one and a half miles.

Opening Times

The cycle route and walking routes are open all year round; the snack bar for cyclists/walkers is open from 11-3pm. Rik's Bike Shed is open from 11-5pm for hiring cycles (during the winter the shed will only open at weekends unless you make prior arrangements).

CASTLE and TEAROOM
are open from Easter - 31 August inclusive, daily; 11.00 am - 5.00 pm (last tour 4.00 pm)

GARDENS, PLANT CENTRE and COUNTRY PARK
(incl. Stableyard studios) are open from Easter - 30 September inclusive, daily, 10.00 am - 5.00 pm.
Prices.
(Taken from the website for ease)

House, Gardens and Country Park
Adult: £8.00
Adult Concession: £6.50
Child (3-16): £4.50
Family: £23.00
Adult Group: £6.00 per individual
School/Children's Group: £2.50 per individual

Gardens & Country Park only
Adult: £4.00
Adult Concession: £3.50
Child (3-16): £3.00
Family: £12.00
Adult Group: £3.00 per individual
School/Children's Group: £2.50 per individual

Season Ticket - Individual: £20.00
Season Ticket - Family: £30.00


===Cycle hire Prices==, there are 3 prices; Kids, Adult Basic and Adult premium.

Up to 1 hr --- £3 --- £5 --- £8
Up to 3 hrs ---£5 --- £10 ---£15
Full day --- £8 --- £15 --- £25

My Thoughts


The Castle
______


The castle is absolutely beautiful, and the grounds are amazing. You don't have to go into the castle itself, but if you do, then you'll be asked to sign a guestbook on the way in, this is to allow the recording of your image, and should anything happen in the castle, these images will be forwarded to the police.

This came about after one of the paintings was stolen from the castle; in August 2003 the Da Vinci painting 'Madonna with the Yarnwinder' was stolen from the wall in the castle, so security was tightened. As well as having to sign in, visitors can only tour the castle in small groups with a tour guide. This can be both a good and bad thing, I find I generally learn more about any given castle when walking around with a guide, but I also like to walk at my own pace. When you are walking with a group I find I often want to stop and examine something, but the rest of the group is moving on, or vice versa, and I'm stood around waiting whilst other people are looking at things. However, in this case I can certainly understand why the castle has insisted on guided tours. Incidentally the painting was found again four years later, after police intercepted a gang attempting to move the painting.


The castle of course contains a huge amount of historically significant items. There are tapestries that Mary Queen of Scots worked on, paintings by Van Dyck, there is the bedroom once used by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The Gardens
_________

There are several gardens within the property East & West Parterre (Rose Garden), Long Terrace Walk, Low Sand Garden, Low Ground Arboretum, Wilderness , Heather Houses, Rock Garden , Rhododendron Collection, Woodland Garden and The Cascade.


My favourites are the East and West Parterre areas, I'm not really very green fingered, but roses are my favourite flowers, so this area obviously appeals to more than the others, but I also like the trees in the East Parterre, which are carefully trimmed into different shapes. I'm always amazed at how well kept these types of trees are, whenever I try to trim my tree it looks like someone's gone mad with a chainsaw.

I also like the rock garden, because this is similar to the style of garden I have at home, only on a much grander scale.


The Estate
_________

There's more to Drumlanrig than just the castle and the gardens, the estate seems to go on forever. And within that estate there's a great adventure playground for the kids. There are zip wires, climbing areas, a pretend castle and slides, more than enough to keep children amused for a while, so you can take a seat on the benches. You're also allowed to picnic here, so you don't have to worry about the day being expensive because of food costs.

There are several walks around the estate


Woodland Walk (Orange) - 1.5 km
Wildlife Walk (Brown) - 2 km
Woodland Walk (Red) - 4 km
Woodland Walk (Yellow) - 5 km

Although a word of caution here, make sure you know which one you want to do first, we accidentally started to follow a cycling route instead of a walking route, because the kids wanted to choose that particular colour, and we ended up on an 11km route! I don't think we walked the whole thing, because after some amount of time panicking about getting back before the gates closed, we found a sign with the other colours on, and managed to get back about 30 minutes before the gates closed.


There are four different types of cycle route as well; Easy (Green Routes), Moderate (Blue Routes), Difficult (Red Routes) and Hard (Black Routes), and there are a couple of choices within each category, so there's plenty of chances to see the countryside and the estate.

In the castle courtyard, there's also a visitors centre, this has a room where you can watch the animals on CCTV, of particular interest to many people from the UK are the red squirrels, since they have been driven to extinction in many areas of the UK, it's rare to see one. And if anyone else has children like mine, they've no chance of seeing one close up, due to the noise from the constant chattering. So this is a good chance to see wildlife in its natural habitat.


No castle would be complete without a cafe of course, and Drumlanrig is no exception. As mentioned earlier there's a snack bar, but there's also a proper cafe in the courtyard which provides hot and cold food and beverages.

There's also a gift shop, which sells just about everything you could think of, from a range of Buccleuch foods, to Scotch whisky, and all manner of souvenirs.


Apart from getting lost, we really enjoyed our day here, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys history or nature, because there's plenty of both all in one area

Summary: Great day out