Drumlanrig Castle

Dumfries and Galloway holiday 19

With no need to rush home, I decided to break my return journey from Scotland with a visit to Drumlanrig Castle. The house was bizarrely closed (on a Saturday?) but the gardens were open. It's a magnificent pile, aptly called 'the pink palace'. Built in the late 1600s in Renaissance style, it is the Dumfriesshire home of the Duke of Buccleuth and Queensberry (which suggests he has others. Streuth!) It has 120 rooms, 17 turrets and four towers and a renowned art collection. (Apparently in 2003, Leonardo da Vinci's 'Madonna of the Yarnwinder' was stolen from here, though thankfully retrieved in Glasgow four years later.) From a photographer's point of view, it was unaccountably unsymmetrical for such a symmetrical-looking place. 

From the outside it looked ornate and beautiful, imposingly perched on a mound. I loved the elaborate staircase. 

The view down the grand entrance drive wasn't too shabby either. 

The gardens were parched with the heat but still attractive. Close to the house were some formal areas but on the wider estate it was much more natural, with winding paths up and down the hillside that led you through woodland to a stream. Roses and a few rhododendrons in flower added pops of colour. 

I'm getting the distinct impression that it's becoming harder and harder for these great estates to survive and thrive. Staffing problems must be part of it. Drumlanrig's gardening contingent has gone from forty gardeners to just four. It seems much more necessary these days to plan ahead and book guided tours. At one time you could just rock up to these places and gain admission but this is less and less the case. A matter of adapting, I guess, for us all - owners and visitors - but a challenge for anyone charged with ensuring their future viability. 

So, that's the end of my holiday photos and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed the holiday. (If not the temperatures... I'm not sure how I seem always to choose one of the hottest weeks of the year, which has happened on my past four summer holidays! It's not as if it's often baking hot here. Next year, for a small fee, you can have my holiday dates if you want Mediterranean weather in the UK!)