See Blair Atholl Castle with Scotty, Your Laird For Today

Welcome back to the adventures of Scotland The Brave in Scotland. (Click these links for other places Scotty saw: London, Stonehenge and Bath, Plymouth, Glastonbury, Lake Windermere , Gretna Green , Loch Lomond, Glencoe .)

After visiting the Isle of Skye and staying at Laggan Hotel near Kingussie by the Cairngorms National Park, Scotty set out for Blair Atholl on the way to Perth. No, not that Perth, the other Perth, The one Scotty had departed from .. It’s all so baffling.

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As the current Laird, the 12th Duke of Atholl, wasn’t home, Scotty bravely decided to take on his ducal duties. Your tour through the castle today therefore is with Scotland The Brave, your Laird Bear (acting) for today.

Kerb Appeal: First, he checked whether the approach to the estates looked imposing. Kerb appeal is everything, after all. There are big stone gateways with twisty iron bits on them and a long tree lined road within. Yes, that seemed quite suitable. But what about the Big Reveal? Would it be a let down after such a buildup?

Big Reveal: Oh yes! Now that is some reveal. Quite a big house too with wonderful trees and sweeping lawns.

The Grounds: Next, inspect the grounds and gardens. There are LOTS of them, including 50 miles of walking tracks. (‘Mile’ is British-speak for distances.). Everything was carefully looked after.

Defences: A castle ought to have impressive defences, of course, especially one that is home to the only private regiment in Europe.

Scotty inspected the approaches, the towers, and the cannonry. The cannons were possibly outdated but they did look impressive.

Entry: Would the entry to the house itself impress or disappoint? There is a soaring entry, beautifully decorated walls and ceilings, a massive stairway, paintings everywhere. Scotty’s guardians took dozens of pics just here but our tour must get on so here are only a few of them.

All over the house, err, castle, there are arms and armaments reminding you that the Atholl Highlanders regiment had to be continually re-equipped since being raised in 1777.

Why waste outdated weapons when you can arrange them on your walls instead to terrify, err, to impress your visitors?

Scotty again checked that all the wings and quarters and grounds seemed to be in good condition, at least, they seemed to be from the comfort of the fourth floor.

Dining: Food weighs heavily on a bear’s mind and Scotty wanted to know about the eating arrangements. The dining rooms are right up to the mark, he is pleased to tell you, with even more paintings and decorations. However, the tables are cluttered with all sorts of things that the average bear, child or grownup is bound to knock over and break which is a bit of drawback.

Bedding: Every brave visitor to Scotland wants to take a nap after climbing up and down glens and braes. Scotty took a look at the bedrooms. They are very grand although the beds themselves seem to have been hidden inside their own little houses made of drapes.

Even more rooms: Scotty now toured the other rooms. And more rooms. And yet more rooms. Every family member and important guest seemed to have been provided with a set of rooms.

This one is a sort of study. Scotty could imagine his good friend Mawson here pondering on his next books and falling asleep in front of the fire.

There is a room just holding an array of marvellous fans. Another room for amazing crockery and more for all sorts of things. There are nursery rooms. This one has a fine rocking horse.

Room after room is decorated with massive windows, huge drapes, amazing carpets and furniture.

Tapestries. This one shows two people apparently trying to be extremely mean to a pig. Why? People are completely baffling.

A music room, possibly, or it might be another room for sitting about in front of the fireplace.

Ballroom: Scotty didn’t expect a ballroom but here it was, high and wide and enormous with a former forest of trees holding up the roof. Even this room was full of weapons and paintings and antlers too.

Antlers: How many dead deer did all of these hundreds of antlers in Blair Atholl represent? It turns out that the animals shed them annually. The Dukes must have sent around people to collect the shed antlers so as to arrange them on the walls and made light fittings out of them. Weird. They do say the Upper Class are eccentric. Some of the antlers though are attached to heads. Hmmm. Most disturbing.

Isle of Man and Blair Atholl: Scotty and the Guardians were going to visit Isle of Man and it turned out that the Dukes of Atholl had a strong connection to Isle of Man, the symbol of which appears in the bottom of the crest. The 2nd Duke inherited the island and its sovereignty in 1736 through his grandmother Amelia Stanley, daughter of the Earl of Derby. His daughter Charlotte inherited it on his death. What do you do when you inherit a ton of money from rents paid by struggling crofters on an island? You blow it all on renovations of your castle, of course. Much of the magnificence of Blair Atholl castle was paid for in that way.

Next Episode: Scotty will travel on south, by passing (the wrong) Perth and visit a golf course called St Andrews (boring) and then go to Edinburgh where he dashes with great excitement around another castle. Stay tuned.

BOOKS with Scotland in them (our Scotty, that is)

Scotty is the star of a very special book called When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer: A Get Well Soon Gift by Carola Schmidt. In the book, Scotty a little bear who gets a bad sickness called cancer. He’s worried and often scared because cancer is scary.  But the doctors and nurses and other patients help him. The book is to help kids feel much more brave when they are getting treatment. It’s available in paperback and Kindle. Look for the brave little bear wearing trews on the cover.

Scotty in books by Mawson

You can also see Scotty in all the books by Mawson. One is called It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In (in that one he delivers the post) and another is She Ran Away From Love (he delivers the post again.) In Dreamy Days and Random Naps you can see him being a king and also a superb guitarist. Don’t miss that one! You can find Mawson’s books on this Link here, and on his Writer-Bear Page on Amazon.This is what the books look like:

You have wandered into Mawson Bear’s web-den. Mawson is the Writer-Bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In  and Dreamy Days and Random Naps and She Ran Away From Love. Mawson’s Guardian is co-creator of When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer, by Carola Schmidt