Kilmarnock

This blog is taking a long time to write - partly because we haven't felt much in the holiday spirit since Mum has been unwell - it is so hard being over here with her on the other side of the world. But, I will do my best with writing this up as a 'true and accurate' record of our holiday. It seems so long ago that we were sitting in the pub in Kilmarnock receiving advice from the crew. They recommended visits to Kelburne Castle, Electric Brae, Robbie Burns Cottage and Culzean Castle. I think they would have been surprised if they knew we managed all 4 in one day. Kelburne Castle was worth seeing because of the garden and the graffiti on the castle walls, we were told, and driving up to it in the cold and rain we did initially have our doubts. The garden provided a gentle stroll and was one of those that even with a map we managed to get lost in - so we walked a bit further than necessary. There was an elderly larch tree which we could walk under and shelter from the rain and a little New Zealand garden. Little did the locals know but there was something else beside the garden and the graffiti that stirred our heart. Kelburne castle is the home to the Boyles (who in the early 1900's one of the ancestors David was a Governor General to New Zealand). His son was Viscount Kelburne (hence our local city suburb being called after him) and inside a little tin hut built especially as a museum were NZ collectibles - black and white photos of our home town - the cable car, government house, Lambton Quay, Hunter Building where I slept through many a lecture and the family farm at Ruanui in the Taranaki.

There is something quite uplifting about riding along in the car in Scotland, windows wide open, listening to the bag pipes (a friend from Scotland didn't quite believe that statement). But this is what we did heading south to the house where Robbie Burns was born and lived. Robbie Burns, whom we have heard so much about but know so little was born in the mid 1700's to a farming family. One of four children they lived in a little stone house. Robbie didn't take to farming life (how many other famous people have had this start to their young lives) but preferred to read, write, create and imagine - just the criteria for becoming Scotland's national poet. He wrote some well known poems like Auld Lang Syne and lesser known ones (to me that is) like A Red, Red Rose.
O my love is like a red red rose
That's newly sprung in June
O my love is like the melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune
The museum down the road had a video of Tam O' Shanter - the poem about people of the drinking classes in the old Scots town of Ayr in the late 18th century. There are a number of characters like Tam himself, Souter, Johnnie and his Kate who had somewhat of a reputation: "Gathering her brows like gathering storm, nursing her wrath to keep it warm". The poem starts in the early evening once Tam had had a few. After delaying leaving for a while because he didn't want to face his Kate he rides into the woods at Kirk Alloway and meets the devil and some witches in a church (it is a lovely little derelict church sitting amidst grave stones and it is hard to imagine that the devil or witches would feel comfortable cavorting in such a peaceful place - but that is imagination for you). Tam eventually escapes,decides that Kate is preferable to devils and witches and rides his horse (Meg) across the little stone bridge at Brigadoon - they nearly escaped unscathed but Meg lost her tail to the witches - I wonder what Kate said about that. There is some nice lines in the poem like: "But pleasures are like poppies spread, You sieze the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white--then melts for ever". So, we wandered around took some photos and then went into the little church with the commemorative windows across the road from Tam's church. Well, we had begun to think all churches were the same - from the outside they often are - but this was a little treasure inside. There were a number of commemorative stained glass windows to important people eg

• Robbie Burns (not surprisingly) which was installed in 1996 to mark the bicentenary of his death
• The four seasons (no important people here but shows the four seasons in rather a picturesque way)
• Marie Cubie - who devoted her life to teaching and peace

20 windows in all.

Driving down south (with the pipes still playing) we drove to the Electric Brae - a curiosity worth seeing we were told - but I am afraid neither of us got it. To quote: "The ELECTRIC BRAE, known locally as 'CROY BRAE'...the configuration of the land on either side of the road provides an optical illusion making it look as if the slope is going the other way. Therefore a stationary car on the road with the brakes off will appear to move slowly uphill"...I thought I had some imagination, but when we stopped in the middle of the road - we thought we were pointed down hill and we were, and further along we thought we were pointed up hill and we were again...so somewhere along the line we missed the point but had some fun trying to find it.

The last stop on the expedition that the locals told us about was Culzean Castle - we were given instructions on how to get there and how to get in without paying (park down the road, wander down the cliff path, walk along the beach, and up the other cliff path), it didn't really matter to us as it was a National Trust property and the castle was closed, but somehow we knew we would have got terribly lost while searching for the 'freebie' entrance. We enjoyed the wander through the gardens the cup of tea by the lake and the quick brisk walk through the castle grounds to the stony beach below. The castle is famous by the way - its picture features on one side of the five pound note (presumably the Scottish note). There are also some American connections here cos in 1945 the family gifted the castle to the National Trust but gave the top apartment Dwight Eisenhower to say thanks for his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War.