Day 17 - Goodbye Scotland....

OK Folks... Time for a change of author???  Just be glad that it is me and not Steve that is blogging about today, because otherwise you would be treated to a twenty page treatise on the history of Riddell.

This morning we said goodbye to Honeyholm and headed back to Martin and Pauline's place, but not before making a detour through Roxboroughshire and the thriving metropolis of Lilliesleaf and the Ancient Riddell Estate.  With a little direction from Steve's bro Chris and the unfailing "navi" (Brit for GPS), we managed to make our way to the original Riddell homestead of the late 1800s.  We briefly met Virginia Grant, the current owner of the estate and she directed us across the cow and sheep pastures to the Riddell Tower (which interestingly was built by the Sprott family AFTER the Riddell's had sold the estate in the mid 1800's) and the burned out remains of the Riddell Home.  The tower was very interesting but Virginia did not know the whereabouts of the key so we could not get in to climb to the top.

The Riddell home is quite derelict, but the boys were able to wind their way through the ruins of what was obviously a glorious Estate home at one time.  Sadly the place burned to the ground in December of 1943, there are several stories that have to do with the Women's Land Army who were barracked there.  Supposedly a fire started on the third floor, reputedly after a Jackdaw (crow) nest blocked one of the chimneys but no one knows for sure.  The local fire crew attended, assured everyone that the minor fire was safely out, left, the fire flared up and destroyed the home.  We also met the farmer who works the land behind the woods of Riddell - his home built on the foundations of the old laundry and is called Laundry Cottage.  He shared several stories with us about the estate and also loaned us a book on the estates affairs in the early 1900's which we are bringing back to Canada.

 

After a poke about Riddell, we stopped back into the nearby village of Lilliesleaf for a pub lunch.  The pub (The Plough Inn) had an interesting photo of the old Riddell estate before the fire... The owners were friendly but we were the only ones in the place.... I'm guessing Lilliesleaf is not on the list of the best pubs in Scotland....

After our nostalgic stop it was on to visit Mark and Caroline, Martin's son and family.  We had another lovely BBQ in the garden while Steve treated toddler Henry to his reading of "The Queen's Nickers" which we bought in Edinburgh.  After dinner we made the last push back to Martin and Pauline's place.  In all, about 8 hours of driving which made for a long tiring day....