On the Ale Trail: "You can fly away to the end of the world, but where does it get you to?"

British Traffic Jams: "soul destroying and gut wrenching come to mind."


We encountered a long, long delay outside Birmingham on our way to Scotland.  If you can avoid the junction where the M5 and M6 intersect... do that as it is perpetual roadworks.  And then there was the driving in torrential rain which didn't make tings any better. Driving off to Scotland took five hours in torrential rain.  Nothing like it getting dark and we leave the car to go use the loo and buy coffee... and return to severe rain, raining twice as hard as when we went in, darker now and cold and soaked to the bone as we get back in the car... as I said...soaked.  Distressing is a good word...  all wet, drinking hot coffee with cheese sandwiches...the windows steaming up with the heater and no napkins to clean the glass.  You gotta love it!  Not much longer we came off the M74 at Moffat to take the A708 up to the A7 towards Edinburgh.  Moffat was actually a very interesting little town but please... do not take this highway late in the day in the early winter... we did and it was stressful for you are really out there on the moors, the road winds through sheep and logging tracts, it was only when we got to Bonnyrigg with little light left that we negotiated through the industrial parks and low income housing to in the dark find the parking lot of Castle Dalhousie.  This photo was taken the morning after.

When we finally arrived it was again bursting with torrential rain.  Looks all pretty in the above photo shot in the November mid morning light!  Check in was weird, the whole place was weird.  I can't pin it down but we were going to stay 3 nights, we checked out after 1.  It had been a very busy holiday up to now and we were wanting a few day''s quiet rest.  The internet web page looks nothing at all like the setting the Castle is really in, which for my money reminded my of run down old nearby industrial parks, call me silly.  All we wanted was 3 days of peace and quiet and staying in a castle was seriously a romantic thought.  Not to be... all the photos you will see now are from a walk I took around the castle about an hour before we left the next morning when the sun was shining, thank God for that!

First impressions are everything, and what you see on the website is not what meets you when you arrive.  For the prices advertised in high season one would expect first class everything.  We found "Reception" run down, poorly lit, the interior was stuffed with fake furnishings.  The girl at the desk was not familiar with our reservation.  We were given moat level... which was an easy to break in to room even if you were to lock it with the inside latch... the latch could be opened from the outside with ease by sliding a thin metal blade... we were not robbed but still never take a ground level room with a flimsy window security latch.

Our porter was this dicey dude, we tipped him to get rid of him, he shrugged his shoulders and said he couldn't believe we had been given this room... how's that for a warm fuzzy hello?  I was in the loo when I found myself shouting back to him upon his return when he came to tell us  we were moving to another room, but we had just settled into this room, now he was moving us to another room... what the hell... go with the flow!  On our way out the following morning Reception had no record we had been officially moved to the new room, which by the way did have a nice mattress, but a smaller television and had cost me another tip to make the porter again just go away... later I thought to myself he must have been sticking around for the other tip, but I had already gave him a tip, now wasn't I being played? Thoughts that came to mind as we settled into our new room, that it was just about the same as the old room... this room had not been insulated, the windows were decades old and parts sealed with paint, there was a big red stain on the carpet near the front door, and my favorite... had it been the summer we would have been serenaded all night long by the air conditioning farm located just below one of the windows. You can see the red steel supports in the photo below.

You are offered at registration to reserve a table in one of the two restaurants that are served from the same kitchen... either restaurant served buy a single staff. If you are into dark restaurants at night... then this is the cold and dark place for you. Look I’m no foodie;  meat and potatoes will do just fine anytime...  the evening menu was weird... our waiter didn’t have a command of good English... I asked, “what do you have on tap?”  He gave me that deer in the headlight look upon “On Tap,” so I spoke slow, he got it... and he brought a Caledonian 80, 4.1% Vol... sorry folks but it tasted like old beer to me, and I am on the Ale Trail and am dedicating my body to my art... so I have a right to be on to something like this.  

Now the photo below shows the same place all lit up in the following morning, and it is pretty, and the morning service staff were excellent, the cooked breakfast was well received by the two of us, then again I had paid for it and was damn certain we were going to eat before we left, and we so wanted to leave trust me.

Sometimes I may not shine like the brightest light bulb on the Christmas tree, but gut feeling is gut feeling and you better be listening to it. Gut Felling said move on! Other features not thought out were things like the premises was not rebuilt to accommodate disabled clients.  Now for the baby Boomers, the fastest growing generation in the world... chances are places like this in future will lose money because clients can't get about with ease... and we did not find a customer lift.... so much for those using a wheel chair... and there were many stair wells for even the healthiest of us to negotiate.

In high season rooms  go for up to £300 Pounds a night.  Those with a pocket full of money will enjoy Castle Dalhousie.

Next Post: Edinburgh Castle

Caledonian 80 (Click Here)