On Sunday the 8th we went to Doune Castle, which was not far from where we were staying. This is an amazingly well-preserved example of medieval fortress-type castle. It's owned now by Historic Scotland, which is in the process of repairing one of the courtyard walls. After paying a small admission fee, you can wander and explore at your own leisure, staying as long as you care to. We spent hours there! The only decorated room was the great hall. I assume that's probably because a lot of weddings take place there. Other than that, you can imagine what went where . . . and if you're a Monthy Python fan, you can speculate on which scenes were filmed in which rooms. At the gift shop, coconut shells were available for silly persons' use. I used them.

 

Here's the view from the parapets. It was fun just being out on them.

 

These large openings are part of the kitchen wall. They were used to conveniently get food from the kitchen to the dining area.

 

Here's the very large fireplace in the kitchen. You can see the service openings to the right. I don't think the fire extinguisher is an authentic period piece.