Bears of Traquair

Occasionally we a few nice days in August and we have taken advantage of these to go down and stay in our static caravan in Peebles. On some occasions the weather has been good enough for us to sit outside on our recently installed caravan decking and enjoy the fresh air and lovely view.
Here is a picture of our caravan, decking and the view:

One of the weekends we were down we paid a visit to Traquair House near Innerleithen, which is reputed to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland. It started life as a hunting lodge for Kings & Queens in 1107 and has been inhabited for the last nine hundred (and five) years. It has been added to over the years and now looks like this:


Traquair House

Back in the 'good old days' they use to hunt wolves, wild boar and bears...........and hunted them too well methinks as there are none left now. Bears feature heavily in the history of Traquair and the main gate (not the one pictured above) has a stone bear sitting on each gate post, however this main gate is no longer used and there is a story behind this.
Traquair was owned by members of the Stuart clan and they were supporters of Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobite Cause. The story goes that when Traquair was visited by Bonnie Prince Charlie the current (fifth) Earl of Traquair declared that the gates would be closed when BPC left and would not be open until a Stuart king was crowned in London...........they are still closed.
You can see the main gate in the distance in the following photograph, taken at the wineglass lawn (it looks like a wine glass from the air, honest) and also what use to be the long drive or avenue leading to the house.



Moira, Wineglass Lawn & The Avenue

Talking about wine.........well beer really, Traquair boasts its own brewery and in the gift shop you get to taste each of the three beers they brew. They start with Bear Ale (bears again) which is quite strong (ABV 5% for those that care about these things) then lead on to Traquair House Ale (ABV 7.2%... hic!) before finishing with Traquair Jacobite Ale (ABV 8%), no wonder there were no more Stuart monarchs!! Luckily they only give a very small samples or we would not be able to drive home. Needless to say I bought a gift pack containing one bottle of each from the gift shop, I'll make sure I'm sitting down before I drink them.
The gardens at Traquair are not as fancy as some of the gardens I've seen at other Borders' estates but they did have a nice walled garden/orchard, which had a wonderful metal horse sculpture in it made from parts of old agricultural machinery.


Walled Garden-Orchard



Metal Horse Sculpture

Had a look about to see what wildlife was about at Traquair, unfortunately apart from a few mallard on the pond everything was in hiding. I did find some unusual stone creatures however, such as the stone crow on the roof:


Stone the Crow

and the stone gargoyle-thing on the garden wall:


Stone Gargoyle

I don't know what his plaque says, looks like ..............???????  NOUGHT.
We even found some stone bears (it's that Traquair theme again):


Bear Faced



Moira with Bear Behind



Bear-knuckle Boxing

After all that boxing, we attempted the maze and eventually found our way out. I was so tired I had to retire to my mud hut for a rest:


Home at last

We had a lovely lunch in the gardens of the 1745 cottage tearoom after which we headed off to St Mary's Loch to see if we could spot some Ospreys fishing.
In August you have a good chance of seeing Ospreys fishing on certain Scottish lochs and rivers as the adults are fishing in order to build up their strength for the long flight back to West Africa and this year's young are fully fledged and learning to fish for themselves before they also fly South to warmer climes. St Mary's Loch can be a popular place for fishing Ospreys but we seen....... .....???????? NOUGHT (I wonder if that gargoyle was trying to tell us something?)
We decided to take the alternative scenic route back to Peebles, past Megget Reservoir, along the windy road to Talla Reservoir then back through Stobo to Peebles. Still didn't see any Ospreys but we enjoyed the scenery anyway:


Megget Reservoir



Windy Road to Talla



Bridge over Talla Water



Talla Reservoir from the road above

I hope you agree these are some lovely views. I have been up this road in the snow previously and had to turn back at the bridge over Talla Water because the road going down the steep hill to Talla Reservoir was just a sheet of ice and nobody in their right mind would attempt it.
Anyway it's time for a Bear Ale so I must go now.

Take Care (and watch out for bears)

Teddy Edward