09/08/2023
9 August/Day 32 of 45. Mey Castle. Photos - Kerrie. Words - John
Today on a whim, we turned into Mey Castle, near John o Groats, top of Scotland.
In the car park, we hummed and hawed over whether we wanted to spend the time or the money to visit the Castle and gardens. Eventually we decided to go in.
Imagine our surprise to learn that King Charles had been in residence for the last 1.5 weeks. He vacated yesterday. That was handy because the castle is closed to visitors when the King is around.
Down at the end of the road at John o Groats, the barmaid told us that Charles always goes to their highland games event. Last weekend they wondered if he would still turn up now that he is King. Yes, he did, with security holding an umbrella for him to protect against the rain. He also opened a local distillery.
The Royal family has a long history of enjoying summer in Scotland. Indeed, the Britannia would be moored offshore from Castle Mey. Some of the family would come ashore during the day, then retire to the ship at night.
Castle Mey is a modest, compact size. It is way smaller than many that we have visited. It was the personal property of the Queen Mother. In 1952, she was holidaying in the area and heard of this castle being for sale. She fell in love with the ultimate in fixer-uppers. She went back to London and consulted with Winston Churchill about the merits of purchasing the run-down castle. Churchill was pretty biased as he was already donkey-deep in saving and restoring Blenheim Palace castle, where he was born. The vendor of Mey Castle, in recognition of the huge amount of restoration work required, sold the property for 100 pounds. Three short years later, it was fixed up enough to move in.
We enjoyed our visit. The walled garden is the best that we have seen so far. It is more remarkable because it flourishes when outside, the landscape is pretty barren and windswept. The whole garden is working and tended well. We noticed that despite the huge walls surrounding the garden, internal hedges also play a crucial part in mitigating the strong winds. Kerrie remarked on how strong the scent was in the internal rose garden.
We were thrilled to have been so close on the heels of King Charles. It was also interesting to hear of his humble involvement in the local community. When thousands of English flee the UK to holiday in Spain, Portugal and Mediterranean countries, it is great to see the Royals still heading to Scotland for the summer, which today hit the heatwave high of 14 degrees Celsius after a chilly low of 10C
