WALK 2 BRODIE CASTLE 24th January 2024

The plan had been to go out for the day every Monday. We would have a nice day out and incorporate a walk as well. However, the weather was so bad this week, that Monday became Wednesday and we went to Brodie for a few hours.

There is a walk around the ponds and the castle grounds, which we decided to do before lunch and a look round their sale.

Here is Sharon beside the pond, where we started the walk. Originally there were a number of ponds here, arranged in a more formal way. The ponds became enlarged and more naturalised over time, so that by the turn of the 20th Century, the ponds were very much as they are today. There were sculptures made from tree trunks all along the walk.

This little owl watched us walking on by.

It was quite a nice open mixed woodland at first and pleasant walking.

It wasn't long until we came to the first of two bird hides on the pond.

Most of the birds we could see were Mallards, but there were a number of coots and some swans to be seen, as well as a good number of tufted duck.

There was another hide at the end of what was once called the long pond. I wonder why they called it that? It was designed to provide and frame views up to the castle, which you can just about see in the distance,

Here it is.

From the hide, the path went round the northern side of the pond. The National Trust for Scotland own the castle and estate and have carried out some ethnic cleansing of the woodlands here. Only the native (or nearly native) species such as this young beech tree have been left standing.

A seashell in the woods. Not quite as strange as it might first appear. The sea is only 3 miles away and much of the land hereabouts was subject to the movement of the coastline and dune systems over millennia.

A bit off the path, was a private burial ground for the Brodie family, who owned the castle and the estate until it was passed to the NTS. The Brodies lived in the castle from the 14th Century, but had an association with the land since 1160, which wasn't yesterday. The graveyard is thought to date from the turn of the 20th Century.

Back down to the path and alongside the pond. As I said, the bulk of birds on the water were Mallard. They are very common and I think we kind of take them for granted, but the males are very handsome birds.

You cross the public road and then walk towards the castle. You are actually walking along the approach that had previously been used by horses and horse drawn vehicles to approach the castle. It is a fabulous building and the colour is especially eye-catching.

Just off the horse drive, there is a little grove of carved mushrooms. In the spring, all of the driveway is a riot of yellow. Brodie is home to a collection of hundreds of different varieties of daffodil. The 24th Brodie of Brodie bred over 400 different varieties between 1899 and 1942. He also saved a number of varieties from extinction.

You have to go past the castle to get the best views of the building, some of which dates to the 14th Century. It really is impressive and it hosts a world class collection of art. We have visited on a number of occasions, most spectacularly in the winter, when the grounds and buildings are illuminated with a light show.

Not far from the castle is the Playful Garden, which is worth a (fairly expensive) visit with children. The giant white bunny is a real attraction.

From the relatively new, to the very old. Rodney's Stone is a Pictish carved stone, dating from the 8th or 9th Century. It was not originally erected here. The original location is unknown, but the stone was rediscovered in 1781 at the time of excavations for the new parish church at Dyke, nearby. Before that it had been used as a recumbent gravestone. Some have it that the stone was found by a gravedigger known as Rottney, while others aver that it commemorates Admiral Rodney's victory over the French near Dominica. In any event is was moved here between 1830 and 1840 or so.

It has some very fine Pictish carvings on this side. These are the dragons at the top, the Pictish Beast, that some think is an elephant in the middle and the Z-rod and double discs at the bottom. Scholars and Archaeologists have argued for decades over what these enigmatic symbols depict and mean.

The other side has a fine cross and you can see towards the bottom of the stone the initials AC and KB. These are from the time that the stone was used as a recumbent, that is, flat, gravestone. A fairly vandalistic thing to do, if you ask me.

The stone also contains Ogham script. Ogham is a very early mediaeval writing. The script here is largely indecipherable, but at over 3 metres in length, it is the longest known ogham writing in Scotland. Laser scanning of the stone has been undertaken and there is some hope that analysis of the results will allow the script to be read.

What we do know, is that none of the Ogham was written using these giant coloured pencils.

Then it was back to the car along the public road and then on to Brodie Countryfare for lunch and a bit of shopping.

We did the shopping first and then sat down to a very nice lunch of sweet potato, chilli and ginger soup, with an avocado, onion, spinach and chutney sandwich.

Another successful and enjoyable walk and another way of getting the steps in without really noticing, but seeing a lot.