Dunrobin castle

There is quite alot going on outside at the moment, we made the mistake of borrowing a friends quad bike to hook a tiny trailer up to so that we could clear all the land of rocks and boulders before it's turned over and levelled. The mistake being that we all had so much fun on that quad bike that we're now desperate for one of our own - great fun!
Today however was full of blue skies and so I decided to take a drive to Dunrobin castle with both of my daughters - one had a day off work and the other has just moved back in with us.
Dunrobin castle has amazing gardens in the summer, the Gunnera there is absolutely mahoosive however this time of year the plants are more muted and less zingy.
The daffs looked amazing and there was some kind of shrub with lovely peachy coloured flowers, a few witch hazels in flower but the box hedging and Beech arches really stood out without the competition elsewhere.

Entrance Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland.

I know the name of this but I forget.

Loving these double flowered daffs.

Part of the gardens opening out to the beach/sea.

It's a shame I couldn't take photos inside the castle because it's amazing in there, a real step back in time of how the other half lived hundreds of years ago. It takes quite a while to go round all the available rooms and take everything in but we were aware that the last Bird of prey display was at 2pm so we made sure we were in the designated area well before that time.
The guy that does this display is a mine of information on Birds of prey and has the perfect sense of humour for getting people interested. He had the birds flying between the spectators and got the kids involved by allowing the birds to fly to them - kind of has more patience with boistrous unruly kids than I ever could.
Andy has an impressive array of birds of prey including an Eagle, 2 Steppe Eagles, various Falcons including a rare hybrid, Harris Hawks, Eagle Owls, Barn Owls and many many more - a brilliantly informative display.

Bengal Eagle Owl

Bengal Eagle Owl

Andy and his 30 year old Eagle

Saker Falcon

Steppe eagle

Dunrobin castle really is a fabulous day out for the whole family, I had a brilliant time with both my daughters and love the bracelet they bought me from the gift shop - hearts that have real Forget-me-nots inside. Leanne chose some drop earrings with real Heather inside and Stacey chose a necklace with a four leaf clover inside.

Real flower jewellery

Selfie

Leanne & Stacey

Stacey & Leanne