Macbeth Castle Tour

So, three families wandering around Scotland looking at castles connected with Macbeth -- here are the highlights and a group shot at each (though at least one person was always missing).

Scone Palace:  best tour guides -- older women who rotated though the rooms and answered your questions.  We loved them for their blatant admiration for the family who still lived in part of the house and willingness to tell us all about the family. The queen was having lunch at the Palace the day after we visited, so one tour guide filled us in on how the grandfather was in a wheelchair and living with his daughter nearby so it wasn't clear if he would come since he couldn't properly greet the queen from his chair, and how his son was extremely shy, so the speculation was that the grandson (aged 23) would act as host.  We wanted her to call us the next day and tell us what really happened!

Scone, also had the most extensive grounds, including an impressive hedge maze and adventure playground.  Scone made the least of its connections to Macbeth, probably due to its importance as a tourist site in its own right.

Glamis Castle:  most annoying tour guide -- we had a young, Italian woman leading our guided tour of the castle and it just felt wrong to hear about a Scottish castle from somebody with such a thick non-Scottish accent.  Of course, Jamie and I, as the teachers of teens, made the most fun of her.  She told a story about a page boy who died waiting for his "h'orders" which we of course heard as hoarders, so kept saying the word to each other for the rest of the tour confusing her as to why we kept laughing.  The true low moment was when she stuck to the script obviously written by someone else since she referred a photo of the Queen Mother (who was born at Scone) as a picture that shows "how we remember our Queen."  Okay, you're Italian; she's not your queen!

Glamis had lots of lions since that was on the family crest -- I think people must give them lion things as presents (note all the lion photos below).  Their gardens were under renovation, but there were lovely woods to walk in and a sweet pet cemetery.  This castle capitalized on their Macbeth connections, even claiming that one room in the castle was where Macbeth killed Duncan, but in the play he kills the king in Inverness.

McKenna declaring herself Queen!

Cawdor Castle:  best gardens.  Although all the castles still had families living there, this castle was the only one where the family lived in the same part that was open to the public, so there was  even more family photos spread about and probably explains why the gardens were so nice.

witches' cauldron with a model of the castle inside

Salvador Dali sketch that depicts Macbeth sitting in a chair while a whirlwind comes towards him

great knot gardens

saying "Macbeth" instead of cheese

We loved touring these castles:  helping McKenna decide which would be the best one for her future wedding, testing all the zip lines at each castle, Tanya timing the obstacle course challenge at Glamis, eating in the tea rooms, making fun of the guides, snooping into the current lords' families' lives, wandering the gardens, seeing the places mentioned in Macbeth.