Day 19: Lickleyhead Castle

Guess what?! We will be staying in a castle for the next few days!! I don’t have a bucket list, but if I do, I wouldn’t have listed “sleeping in a castle” on it since I would never imagine I would have the chance. But here we are, staying in a legit Castle AirBnB as our final accommodation for this amazing trip.

The trip to Aberdeen was just as amazing as all our drives. Scotland is honestly the most beautiful country in the world. Every place we’ve been, there are so many beautiful sceneries of mountains, waterfalls, streams. I actually saw a sheep herding dog at work in a field!

We passed by Balmoral Palace, the Royal Palace in Scotland, but didn’t have the time to go inside.

When Uncle Myles found out we are staying in Lickleyhead castle, he googled it and told us:”this is a true Scottish castle. The architecture design and the materials used to build it are truly Scottish!” This statement got us even more excited about seeing it in person.

As we entered the gate of the castle, there is a treelined street leading up to the building just like other touristy castle we’ve been visiting. The caretaker of the castle came out to meet us, and walked us through the building. He told us this is the childhood home of Rose Leslie (Ygritt of Game of Thrones), wife of Kit Harington (Jon Snow). Her family sold this castle just 4 years ago. Cool!

We will be occupying the entire East Wing of the castle.

The reason we can’t stay at Aunt Georgia’s house when visiting, is because she is hosting an Ukrainian Refugee family. She has been doing this since the war started. This family of grandmother, parents and twin babies have been staying with her for the past 6 months. We had a great time getting to know this lovely family. I am very happy that they like the gifts I brought to them: two soft baby blankets in the American Flag patterns.

Aunt Georgia provided us a lovely afternoon tea with the finest China she inherited from her mother, and many tasty treats. She then took out several folders of old photos and newspapers clippings, told us many stories of her parents. We learned that her mother (Steve’s grandmother) was in British Air Force during WW2 and was deployed to Egypt for a couple years; her father was a renowned capercaillie bird breeder that was invited to meet the Queen at Balmoral Palace in 1970. Sadly he passed away just few weeks before the meeting. I am so happy that both Steve and Evan have this chance to learn about their amazing history.

Aunt Georgia’s dog Rosa (named after Rosa Park) is the best behaved dog I’ve ever met! I am usually scared of dogs due to a childhood trauma, but Rosa is so well behaved and sweet that I was afraid of her at all! We had a lovely walk with Georgia and Rosa in the woods after the tea time. Steve and Evan had a lot of fun playing throw and fetch with Rosa.

Upon returning to the castle, Steve and Evan had their froze pizza in the grand dinning room. 😂Okumaya devam et