Glamis (pronounced Glahms) Castle is the home of the Earls of Strathmore, and best known as the childhood home of the Queen Mother (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, 1992-2002). So we decided to pay our respects to the Queen mother who gave birth to the longest reigning monarch in British history and supported her husband, King George VI, through WWII, as seen in the movie The Kings Speech. Driving to it on a tree-lined driveway invokes oohs & aahs. It’s what I think of when I think of a Castle. It’s palatial with its turrets and beautifully manicured grounds and gardens. Since it is a lived in Castle you can only see the beautiful rooms with a guided tour. Princess Margaret was born in the Castle (the first royal to be born in Scotland in 300 years). The tour was kind of hokey at times, with stories of ghosts but there were lots of fun facts about the inhabitants of the past & artwork filled with anomalies. For instance, there’s a painting of Jesus’ resurrection 1st century) where he’s wearing a Dutch hat from the 16th century. And 1 earl had himself painted with leather body armour that looked like a Greek gods body. One interesting thing we learned was how the expression “top drawer” came about. Every Monday the families clothes were put in the dresser starting at the bottom drawer for Monday. Sunday’s clothes (the best and fanciest) were in the top drawer. Apparently, that’s how the term top drawer signifying the best came about.

There’s talk that Glamis inspired Shakespeares setting for the play, Macbeth. There’s wood carvings from Macbeth on a walk around the palace.

After the tour we walked around the grounds and took in the Italian gardens and the memorial to Princess Margaret as well as the walled garden.

The rest of the group wanted to take in a new museum in a Dundee, which Vic & I passed on. So we went to a seaside town, Crail, to scope out a dinner venue.