About Drum Castle
Based in Scotland, Drum's battlements, medieval square tower, and enormous additions are all marked with the sweep of 700 years of history. In 1323, Robert the Bruce bestowed the Royal Forest and Tower of Drum to the Irvine family. Later, a Jacobean mansion was built, and the lower hall was transformed to a library in the Victorian period, now holding approximately 4,000 volumes.
Drum Castle is also home to a magnificent Garden of Historic Roses, divided into quadrants that chronicle how roses were grown from the 17th through the 20th centuries. The castle is surrounded by an ancient oak forest, which supports red kites, roe deer, red squirrels, and badgers and provides a feeling of continuity over time.
It's no wonder we wanted to visit, right?
The Grounds
We started off our day by going for a walk round the outside of the castle, taking in the vast grounds and the architecture. Spotting a tiny little cathedral next to the castle just off the garden. Travel around the grounds was a little difficult, as we had our buggy with us and the paths are made up of a deep scattering of stones, so we did sink a few times. But it's nothing our all-terrain buggy couldn't handle.
Walking the trails
We decided we would walk their “Farmland Trail”, a small 1.5km trail that ran from the castle, around the walled rose garden, and through some adjacent farmland. When we set off we quickly came across a beautiful pond, very clearly home to some local frogs, and some gorgeous scenery. Just round the corner from it was the entrance to the walled garden of historic roses – which unfortunately was closed at this time.
We figured we would just carry on with our journey and continue on the farmland trail, but unfortunately the gate was padlocked shut as there were too many fallen trees due to the recent “Storm Malik” and “Storm Corrie”. Our trips was cut shockingly short, but we did spot a lovely little wildlife garden on the route back up to the castle. We did try to go up to the adventure play park at the other side of the car park, but again that was shut.
Lunch time
We decided to cut our losses and head to the Main of Drum, a garden centre – that is about a mile from the castle – where we could grab some lunch. We opted for the chicken fillets and steak burger, rounding off with an absolutely delicious strawberry tart.
Did we have a good day? Yes we did. But should we have travelled far to get here we would have been extremely disappointed as practically all of the castle grounds were shut. Drum castle is still a beautiful castle, and when all of the storm damage is finally cleared up I am sure it will be a lovely place to venture for the day.
