Loch Doon

Today we went for a little Sunday drive to Loch Doon in our little Nissan we've named "Stinky". We passed by the town of Dalmellington, an old rusted out steam train, and fields full of sheep.
We were checking out Loch Doon to see if it's a suitable loch to swim in. Unlike other bodies of water over here, this loch doesn't have swans that will attack us. All it has is slippery algae covered rocks and World War 2 airplanes sunk in the bottom of it (which would probably make for interesting swimming).

However, the fact that it has a hydroelectric dam may not make it all that safe, but it's a big loch so it would be easy to avoid.
So anyway we went down and felt the water. It was warm but there were boys in the distance attempting to go in and screaming that it was far too cold. So we skipped some stones because there were some really nice flat rocks.... Paul decided to heave boulders like they did in Braveheart.

I walked away from the shore to check out the local fauna when I'm pretty sure I came upon some bog myrtle which is good for keeping the midges (like a mosquito) away. I was tempted to pick some up but decided to see if I could find any heather that had flowers on them. Well, I found loads of heather but all the blossoms I found on them were dead. I'm sure there will be some out in bloom later on.

We saw a few camping spots that we would like to try sometime soon. I would have loved to spend the day down there fishing, swimming and maybe roasting marshmellows over a campfire...... hopefully soon.
Just down the road is Doon Castle. Built in the fourteenth century, nobody knows too much about it other than that it successfully held off a siege by the English Army in 1335. Recently the castle has been moved up to higher land from it's island in Loch Doon to make room for the flood waters caused by the Hydro Dam.


We explored inside the castle. The kids liked climbing up the three stairs which was once a spiral staircase. They found a half eaten butterfly, a birds nest and a wasps nest. While walking around in the castle we realized that there were midges flying around us (probably should have picked up that bog myrtle after all) and a few of us got bit by them, but it didn't hurt it just left small dots. I found a nice window and it made me think of a certain book that I read recently.........
Oh ya and those are my wellies, they were Paul's brothers. Nobody wanted to be seen with me wearing them and I'm not sure why because I think they're great! They're also comfy to wear over my skinny jeans.

Paul measured himself up to the height of the fourteenth century Scotsman.