Anchors Away!!!

Today we decided to take a little trip to the McCallum bagpipe factory to see where they made Paul's bagpipes. Paul has now started to play more of his bagpipe chanter again, his mouth is now starting to feel better after the extensive dental work he's had done, hopefully only one more dentist appointment and then he'll only be in for regular check-ups. So anyway, we went to McCallum Bagpipes and we saw the factory. Workers were in the middle of moving some equipment so we didn't get to see too much. Paul got talking to someone about making kilts and it's given him new inspiration to finish his own kilt and fine tune his sewing skills because proper kilt making is hard to come by, even in Scotland.

On the way back we decided to stop by Dundonald Castle for a bit of a walk around. Artifacts have been found on the land dating back to prehistoric times. There's stone tools, medeval sewing needles, various coins, and iron pots all on display in the visitor centre. They say that this land had a small village on it, then a traditional Motte and Bailey, a tower house and castle that is currently the ruins there today.

The ruins have been somewhat restored for visitors with a wooden walkway(in the picture) and stairs to the top floor which is now open to the elements but is currently getting work done to it, so a big section was blocked off.

The dungeons and pit were open for us to go see as well. We all climbed the ladder into the pit and I saw this huge spider in a dark corner with an egg sack about the same size as it so we all decided to make the climb back out of the place.

This is the picture of Paul inside the pit, sorry it's blurry but I wanted to show how dark and scary it was down there(the place is lit by a light, no light from outside goes down there)
After the castle we took a walk around Irvine. We crunched mussel shells under our shoes and breathed in the scent of salty ocean air with the hint of roses from the wild rosehip bushes. Many sail boats and fishing boats were floating around, as well as retired boats awaiting restoration by the maritime museum.

Huge ship anchors sat on the side of the road as well. No explaination on what ships they were on either.


Then we stumbled across a scotsman and his horse overlooking the ships and decided to get a picture taken with them. I like his hat!


Now I know how much everyone loved the funny signs post, so for your viewing pleasure I have included a sign that I find funny but are posted all over the motorways here. Imagine driving along at 60+ miles per hour and coming across a road warning sign like this. No deer crossing signs here, we get warned about elderly people crossing the road.