GO & STAY

People thought we were crazy embarking on a road trip from Sussex to Perthshire. Yes, the drive was long and flying might have been easier, but oh, how we were rewarded as we neared our destination; watching the land rise, skimming through the trees, past rivers and Lochs, until finally, we pulled into the grounds of family-run farm and hotel, Monachyle Mhor.

Our home for the next few days was Pilot Panther, a lovingly converted 1950’s showman’s wagon overlooking the dramatic lochs and mountains of Blaquhidder Glen. The views were endless, and the changing light, colours and reflections on the mirror-like loch held us captive throughout our stay.

The wagon’s main living space features a large, cosy sleigh bed, a small but well equipped kitchen and a log burner. I have to admit, I’d been a little concerned about how warm we would be at night, but the stove kept the whole place perfectly toasty.

Off the main space there’s a double bunkroom, with plenty of storage, and outside is a seating area, BBQ and fire-pit. The conveniences are just a minute’s walk away in the hotel, which is wonderful, stylish and welcoming. We felt we had the best of both worlds, being able to make use of the facilities, and then retreat to our own special space by the side of the loch.

We quickly fell in love with wagon-life. Time quiets and slows, making way for board games and reading, before an afternoon walk. We filled our bellies on sausages sizzled on sticks over the fire-pit, and snuggled to sleep listening to the crackle of the log burner.

SEE & DO

From fishing and biking to horse riding and hiking, as you’d imagine the opportunities to embrace the great outdoors are plentiful. For us though, it was an opportunity to slow down, and we spent our days taking gentle walks and drinking in the views, greeting the resident highland cattle we passed to-ing and fro-ing from the wagon.

There are plenty of walks for all levels straight from the hotel. We opted for a reasonably short one starting from the church in Balquhidder itself. The glen is the home of the MacLaren and MacGregor clans, and the most notorious MacGregor of them all, Rob Roy, is buried in the churchyard.

Starting out on our walk, we stopped at the waterfall where we were lucky enough to spot red squirrels. Continuing our climb, we passed beneath huge firs and hopped over streams, before emerging at the most incredible viewpoint looking out across the lochs, mountains and villages surrounding the glen. We kept an eye out for hawks and deer on our descent, but sadly, they were not to be seen on this occasion.

I’m rather fascinated by waterfalls, so was also excited to come across a beautiful spot tucked almost out of sight beside the entrance road. We climbed across huge boulders to watch the waters whoosh and swirl. And if you look back towards the road downstream, you’ll spot the moss covered arch of the original stone bridge – one might almost imagine fairies or water sprites meeting in that spot!

In the waning light and descending mist of the late afternoons, we returned to the comfort of the hotel and relaxed in the lounge, warming our fingers around cups of hot chocolate before dinner.

EAT & DRINK

Monachyle Mhor is something of a foodie retreat and I highly recommend treating yourself to a meal in the hotel. The ethos is on slow food, and it really is quite an experience. That said, they also cater happily to the simpler tastes of children. Breakfast was a delight with poached eggs on Mhor toast, but my favourite was the fresh, made-on-order scones, and the walnut cake we sampled in the afternoons.

The Mhor family have a range of establishments in the local area and we worked our way around them. The food was fantastic at every stop, and a real highlight of our stay.

We headed out for a morning in Callander where we found a good range of shops for stocking up on local produce. Here, you’ll also find Mhor Bread, a bakery, shop and tea-room, and a lovely stop for lunch. We also drove out to the Mhor84 Motel which was great for a more informal (but just as delicious) bite. The only Mhor venture we missed was Mhor Fish, a good enough reason to return I think.

Images by Sarah-Lou Francis

The post Slow living in a showman’s wagon in Perthshire appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

South of Edinburgh, nestled under the Pentland Hills, lies the Secret Herb Garden. It’s a place to retreat from the world, to relax and immerse yourself in the healing power of herbs and flowers.

Arriving, you are greeted by an old rusty blue VW Beetle, herbs spilling out over the top of the boot and bonnet. It’s a quirky focal point which attracts both kids and adults alike. You can even climb in amongst the greenery and pretend to take it for a spin!

The centre point of the garden is its large glasshouse. Here, you can while away the hours, curled up in one of the vintage sofas or armchairs, taking in the scents and sights of the plants all around you whilst enjoying a slice of home made cake, made with produce from the garden. Little ones can play in the teepee or mini yurt and every Sunday there is a herbal themed fairy walk.

I loved browsing in the vintage area, where beautiful pieces of furniture sat amongst quirky decorative items. But it was always about the plants for me, and it was so hard to choose from the simply amazing selection on offer. I left the garden inspired and weighed down with pots of herbs and edible flowers. It’s a very special place.

Images by Jen Chillingsworth

The post Herbs, flowers, cake and collectables at the Secret Herb Garden near Edinburgh appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Finding ourselves in Glasgow for the very first time, my daughter and I determined to explore the city and had just one day. Luckily, we happened upon a sunny day, but the itinerary had plenty of indoor stops, should the city’s reputation as the wettest in the UK manifest.

First we headed to the Tenement House, a fascinating time-capsule of life in the early 20^th-century. Miss Toward came to live in this four-room apartment in 1911 and changed little before her death in 1975. My daughter completed the check-list of to-her-unfamiliar items in record time, and we marvelled at the hole-in-the-wall bed in the kitchen, the over-sink mangle and the 100-year-old soap beside the foot-cranked sewing machine.

Fuelled by fudge, we walked through large leafy Kelvingrove Park to its Art Gallery and Museum. Our lunch was beautifully accompanied by an organ recital in the main hall. Then we galloped through the Glasgow Boys and Charles Rennie Mackintosh galleries, before focusing on Scottish wildlife and prehistoric fossils. And also took in Salvador Dali’s tremendous Christ on the Cross.

Next, Zaha Hadid’s soaringly angular Riverside Museum, an emporium for all things transportation, set on the Clyde. There were huge steam trains, a tall ship, a wall of cars, two underground train systems, a psychedelic campervan, trams, carriages, streets of shops illuminating bygone days such as a pawnbroker and saddlers, and a witty wheel of bicycles hanging from the ceiling. Outside, my daughter loved her first go at mountaineering around an obstacle course, and sitting on an oversize faux-grass-covered sofa.

Finally, we strolled through the City Centre: through George Square, along Buchanan Street complete with shoppers and buskers, making sure to catch the iconic Wellington Statue, never without a traffic cone!

Everywhere we saw pianos parked with “Play Me, I’m Yours”. We wholeheartedly recommend Glasgow!

Images by Nadine Mellor

The post A day exploring the wonderful galleries, museums and architecture of Glasgow appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

There’s something infinitely romantic about castle ruins: collapsed walls, moss and lichen creeping, clambering, into spaces which would have borne witness to warriors and defenders, gentry and servants. The ruins are a stone footprint of lives once lived.

Tantallon is the last-built of Scotland’s grand medieval castles and for 300 years it belonged to the powerful Earls of Douglas. It guards a rocky cliff-edge 30 miles east of Edinburgh where the widening Firth of Forth finally gives way to the North Sea. East Lothian is littered with castle ruins but none are more moody and majestic than Tantallon.

Like modern visitors, the inhabitants of the castle must have been in constant thrall to the violent waves visible from every window. This is a wild, exposed place, with gorgeous swirling coves beneath the battlements that Cromwell attacked in 1651.

Climb the spiral stairways past rooms once candlelit and still rushed with salt air, and emerge at the top to spectacular views. Cromwell and his invaders might have laid much of the original castle to waste but you’ll still find splendour, splendour everywhere.

Images courtesy of Beth, Stefan Klaas & kDamo

The post Glorious seascapes and majestic ruins at Tantallon Castle in East Lothian appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

There’s a tiny island in the Orkney archipelago called Lambholm. It measures less than one treeless, grassy, square mile and is one of four islands linked to the Orkney mainland by a series of stone causeways called the Churchill Barriers. The causeways were built during World War II to blockade and protect the eastern side of Scapa Flow, where the Royal Navy was at harbour. Lambholm was the site of an internment camp for Italian prisoners of war who were brought in to help build the causeways. When Italy capitulated in 1943, the terms of the POWs’ internment were eased and they requested a place to pray. They were given two Nissen huts, which they could use as a chapel and decorate as they wished.

The word ‘decorate’ hardly does justice to the exquisite retreat they created. Local people helped to gather materials for the craftsmen, salvaged from what they could find in such austere times. The wood from a shipwreck forms the tabernacle. There are candelabra fashioned from scrap metal and a lantern made from bully beef cans. Frescoes grace the bowed ceiling and walls, and the ornate whitewashed frontage stands in poignant contrast to the corrugated-steel-and-concrete structure behind.

The Italian Chapel looks across Scapa Flow towards islands to the north, west and south, slivers of land, low and undulating, barely risen from the sea. On a wild midwinter’s day it is a remote and unforgiving place – the wind steals your breath and the waves are whipped into a fury. But visit when the weather is calm and cool, and your breath will be stolen by a thousand acres of sky, the brilliant blue sea and this astonishing symbol of creativity and resourcefulness in the darkest of hours.

Our marvellous, modest kingdom is stuffed with history and beauty and inspirational stories; here is one very special place that everyone should visit at least once in their lives.

Images courtesy of Holly Hayes,  Mike Green, Fred Riley & John Haslam on Flickr

The post Finding beauty and inspiration at the Italian Chapel in the Orkney Islands appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Gosford Estate, a 30-minute drive along the coast from Edinburgh, is unlike the manicured grounds of other country houses; it opens its gates to explorers rather than visitors. In this rambling woodland there is no attempt to gild the lily and at no point are you herded around collectible sights and attractions. Here, you are roaming in a classic children’s adventure story, gasping as you pull the branches aside.

Leave the car park behind, day pass in hand (a wallet-friendly £1 from the Bothy), and wander past the old walled gardens; there is a flurry of chickens to the left and a flock of sheep to the right. Roe deer roam here too. Peel off the main path, over a tiny bridge and what barely constitutes a muddy track and eventually you’ll find yourself at a boating pond, where an abandoned curling house invites you to press your nose up against the dusty glass and imagine winter sports of the past when the pond would have frozen over. There’s a boatshed. An island favoured by roosting geese.

Back on the main path you stumble upon a mausoleum, colonnaded and grand, and, just beyond, an excellent Pooh sticks bridge with a fast-flowing stream beneath. Glorious Gosford House is tantalisingly close to this spot but is hidden from sight by the dense forest. Take another fork in the path and you come across two chocolate-box cottages; there is smoke rising from the chimneys so you know you shouldn’t peep in the windows, though perhaps if you did you’d find Mr and Mrs Beaver sitting down to a sticky marmalade roll.

This is nature unnurtured in the best possible way – no pomp and grandeur, but beauty and adventure everywhere. And because all good adventures end with the gang going home for supper, follow the trail into Gosford Bothy Farm Shop and Cafe and treat yourself to a wild boar burger or a bacon sandwich and a hot pot of tea.

Images by Anita Joseph and courtesy of Alan Thompson on Flickr

The post Exploring the wild wood at Gosford Estate in East Lothian appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Stretched languorously over a large site at the Shore in Leith, Mimi’s Bakehouse has been plumping up the waistlines of Edinburgh’s cakerati since 2010. There are often queues at the weekend, so book a table, plan for off-peak feasting, or be prepared to salivate for a few minutes before sitting down to decadence.

The Bakehouse elicits squeaks of joy from its loyal patrons, who come back again and again for serious fun and serious cake. Styled as a sort of bakery boudoir, Mimi’s interior is Montmartre kitsch meets Elizabeth Taylor’s tea table. Staff are bright and breezy, and no wonder, surrounded by so many tottering towers of sugarcraft.

Scones are as fluffy as a feather pillow and served with cream and homemade jam. The traybakes are generous and quirky, with sweetie-shop favourites such as Oreo cookies, Mars Bars, Crunchies and Mint Aero whipped into even more delectable confections. For a perfect, classic mouthful, opt for Mimi’s legendary caramel shortbread. My favourite? The red velvet brownie with a cheesecake swirl – so squidgy, so unctuous, it was love at first bite.

For those who find the ten-minute bus ride north from Princes Street too arduous, city-centre indulgence can be found at Mimi’s Picnic Parlour, a tiny offshoot on the Royal Mile opened in summer 2013, with just a few tables and the same groaning cake counter for takeaway delights. They’ll even give you a sixth cake free if you buy five. You couldn’t possibly… you shouldn’t really…

Images by Anita Joseph and STVphotos on Flickr

The post Serious fun and serious cake at Mimi’s Bakehouse in Edinburgh appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Positioned halfway up the A9, just before the scenery gets properly rugged and remote, the Storehouse of Foulis is an oasis of enormous cakes, gorgeous sea views and seal-spotting.

I’ve always thought that there aren’t many problems – or indeed endless car journeys with two restless infants – that a meringue the size and shape of a rugby ball can’t fix. The Storehouse serves generously-sized treats all day, starting with mega breakfasts, buckets of coffee and a spread of newspapers. Sweet scones are available from daybreak and there’s a savoury version to go along with your homemade soup at lunchtime.

Staff have sunny smiles and move like the clappers, which is just as well because this place is always busy. Locals congregate here for a gossip and a bun, travellers weep with delight at the array of bakes (pistachio cake, key lime pie, and, yes, those meringues, on last inspection), and wildlife enthusiasts fuel up before descending on the pebbly beach with their binoculars in search of waterfowl and bottlenose dolphins.

There’s outdoor seating with uninterrupted views across the Cromarty Firth to the Black Isle if the weather is kind. There’s a shop selling produce fresh from the farm next door as well as from hand-picked UK producers. There’s a lovely playpark for little ones who need to stretch their legs. And there’s even a museum exhibiting the history of this neck of the Scottish woods. By the time you climb back into your car and continue north on the long and winding road, you’ll be hale, hearty, heavy, and the happiest car-load on the A9.

Image courtesy of Beryl Baxter

The post Grand cakes and even grander scenery at the Storehouse of Foulis in the Scottish Highlands appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Edinburgh has green spaces that are more glamorous, but it’s the Meadows, arranged in a half-moon around the southern end of the University of Edinburgh campus, that stills my soul, even now, a good decade after I lived and studied in this part of the city.

In spring the paths are thick with blossom. In summer the grass is laden with students making a half-hearted stab at their reading lists. Autumn is glorious as the park falls into a riot of gold and red, and in winter there is a sparse serenity to this expanse of green, deep in the heart of the bustly capital.

To the south-west of the park lies Bruntsfield, long the home of pocket-sized restaurants and independent retailers. There’s a fantastic bookshop at Holy Corner, a chocolatier and a string of quirky boutiques to browse.

For a perfect morning, dawdle round the shops at Bruntsfield and then wander across Bruntsfield Links towards the Meadows in the footsteps of Muriel Spark (the author lived on Bruntsfield Place, and nearby James Gillespie’s is thought to have been inspiration for Marcia Blaine School for Girls in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie). The view north reveals the spikes and spires of the Royal Mile rising above the sandstone Victorian tenements.

All paths lead to Middle Meadow Walk, and halfway up lies Peter’s Yard, a gorgeous glass-and-wood Swedish bakery selling cardamom-scented pastries, artisan breads and fine strong coffee. Take a cappuccino to the window and watch the hopeful, the learned and the purposeful stride by. It’s a good place to ruminate on the fact that wonderful parks needn’t be stuffed with blooms or curiosities – all they need to offer is air, space and perhaps a decent cinnamon bun.

Images by Anita Joseph

The post Peace, contemplation, coffee and cardamom-scented pastries at the Meadows and Peter’s Yard in Edinburgh appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Tucked away from the madding crowds of Leith just outside Edinburgh is The Roseleaf, a wonderful pub that somehow, I don’t know how, manages to retain the atmosphere of an old school, unpretentious pub while serving some of the best cocktails in the city in mismatched vintage china. The cocktails, with names like Rose Water O’Leith, are served in teapots. They call them pot-tails, and the world is certainly a better place for cocktails served in teapots.

The pub is an organic mix of old boys having a pint, diners – The Roseleaf serves great food – and the cocktail set who want interesting drinks without the pretence. It is a hidden gem in the city, reasonably priced and a testament to a British pub that has moved on to accommodate another breed of customers but without losing integrity. Quirky, welcoming and one of a kind.

Images courtesy of Duke Studios

The post Old school charm and teapots of cocktails at The Roseleaf in Edinburgh appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

My first job when I moved to St Andrews under the guise of being an arts student was to find the perfect cafe to sip my earl grey and enjoy the creative ambience. Luckily, I soon found Bibi’s cafe on North Street, which fitted the bill perfectly while also managing to cater for romantic lunches and family dinners.

For all aspiring poets and authors, each table comes with a very thoughtful touch – a rolled up poem in a jar to help get the creative juices flowing.  If that doesn’t do the trick, then I certainly recommend the gorgeous cupcakes for a sugar rush to the brain! Or if it’s early in the day then the bacon and blueberry pancakes are a must. On a healthier note, they also do a delicious salad and my favourite snack is their humus, tapenade and warm pitta.

Image courtesy of Bibi’s

The post Poems and pancakes at Bibi’s Cafe in St Andrews appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.

Set amongst the rugged Scottish Borders, midway between Selkirk and Moffat, is St Mary’s Loch – my favourite place to stroll, throw stones into the water and clear my head. As we pull the car up, I can feel myself start to relax and breath slower. No matter what season, the thing that hits you is the fresh, clean air, and although it’s a favourite and familiar spot, it’s never the same. The colours and light are always changing.

My daughters run straight from the car down to the water, exploring the shoreline and jumping off the small grass banks. They venture under the stone bridge if they’re feeling brave, always on the look out for a troll, shrieking when Daddy jumps out on them.

It’s not really about taking a proper walk, more a gentle stroll, yet I always leave feeling refreshed, and like I’ve earned a cup of tea and a sugary bite.

On our way home we stop at nearby Innerleithen and, depending on the weather, pop into The Whistle Stop Café for a warming hot chocolate or cool down with an ice cream from the busy Caldwell’s Ice Cream parlour.

Image courtesy of Hugh Simmons on Flickr

The post Troll spotting and hot chocolate at St Mary’s Loch in the Scottish Borders appeared first on This Is Your Kingdom.