Battering Rams at Duncarron

This week is sponsored by the letter B, for Battering Ram.

My birthday is the start of the long haul birthday run, and this weekend has been a busy start to the celebrations! After a very quiet day Friday (my actual birthday) I had a social distanced visit from a friend who I haven't seen since my visit to Liverpool in February. As always it was like we'd only seen each other yesterday and the evening passed far too quickly.

Saturday was a trip to Perth (now my friend has figured out how easy the train from Inverness is to get there, I imagine Perth will become a regular feature for the blog!) and we repeated the unbeatable pairing of first Brewdog and then Brew and Chew. We walked South Inch a few times and then it was back home for games night with some of my hubbies work colleagues who are moving into the friends bracket of our lives. I got the new Villainous Marvel expansion and it was brilliant (more so because I won!).

I had spotted Duncarron Medieval Village being advertised on a dog friendly page on Facebook, and instantly book marked it. How did I not know this place existed, let alone that they allowed dogs? My family get together day was sussed now I had a venue all the of the fur neices and nephews would be welcome, and those without fur would enjoy too. The price of entry is currently reduced to £5 an adult owing to Covid not allowing all the usual things to be happening, and I can honestly say that we got our monies worth.

Visually, the village is stunning. Even in the rain it was great to wonder about. There was plenty of photo ops for the humans and loads of space for the dogs. We had the full complement of the Scottish clan: brother with Maisie, big sister with all the family including Wee Ben and my mum. Big sister was late as always, so we had had our picnic and were enjoying a weapons display when they arrived.

The weather had begun to improve by this point, which was a blessing. We swapped over and had another walk about before showing them all the fun things we had discovered. Then we walked around Carron reservoir to let the dogs run off lead for a bit. A more eclectic pack you will not meet. Wee Ben never leaves sight. Missy roams off seeking prey and Maisie bulldozes in circles between the dogs and humans and the next muddy puddle she can find!

Half the party came back for cake and the other half had to get sorted for school. I've been practicing madeleines with ever growing success and they were the perfect choice in our current world - no blowing out candles, no touching the cake when slicing it - simply scattered out for people to take what they wanted, and touch only what they were going to eat. 

A very nice finish to the weekend!