Our Anniversary Trip to Scotland: Part 1

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. We went on an anniversary trip the end of April - last year was our 35th but it was all about our daughter's wedding last year. We opted to wait until this year to take a trip and decided on Scotland! Since I have a ton of pictures, I am going to break this down into 3 posts.

We began our trip in England so we could visit Bramhall and Bramall Hall and Beatrix Potter's farm so we flew into Manchester on a Monday. We rented a car and off we went! (Bruce did a good job driving on the "wrong" side of the road).

Remember: drive on the left!

We started off driving to Chester for our first night (Bramall Hall wasn't opened on Monday so we knew we needed something to do that day). We stayed at Chester House Guest House, a really nice B&B.  Loved our room and Ray was a super host!

The town has lots of Tudor style buildings. It was fun to walk around.

We saw this wonderful old cathedral. 

Check out this door - very Lord of the Rings looking, don't you think?

Oh my the ceiling! Stunning! (oops, not supposed to take pictures inside) 😳

We spied some gargoyles too - this one looks like a dog.

There's an old Roman wall around the old part of town. We saw this bridge while walking on the wall. Isn't it just so cool?

The next morning, we headed back toward Manchester/Stockport and went to a really cool old mill that is being used as artists studios - Vernon Mill Art Studios.

We met up with a friend of our neighbor's at the farm, Lindi Kerwin, and she gave us a tour of the mill. We were a little silly. 

Lindi was super fun. I really enjoyed seeing her art and getting to know her.

From there, we headed to Bramhall and Bramall Hall. (They dropped the "h" from the Hall's name as it is closer to the original spelling of the family name). 

 Bruce asked if we got a discount on our tickets since our last name is Bramhall. "No", Mr. Ticket Man said without cracking a smile. LOL, we thought it was funny even if he did not. We posed in front.

Stained glass with family crest - the Bramall's are the lions and the Davenport's (family the Bramall's married into) are the chevrons.

 This room was awesome. It had painted tapestries on the walls and that ceiling, oh my! If I remember correctly, this room dates to the 1500's.

One of the bedrooms.

Another bedroom - this was the "Master" and more Victorian in style.

The housekeeper's room:

The kitchen:

The house was first mentioned in 1033. Wow. You could see different time periods from medieval to Victorian. Unfortunately, it was raining and we got there with only an hour before closing so we weren't able to wander outside. But the house was spectacular! And with that, I'll close for this post.

Hey! If you've stuck with me, congratulations. I will post the 2nd part next week - it will cover the Lake District/Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm and our first day in Scotland.