Culzean Castle

Yesterday, I decided to set my alarm for 6.30am and head down to the rail station here in Edinburgh to catch the train to Maybole, which is about 5 miles from Culzean Castle. I had to go through Glasgow, Ayr and then finally stop at Maybole. So I had two changes that I had to make for trains. After a couple of hours of being on the train, I finally arrived to Maybole and started walking down the road towards Culzean Castle. It was not hard to find at all since the one road I had to walk on was the B7023 (Culzean Road). The walk was not too bad, as there was a sidewalk to walk on. However, the sidewalk soon ended and I had to spend the remainder of the walk in lane of oncoming traffic. At one point, I came around a bend in the road and there was police tape tied to a good majority of the surrounding trees with various bits and pieces of a vehicle or vehicles. I'm guessing there was a fatal accident at that sharp bend. I was nervous going around it walking! So for about 3 miles, it was quite unnerving walking on the carriageway. I walked past this cheese farm that smelled horrible! It smelled of rotten milk and farm animal waste... About 2 miles past the farm, I finally reached Culzean Castle. I walked down the the ticketing booth and this lady stepped out from the inside and said it was £3 to get in. I handed her my card and she told me the card machine was broken. Unfortunately I had failed to remember to bring cash with me. She let me in for free though, which was extremely nice of her. The castle was closed for the winter but the castle grounds were open to the public. I took some amazing photos of the castle! I found a path that went down to the beach as well. I walked across some very slippery rocks and managed to get far enough from the castle to get a nice shot. I have posted all of these photos, so go check them out! After my hike, I stopped at the restaurant and got a sandwich and bag of crisps to hold me over for the 2 hour hike back to Maybole. It was 3.30pm and the sun was going down FAST. So I decided that it would be a good time to head back before the sun goes down because walking on the carriageway would be quite sketchy in the dark! I did have a flashlight just in case though. I started the hike back to Maybole and arrived at around 4.45pm and saw that I had just missed the 4.30pm train. The next train wasn't until 5.56pm and there was NOTHING around other than this TINY food store that could probably fit about 10 people max at a time. I basically just walked around acting like I was going to buy some things so that I could keep out of the cold. It was so cold yesterday and my hands were so numb from standing outside. The only thing I could think about was the warm train and being back at the flat in the nice warmth. I finally got the train from Maybole to Ayr, then had to switch to catch the train to Glasgow Central, which felt like the longest train ride ever! I was on the train for almost two hours from Ayr to Edinburgh! I got home and collapsed on the bed. All in all, it was a gorgeous hike, a gorgeous castle and I would do it again (just in warmer weather next time). Remember to check out the photos if you haven't already!

Culzean Castle 2011