Black Barony , bees, balloons and Lamas - yes!!

Turned out to be an interesting day - or I think so.

On my "To Do" list was a visit to the Black Barony Hotel, Eddleston , to have a look at the unusual "Stone Map of Scotland" designed by a Polish map maker during the war when the Polish forces were stationed at the hotel. On our way up the drive we met the black Lamas, lovely beasties, looks to be a full family.

Nearby were, what is apparently a rare sight at the moment, namely bee hives, as bees were dying off throughout the country last year.

Up to the front door with this unusual saying - "Prepare to meet thy God", not sure what it means - but how appropriate is it for couples about to be married!!!

We headed into the estate which is lovely, nice walks, ariel runways, rope swings, nature trails, etc, and then there is the map - sited in a large pond, it must have been quite a sight when it was built during the war, surrounded by water, a near perfect map of Scotland. Sadly it has been allowed to fall into disrepair and when we spoke with one of the receptionists in the hotel she was saying that the group who were trying to get the pond restored were meeting with no success in their efforts to get funding. The Hotel, run by the DeVere Group is very nice, it has a tie in with the Scottish Ambulance Service who at one stage had sole use of the premises but now seem to have a sharing arrangement.

Heading out we could see some wind turbines in the distance and in this setting they are a serious blight on the countryside.


Home and in the evening we just missed the hot air balloon taking off from the playing field over the road, with the wind from the west it well be over the North Sea by now.