It was a drizzly day at Balmoral but we didn't complain and it didn't stop us from exploring all the types of dry stone work at the castle.
Norman Haddow showed us the dry stone retaining wall he and Willie Cassidy were working on last week. They had to stop because there was a mother Pied Whitetail with a nest of fledglings in the part of the wall that needed repairing. They have to wait until she has them all up and flying.
Everyone enjoyed visiting the famous sunken garden which Norman rebuilt some time ago also.The dry stone retaining walls create a very effective enclosure for both plants and garden visitors.
We then walked up the steep trail to Princess Beatrice's Cairn (basically a large dry stone Christmas tree)
We climbed further, hiking up the mossy path to Prince Albert's Cairn in all its solid splendor. This is a very impressive very large dry stone pyramid Queen Victoria had built in memory of her dearly beloved husband .
We went back down another way to the bothy where Norman stays when he's working there and sixteen of us had tea and fruitcake.
Today, if it's not too rainy we will see a repair being done on an estate wall.
