I think what makes your videos so appealing is that, as a viewer, it’s like being there, it’s like touring and visiting places, even though we haven’t been doing much of that lately. Nicely chosen music. I learned a lot about Walter Scott.
We LOVED Abbotsford so so much, it's such a stunning house and feels like an incredible home. Floors Castle looks incredible would love to see it, beautiful architecture.
Yes I agree... the “family” story behind Abbotsford makes it even better. 💖 With your background in British literature, I’m not surprised it was a place you had to visit! Floors was so opulent inside, I really wished I could film!!! And one of the most interesting things was the displays about the aristocracy and the ceremonial robes of the Dukes. So fascinating to see how they lived!
Thanks, friend! These travel videos take forever to edit, but it is wonderful to have the "video scrapbook" of your travels. I know you understand, because you are such an avid traveler too!
Thrilled to have learnt more about Sir Walter Scott.Must visit on my next Scottish tour. Those rhododendron are gorgeous. If I had a garden I'd have both. When I see fuchsias I always think of my paternal grandmother. Lovely memory. delightful gardens and such a colorful display. Enjoyed this a lot. 🙏 🇳🇱 🙋♀️ 🇳🇿have a great weekend. 🍾🥂
What a beautiful video flowers, castles wow! Ive never seen such beautiful rhododendrons!!! The castles are incredible, can you imagine calling either one home? Stunning! ~Cara 😊
Those castles are too big. Just give me a cosy gatehouse 😉. Cragside is known for its rhododendrons, and that will be a fun video to publish. There were literally thousands upon thousands of them! A forest full!😳
Thank you! Thankfully we have had overall good luck with the weather... but yes, there are occasionally a few rain drops! Have a great weekend! Cheers XX Dara
I like the lighter magenta rhododendron, it is a much closer match to your jacket. Love all those rhododendrons; they are spectacular! Scott’s house was lovely, not over done, but very comfortable. Too bad you couldn’t take picture inside Floors; it is HUGE! The gardens there look amazing! ❤️
I was SO annoyed when we walked into Floors and they said “absolutely no photography!” It was WAY over the top, unlike Abbotsford. Both very interesting to visit!
@@MagentaOtterTravels We experienced the same thing when visiting Royal Brighton Pavilion. Every other place we visited we could take pictures, but not Brighton, which is WAY over the top too. It was even too much for Queen Victoria, so she sold it! I can understand no photos to prevent light damage, but supposedly some places do this so no one can make money selling the photos, except them!
@@ruthgoebel723 what I have observed is that castles like that or manor houses, where the family still lives in them, they don’t like people taking photos. Too bad 😕
@@MagentaOtterTravels Chatsworth, Burghley, Stoneleigh Abbey, Sudeley Castle are still family homes, (the tours do not go into the private areas), but pictures are allowed. Brighton is part of the National Trust (no one lives there) and pictures are strictly forbidden. I don’t know what criteria is used to determine photos or no photos. (It does make it hard if one is making a scrapbook of one’s trip!)
A very tastefully produced video. We are very fond of the Borders area of Scotland. I visited Abbotsford back in the 1980’s. At that time the house was still lived in by Scott’s descendants - two sisters who were his great great great granddaughters with the family name Maxwell-Scott. We were a small group and had tea with the two ladies in the sitting room. They showed us around and it was very interesting but my abiding memory was that it was quite untidy at that time. I don’t think it was fully on the tourist map then. Abbotsford was a family home until 2004. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Thank you so much for your comment! I am absolutely fascinated that you visited Abbotsford and had a private tour done by Scott family members! What a great memory!💖 most men are homes that we visit these days are very tidy and well-kept. Except have you ever visited Chastleton? It’s the one home that I know of where the national trust has purposely preserved it in its unkempt state to show what a grand home looks like when a family can’t afford to restore and maintain it. It was definitely a house with interesting features and stories! Showing a different side of life in large stately family homes.
@@MagentaOtterTravels Thank you for your reply. I haven’t visited Chastleton but I have visited other houses where deteriorating rooms have been preserved rather than restored. For instance, peeling wallpaper has been stabilised but not replaced. English Heritage seem to adopt that idea more so than National Trust. It is all part of the history of the buildings. I note you have an upcoming video about Cragside. I look forward to seeing that. I haven’t been there for a few years.
@@MadameMinima sorry😪, not even Richard Branson Virgingalatic 🚀 would of got you here in time, you'll have to have a nutritional veggie dish to make up for the loss and some sort of dessert 🍨 😋
So cool! You hear and read about these people but when you actually visit a place where they stayed and really dive into their history it’s a completely different experience. Thanks for the tour and the history lesson 😃
So much information and knowledge, great narration. A lovely part of Scotland and Floors Castle looked absolutely stunning; I must say though..... so did that scone! Really enjoyed that, just what we needed on this windy and rainy night. Hope you are both well, take care.
Lovely to hear from you! I hope you and Claire are well. Funny you mention windy, because we are in Wales at the moment, and it is very windy here! We were supposed to go on a boat tour to Skomer island yesterday to see the puffins. Something we have been trying to do for 10 years together. But the winds were too high and the boat tour got canceled. Hopefully next year! We have been spending the summer running around visiting all kinds of places. I have been gathering content that I’ll be editing and uploading for months! I really enjoyed watching your videos of Wales. We have loved being here, but are headed back home to Cheltenham later today.❤️🏴
@@MagentaOtterTravels same to you, great to hear from you as well. Sounds like you're still having fun in windy Wales. I spent a few years in Wales and it was windy most of the time. Shame about the boat trip, that would have been good to watch; still, as you say, you'll have to go back and do it next year. You could do a review on Welsh Cake and jam, it's making my belly rumble just thinking about them......... like most of your videos do lol. It's great that you have managed to get loads of footage for future vids, fingers crossed we don't go into another lockdown, but if we did, you'll still be able to push content out, brilliant. Hope you are both well and safe journey back home. Hmmmm, we must do the Cotswolds ourselves soon. Take care and love to you both. ♥️👍🍰
@@adventurevanfreddie I will be pumping out Cotswolds videos all winter long! LOL Hopefully our paths can cross next summer! Would be fun to meet you guys in person... We have really enjoyed having meet ups with other TH-cam creators and social media friends this summer!
Such beautiful buildings, and gardens. Particularly Floors, that was breathtaking. Floors even knocks the Queen mothers Castle of Mey into a cocked hat. And hopefully no blood was spilt in the filming of this episodes drone footage. Very good by the way :)
@@MagentaOtterTravels interesting. 'to knock into a cocked hat' i believe originated in America. To put it in an English idiom 'Floors pee's all over Castle of Mey'. Basically, much better, grander, than. Though you probably got that :)
Thanks this is very near where I live Floors castle in Kelso is the seat of the Kerr clan/family. My partner fishes St Mary's Loch which is near innerleithan. Please visit East Lothian and Midlothian youll absolutely love it. Lots of places with connections to Mary Queen of Scots . Amazing historical sites. Also close to Edinburgh too!
I was really sorry that we didn’t get to spend more time in Scotland! Every place I go, I always say we have to go back again and stay longer next time😂... This is why we plan to spend every summer in Britain as long as we are healthy enough to do so. 🙌
Abbotsford is really lovely, well worth seeing, and can be reached in under an hour from Edinburgh by a frequent train service to Tweedbank. The house is about a 30 minute walk from the station alongside the River Tweed.
Well, THAT would be a lovely walk!! I love the River Tweed! Did you see my Peebles video? I'll link below. Thanks for suggesting the trip from Edinburgh, a place that many people visit. We loved these homes and just wished we had been there longer so we could have seen others, like Traquair! Next time... ;-) Here is our Peebles video, th-cam.com/video/Vhpn6DP_UfI/w-d-xo.html and if you like gardens and amazing homes I hope you check out our Cragside video as well: th-cam.com/video/GJldoOPYxg0/w-d-xo.html Cheers! XX Dara
Another compellingly watchable video, with bags of fascinating historical narrative, and some great photography. Really interesting! It ended all too soon! I suspect you knew the thistle (most of these flowers are in the family Asteraceae) is the familiar emblem of Scotland. Do enjoy the rest of your tour of the country.
Thanks so much for the kind words. We really enjoyed our time in Scotland. And we JUST got home a few minutes ago from Wales! We are packing a lot in this summer!!
Beautiful job, Dara! So interesting and gorgeous. And I'm assuming all the aerial shots were thanks to Ian's drone talents?? Despite the cloudy skies, this was all just wonderful to watch. You mentioned wanting some of those flowers in your own garden -- but I bet the Texas weather is not quite the same as Scotland's, which might make a difference! :-) Looking forward to more travels with you guys next Friday!!
To be clear, I have no garden. Either in Texas or Cheltenham! I just enjoy other people’s 😊 Yes, Ian did lots of drone photography in the Scottish borders. That was right before he lost the drone! Thankfully he retrieved it and we have been able to continue filming 🙏
These beautiful flowers are called "Peonies". Here in Luxembourg we traditionally use these to decorate the altar in the church at Pentecost. As peonies normally bloom around Pentecost.
There was a famous event horse in the 1980’s called Sir Wattie ridden by Scotsman lan Stark who was owned by a descendant of Sir Walter Scott after whom he was named.
It’s weird at first, but after decades my husband is used to it. But it’s always an adjustment whenever we first arrive here, or first get back to Texas!
@@wencireone hey, I think TH-cam is glitching again. You made a comment about how I needed to get the flower identification app. But when I clicked on it to respond it disappeared! Do you still see it?
Have you ever been to Urquhart Castle ? I know there is nearly nothing left of it but depending on your answer, i'll tell you my reasoning behind asking ;)
I haven't! The last time I was in Loch Ness was long before you were born ;-) I looked at a photo online and it's still got quite a bit there. I've visited some castle ruins recently which REALLY have nearly nothing left. OK, tell me your story... I wanna hear :-)
I think what makes your videos so appealing is that, as a viewer, it’s like being there, it’s like touring and visiting places, even though we haven’t been doing much of that lately. Nicely chosen music. I learned a lot about Walter Scott.
Thanks so much, Aidan! Very nice of you to say! 😊
That architecture is out of this world! So classic and cool!
We agree! My husband is a huge architecture fan so that is one of our favourite things about exploring Britain!❤️🇬🇧
We LOVED Abbotsford so so much, it's such a stunning house and feels like an incredible home. Floors Castle looks incredible would love to see it, beautiful architecture.
Yes I agree... the “family” story behind Abbotsford makes it even better. 💖 With your background in British literature, I’m not surprised it was a place you had to visit! Floors was so opulent inside, I really wished I could film!!! And one of the most interesting things was the displays about the aristocracy and the ceremonial robes of the Dukes. So fascinating to see how they lived!
Thank you for sharing...love all of this beautiful history paired with beautiful visuals
Thanks, friend! These travel videos take forever to edit, but it is wonderful to have the "video scrapbook" of your travels. I know you understand, because you are such an avid traveler too!
I really enjoyed hearing all about Sir Walter Scott and and being shown his gorgeous home, Abbotsford.
Thanks so much! It was good for me to get a bit of culture!!
Thrilled to have learnt more about Sir Walter Scott.Must visit on my next Scottish tour. Those rhododendron are gorgeous. If I had a garden I'd have both. When I see fuchsias I always think of my paternal grandmother. Lovely memory. delightful gardens and such a colorful display. Enjoyed this a lot. 🙏 🇳🇱 🙋♀️ 🇳🇿have a great weekend. 🍾🥂
Thanks friend 😊! Have a great weekend!
The gardens and grounds are magnificent too! I love the deep pink magenta Rhododendrons best of all!
They were exquisite!
@@MagentaOtterTravels I understand Ian likes gardens, I hope he was impressed.
Awesome!! Beautiful job my friend, Greetings from Mexico
Hola! 👋
I live in Texas when I’m not in England. 😉
What a beautiful video flowers, castles wow! Ive never seen such beautiful rhododendrons!!!
The castles are incredible, can you imagine calling either one home? Stunning!
~Cara 😊
Those castles are too big. Just give me a cosy gatehouse 😉. Cragside is known for its rhododendrons, and that will be a fun video to publish. There were literally thousands upon thousands of them! A forest full!😳
Soo much information thank you for sharing 👍😍👌✨
Thanks 😊
What a well presented /filmed video .Dara ,i was captivated .
You are so sweet! I’m experimenting with new filming styles this summer 😉
Mmm...lunch looks healthy AND tasty! 👍💚
I have to do something to compensate for the excessive amount of sticky toffee putting!
Your videos coming out on Friday are a great way to kick off the weekend! Appreciate you braving the elements for us! Great tour!
What a sweet thing to say! 💖 Weather today here in Wales was rubbish! I hope you are keeping well and having safe travels wherever you are 😉
Nice editing, again, always worth the wait 👍
You are too kind, good sir!
beautiful tour!
Thanks so much!
Sun and rain, yep, sounds like Scotland! Abbotsford looks impressive, brimming with history! Thanks for sharing guys😎👍
Thank you! Thankfully we have had overall good luck with the weather... but yes, there are occasionally a few rain drops! Have a great weekend! Cheers XX Dara
I like the lighter magenta rhododendron, it is a much closer match to your jacket. Love all those rhododendrons; they are spectacular! Scott’s house was lovely, not over done, but very comfortable. Too bad you couldn’t take picture inside Floors; it is HUGE! The gardens there look amazing! ❤️
I was SO annoyed when we walked into Floors and they said “absolutely no photography!” It was WAY over the top, unlike Abbotsford. Both very interesting to visit!
@@MagentaOtterTravels We experienced the same thing when visiting Royal Brighton Pavilion. Every other place we visited we could take pictures, but not Brighton, which is WAY over the top too. It was even too much for Queen Victoria, so she sold it! I can understand no photos to prevent light damage, but supposedly some places do this so no one can make money selling the photos, except them!
@@ruthgoebel723 what I have observed is that castles like that or manor houses, where the family still lives in them, they don’t like people taking photos. Too bad 😕
@@MagentaOtterTravels Chatsworth, Burghley, Stoneleigh Abbey, Sudeley Castle are still family homes, (the tours do not go into the private areas), but pictures are allowed. Brighton is part of the National Trust (no one lives there) and pictures are strictly forbidden. I don’t know what criteria is used to determine photos or no photos. (It does make it hard if one is making a scrapbook of one’s trip!)
love all the history on Sir Walter Scott. I never knew much about him.
I had no idea he was so influential!
Everytime I see your countryside shots I imagine the air is so clean!
It is! I don’t even think about pollution here
A very tastefully produced video. We are very fond of the Borders area of Scotland. I visited Abbotsford back in the 1980’s. At that time the house was still lived in by Scott’s descendants - two sisters who were his great great great granddaughters with the family name Maxwell-Scott. We were a small group and had tea with the two ladies in the sitting room. They showed us around and it was very interesting but my abiding memory was that it was quite untidy at that time. I don’t think it was fully on the tourist map then. Abbotsford was a family home until 2004. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Thank you so much for your comment! I am absolutely fascinated that you visited Abbotsford and had a private tour done by Scott family members! What a great memory!💖 most men are homes that we visit these days are very tidy and well-kept. Except have you ever visited Chastleton? It’s the one home that I know of where the national trust has purposely preserved it in its unkempt state to show what a grand home looks like when a family can’t afford to restore and maintain it. It was definitely a house with interesting features and stories! Showing a different side of life in large stately family homes.
@@MagentaOtterTravels Thank you for your reply. I haven’t visited Chastleton but I have visited other houses where deteriorating rooms have been preserved rather than restored. For instance, peeling wallpaper has been stabilised but not replaced. English Heritage seem to adopt that idea more so than National Trust. It is all part of the history of the buildings. I note you have an upcoming video about Cragside. I look forward to seeing that. I haven’t been there for a few years.
To answer your question, I love the dark magenta more :) beautiful flowers
Thanks Ash!! 💖 The flowers were all so beautiful!
Your lunch looks so yuuuuuuuuummy!!!! Now I am hungry. Showing such videos in the late afternoon is not fair!
Not to sure about looking yummy, but fish and chips tonight 😋
@@wencireone for me as a vegan this looks yummy...but we can share you take the fish and I take the chips 👍🤣
@@MadameMinima I'll get a large portion 👍
@@wencireone Let me know when dinner is served! 🥳
@@MadameMinima sorry😪, not even Richard Branson Virgingalatic 🚀 would of got you here in time, you'll have to have a nutritional veggie dish to make up for the loss and some sort of dessert 🍨 😋
So cool! You hear and read about these people but when you actually visit a place where they stayed and really dive into their history it’s a completely different experience. Thanks for the tour and the history lesson 😃
Thanks so much! 💖
I like both, but the brighter magenta matches your jacket better. 💜
Thanks for your vote... I agree 💖
@@MagentaOtterTravels Next year you should inform beforehand the castles you will visit, so they can match their plantings to your outfit 💜💜💜
So much information and knowledge, great narration. A lovely part of Scotland and Floors Castle looked absolutely stunning; I must say though..... so did that scone! Really enjoyed that, just what we needed on this windy and rainy night. Hope you are both well, take care.
Lovely to hear from you! I hope you and Claire are well. Funny you mention windy, because we are in Wales at the moment, and it is very windy here! We were supposed to go on a boat tour to Skomer island yesterday to see the puffins. Something we have been trying to do for 10 years together. But the winds were too high and the boat tour got canceled. Hopefully next year! We have been spending the summer running around visiting all kinds of places. I have been gathering content that I’ll be editing and uploading for months! I really enjoyed watching your videos of Wales. We have loved being here, but are headed back home to Cheltenham later today.❤️🏴
@@MagentaOtterTravels same to you, great to hear from you as well. Sounds like you're still having fun in windy Wales. I spent a few years in Wales and it was windy most of the time. Shame about the boat trip, that would have been good to watch; still, as you say, you'll have to go back and do it next year. You could do a review on Welsh Cake and jam, it's making my belly rumble just thinking about them......... like most of your videos do lol. It's great that you have managed to get loads of footage for future vids, fingers crossed we don't go into another lockdown, but if we did, you'll still be able to push content out, brilliant. Hope you are both well and safe journey back home. Hmmmm, we must do the Cotswolds ourselves soon. Take care and love to you both. ♥️👍🍰
@@adventurevanfreddie I will be pumping out Cotswolds videos all winter long! LOL
Hopefully our paths can cross next summer! Would be fun to meet you guys in person... We have really enjoyed having meet ups with other TH-cam creators and social media friends this summer!
@@MagentaOtterTravels That would be great, it would be a pleasure to meet you guys, beautiful people!!!
Such beautiful buildings, and gardens. Particularly Floors, that was breathtaking. Floors even knocks the Queen mothers Castle of Mey into a cocked hat.
And hopefully no blood was spilt in the filming of this episodes drone footage. Very good by the way :)
Haha no blood spilt this time... that was for the upcoming wildflowers video 😂
A cocked hat? Never heard that one before, John!
@@MagentaOtterTravels interesting. 'to knock into a cocked hat' i believe originated in America. To put it in an English idiom 'Floors pee's all over Castle of Mey'. Basically, much better, grander, than. Though you probably got that :)
beautiful
Thanks John! Good to hear from you. Hope you are well. 😊
@@MagentaOtterTravels fine thanks going to a thai fest in Cambridge later, should be fun, stay safe
Thanks this is very near where I live Floors castle in Kelso is the seat of the Kerr clan/family.
My partner fishes St Mary's Loch which is near innerleithan.
Please visit East Lothian and Midlothian youll absolutely love it. Lots of places with connections to Mary Queen of Scots . Amazing historical sites. Also close to Edinburgh too!
I was really sorry that we didn’t get to spend more time in Scotland! Every place I go, I always say we have to go back again and stay longer next time😂... This is why we plan to spend every summer in Britain as long as we are healthy enough to do so. 🙌
Abbotsford is really lovely, well worth seeing, and can be reached in under an hour from Edinburgh by a frequent train service to Tweedbank. The house is about a 30 minute walk from the station alongside the River Tweed.
Well, THAT would be a lovely walk!! I love the River Tweed! Did you see my Peebles video? I'll link below. Thanks for suggesting the trip from Edinburgh, a place that many people visit. We loved these homes and just wished we had been there longer so we could have seen others, like Traquair! Next time... ;-)
Here is our Peebles video, th-cam.com/video/Vhpn6DP_UfI/w-d-xo.html
and if you like gardens and amazing homes I hope you check out our Cragside video as well: th-cam.com/video/GJldoOPYxg0/w-d-xo.html
Cheers! XX Dara
Another compellingly watchable video, with bags of fascinating historical narrative, and some great photography. Really interesting! It ended all too soon!
I suspect you knew the thistle (most of these flowers are in the family Asteraceae) is the familiar emblem of Scotland. Do enjoy the rest of your tour of the country.
Thanks so much for the kind words. We really enjoyed our time in Scotland. And we JUST got home a few minutes ago from Wales! We are packing a lot in this summer!!
Beautiful job, Dara! So interesting and gorgeous. And I'm assuming all the aerial shots were thanks to Ian's drone talents?? Despite the cloudy skies, this was all just wonderful to watch. You mentioned wanting some of those flowers in your own garden -- but I bet the Texas weather is not quite the same as Scotland's, which might make a difference! :-) Looking forward to more travels with you guys next Friday!!
To be clear, I have no garden. Either in Texas or Cheltenham! I just enjoy other people’s 😊
Yes, Ian did lots of drone photography in the Scottish borders. That was right before he lost the drone! Thankfully he retrieved it and we have been able to continue filming 🙏
True Texican Dara: wearing 3 layers of cardigans and jackets....meanwhile Scottish people: taking a sunbath 🤣
So true! I am ALWAYS way more bundled up than all the Brits!
I feel ashamed living so close never been to Abbotsford, going to have to fix this ASAP.
There are loads of cool places around there to visit, so I understand. But yes it’s a special place and you should go!!
I’m with you - I like the brighter magenta.
oohhh… but that aisle with all the purple flowers is my favorite!
@@StephenandAndie yes I was overwhelmed with all the many lovely purple flowers there too!
These beautiful flowers are called "Peonies". Here in Luxembourg we traditionally use these to decorate the altar in the church at Pentecost. As peonies normally bloom around Pentecost.
I did see a peony in there... the fluffy lighter pink one I thought?
But thanks for the the background about their religious use. I didn’t know that!
@@MagentaOtterTravels Peonies come in son many different colours, not only light pink.
There was a famous event horse in the 1980’s called Sir Wattie ridden by Scotsman lan Stark who was owned by a descendant of Sir Walter Scott after whom he was named.
That’s very interesting. I’m glad the descendants are intent on perpetuating his legacy.
Scottish sunshine
So true 🤣
For a few minutes ☔️
Gorgeous footage, how does it feel driving on the wrong side of the road haha ?
It’s weird at first, but after decades my husband is used to it. But it’s always an adjustment whenever we first arrive here, or first get back to Texas!
I like the yellow ones in between 😉
The more magenta ones are the best 👌
They were all lovely TBH
@@MagentaOtterTravels that much is true 👍
@@wencireone hey, I think TH-cam is glitching again. You made a comment about how I needed to get the flower identification app. But when I clicked on it to respond it disappeared! Do you still see it?
@@MagentaOtterTravels no, it has disappeared, it's not the first time it has happened, I guess big brother didn't like my humour 🟦🟥🟨🟦🟩🟥😉👍
I like the deeper magenta better
I am not sure if Sir. W. Scott imagined himself wearing a mask one day. But it's funny to see how they try to pass the message.
I thought that was funny too!
@@MagentaOtterTravels A little bit of humour in these times is always welcome!
underfloor heating wasn't a modern thing, even back then. the Roman's had brought that to Britain over a millennia before hand.
Really? Those clever Romans! Nice straight roads, too 😉
You can get a free app on your phone, take a picture of the flower and it will tell you what it is called
I need to do that! But will it work when I don’t have signal/data? Which is always 😉
If I had the money, I wouldn't bother with such a small house
LOL... time for an upgrade! #castlegoals
@@MagentaOtterTravels Just waiting for my 6 numbers to turn up on the weekly national lottery draw
@@jjsmallpiece9234 good luck with that! 😂
Have you ever been to Urquhart Castle ? I know there is nearly nothing left of it but depending on your answer, i'll tell you my reasoning behind asking ;)
I haven't! The last time I was in Loch Ness was long before you were born ;-) I looked at a photo online and it's still got quite a bit there. I've visited some castle ruins recently which REALLY have nearly nothing left. OK, tell me your story... I wanna hear :-)
@@MagentaOtterTravels it's a very simple story. Yours trulys last name is Urquhart haha
Innerleithen
Love that area!