A Very British Scandal

As usual, a pop cultural connection got me really excited about our imminent departure for Scotland.  If you haven't seen A Very British Scandal, treat yourself to a tale well told of lust and greed among Scottish nobility.  Paul Bettany and Claire Foy, seen here with the 13th Duke of Argyll, play the 11th Duke and Margaret Campbell, the commoner he married for her money in 1935.

The Duke and Duchess bitterly divorced twelve years later leaving behind no children.  But the current Duke, the son of the Duke's first wife, inherited his paternal greed; otherwise, allowing the producers of A Very British Scandal to shoot on the family estate is inexplicable.  Or maybe the 13th Duke is just tone deaf to the depiction of his psychopathic grandfather who married four times.

 

Margaret, pilloried when the Duke used a highly compromising photograph against her as truly bombshell evidence in the divorce trial, left behind a more meaningful legacy:  the complete renovation of Inveraray Castle, re-built by the third Duke of Argyll as a Georgian mansion in the late 18th century. 

A more sun-drenched or beautifully decorated castle you'll not find in Scotland. 

The producers of Downton Abbey must have agreed.  In 2012, they filmed a Christmas episode in the dining room and left behind a photo of Maggie Smith.

When Lerner and Lowe were working on My Fair Lady, they used this piano.  A photo of Audrey Hepburn in the Ascot scene still sits on top.

I'd rather look at Maggie and Audrey than ancestral portraits any day.  

A young male harpist was murdered under mysterious circumstances in an upstairs bedroom.

I wonder if his reputed ghost plays with dolls?

The public rooms are impeccably kept.  The freshness of furnishings and decor blew me away.  Absolutely nothing musty about Inveraray.  Didn't look like there were any leaks, either.

My father brought a white porcelain elephant about this size home from Viet Nam.  It looked just as exotic in a suburban environment.

Ever wonder how those turrets are used?

The Biltmore has a bigger kitchen.

We hiked past lambs and through wildflowers up a hill higher than it looked to a folly.

We could see the castle, just inland to the right from Loch Fyne.   The town of Inveraray sits above the curve of the shoreline.

By the time we got back to the car, the gardens had closed.

We ate at the George Hotel, in Inverary, named after an American president, not a king. Note the date it was established.  Those Scots just can't stop taking the piss out, although there's also an interesting bit of history behind Scotland's relationship with the colonies during the American Revolutionary War.  Episcopal--or Church of England--priests snuck away to Scotland for ordination.

Five herrings, part of a mosaic depicting the town seal, greet diners.