Confluence.

Blair Atholl, where the Rivers Tilt and Garry meet.

We came home over two days, I'm not so keen on ten hour drives these days. And we stopped for the night at the Atholl Arms, a very traditional Scottish hotel; despite some reservations on making the booking its actually rather good, we'll certainly go back.

The dining room, how much more Scots could it be?

Locally brewed beer, good, traditional type menu, ok for veggies. Blazing fires, plenty of places to sit and talk.

And of course, our country being a small one, we bumped into folk who know folk we know. That nearly always happens. So we had a good chat in the bar. 

Louise had booked a visit to Blair Atholl castle for the morn, as we only need to get to the boat for about six. I'd been there once before. Good job I suggested we go in the house, as it rained a bit. The history included the usual tragedies, brother set against brother in war, early deaths, sorrow; but the opulence and priviledge is over-whelming (let alone the weaponery). It is the home of the only remaining private army in Europe, ceremonial these days; its ok, we're not about to come swarming over the border with our claymores and dirks, although some of you south might welcome that, a fine way to see the Tories off, if not at all democratic.

This picture is interesting, a friend of the family painted at a time when Highland dress was illegal, both the subject and the unknown artist were taking a fair risk. Its a political statement.
 

There is a room for Katherine M. Ramsay, who married the 8th Duke and was the first Scottish woman to become an MP, a Tory of course. However, she went on an interesting political journey, having initially opposed suffrage she later changed her tune - "Towards the end of this decade the Duchess of Atholl began to make a political journey that would see her dumped by her own party, called a communist and, in 1938, fight Chamberlain and the Conservative Central office as an independent in a by-election. Some of the milestones on the journey saw her meet Sylvia Pankhurst and other Suffragettes on a sisterly basis, campaign against poverty, oppose appeasement of Hitler and the abandonment of Czechoslovakia, and become a supporter of the republican cause during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of very few Conservatives to oppose the government policy of non-intervention in relation to Spain." (From http://madeinperth.org/kitty-atholl/ ). 

As I've mentioned before, we're currently watching the Blair Brown BBC series. It strikes me thatTony Blair was perhaps never wholeheartedly Labour, wholeheartedly Tony, for sure. I found Clare Short's contribution to the discussion about the Iraq invasion insightful, but frustrating. Why did she, Robin Cook and Brown not weild their power to stop it? There were plenty of other powerful allies. Some mistaken loyalty implied Brown. Blair is like Kitty Atholl, except he turned against the people and decency, whilst KMR realised she need to stand up for the people, despite her priviledge, she stood for what she believed was right and as a result let go of power and position.

The grounds are full of huge trees and worth a visit. But we ran out of time and had to head north for the boat.