Today, after class, we decided to take a spontaneous trip to Falkirk, located roughly a 25 minute train ride East of Glasgow. Falkirk is mostly known for Callendar Manor and The Kelpies. We started off by going to Callendar Manor, who's famous kitchen was a filming location for Outlander, and is also known for it's Iron Foundry exhibits and beautiful grounds. It was also free entry, which is a super-duper plus in my book. When we visited the kitchen, they had a lady dressed in old-timey clothes tell us all about how the kitchen was way ahead of of it's time, back in the day. They also made some old recipes from way back when and had us try some samples. I took a picture of my favorite recipe, some gingerbread (in the pics below). We visited all the rooms and exhibits and then sat down for some afternoon tea and scones in the Tea Room (which was super pretty). I felt like I was having tea in Pride and Prejudice, to be honest. They also had an awesome zipline on premesis which we took the liberty of playing on for quite a few minutes and alongside some 7 year old girls (hey, I'm 7 at heart, okay).
After we finished all to be done at Callendar Manor, we headed off to the Kelpies. It seems like a lot of people seem to know about the Kelpies, which is a park that contains two giant, metal horse head sculptures. Now, what most people don't know is that a Kelpie, or water kelpie, is the Scots name given to a shape-shifting water spirit inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It has usually been described as appearing as a horse, but is able to adopt human form! The cab driver told us that they help to bring good luck and also help to stave off dragons (because, let's be honest, the dragon problem in Scotland is atrocious). ANYWAYS, back on task, they're these gigantic metal sculptures that supposedly cost roughly 11 million pounds to build and are surrounded by little pools of water (cause Kelpie's are water spirits, remember)! They're extra pretty and light up at night, but the cold drove us off before the sun could fully set.
We hailed a cab and headed back to the train station to head on home back to Glasgow. Falkirk was definitely worth the trip!