Birse Castle

On Sunday, en route to Carnferg, we walked past Birse Castle, which I've never seen before, in the Forest of Birse. On further investigation it turns out it was the home of J.R. Heaven until his death in 1911 (see yesterday's cairn). It has a varied history, but I won't go into that today.

What I will tell you is that by happy, happy circumstance, we bumped into a couple of friends of ours when out walking ... and grabbed a socially distanced coffee with them in the Forest of Birse church grounds. Totally by chance ... we were both parked at different parts of the walk and we bumped into them at the end of their walk, just as they were about to have a coffee before going home. Even funnier? Their surname is Birse! Ha ha. It was a lovely coffee stop. So much more appreciated for the unexpected nature of it, and the fact that it had been absolutely ages since we had actually met and spoken with friends. It's always the small things.

Better on black.

[Wylie]

That so looks like a toy castle! Glad you met up and had a lovely coffee with friends.

[Casablanca]

Ha ha, I love all those coincidences!

[Monique]

Sounds like you had a great time 👍

[Babs]

Ha ha what a pleasant coincidence. Does anyone live in the castle?

[Lesley]

What a lovely building, and such interesting comments. Surely your friends must have been involved in the history of the forest.

[Nova]

Sounds like the perfect way to end the day, even if it was not planned. Now you will have to go back to explore this impressive estate.

[LManning (Laura)]

An intriguing building, for both the architecture and the history. It really is the impromptu connections we miss the most, isn’t it?

[Jennie B.]

Sounds like an unexpected yet perfect day.

[Bep]

What a nice coincidence!

[Molly]

A lovely b&w composition. Such an uplifting narrative - a really happy chance meeting.

[Margaret Brown]

Nice coincidence and architecture!

[haskar]

What a nice coincidence and lovely aries.

[Sarah Bremner]

Lovely photo and so special to meet friends unexpectedly.
I think we are all counting down to whenever little get together times are nomal again!!

[Judith Johnson]

What a fortunate meeting with your friends and an interesting story with rhe Birse connection

[Islandgirl]

What a neat castle, the small things in life are so important to us now!

[Kathy]

The old castle looks a bit forlorn on that hill. The sheep looks he thinks he's the king of the castle looking over his estate.

[Doris J]

A happy day to remember.

[Valerie Chesney]

A happy occasion for you all...The castle looks quite forlorn there on it's own..

[John Brown]

The sheep sat there alone I think makes this shot .

[Issi Bannerman]

@onewing I believe so, but not sure who, at the moment. In any case, probably not all year round.

[Richard Sayer]

It looks rather sad and desolate... and the architecture is 'interesting' to say the least. It looks as though the designer has tried to incorporate as many architectural forms as possible

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Sort of a fixer-upper, isn't it? I guess without trees or a garden it looks uncared for. Interesting though that it's connected to a rather impressive cairn and it's not that impressive! Maybe when Mr. Heaven was with us it looked more lively. For now it's a good shot with the Watch Sheep in the fore.