Woolly says – It hadn’t been the best start to the day with Corgi brain waking us all up a bit to early, then Jo leaving his bed behind and only remembering twenty minutes into the journey and driver Zoe having to get back off the motorway and return to the digs. Dog bed in car along with everyone else we set off again only to see a heavy fog descending and rain starting to splatter on the windscreen.

I was disheartened as I had planned a lovely activity for the day on the banks of another famous Loch. Loch Lomond is a freshwater loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. The Loch is 36.4 kilometres (22.6 mi) long and between one and eight kilometres (1⁄2–5 miles) wide, it is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area.

Nearing our destination it looked as though we had beaten the crowds and even as we pulled into the Faere Trail carpark although mid morning we were the first there which is when I saw the sign saying ‘Attraction Closed for Repair Work’, I was less than impressed and having sat huffing for a few minutes the humans opened google and located a castle nearby, all was not lost as a castle is my favourite thing to see.

A short drive onwards and we parked in the luscious surrounding of Balloch Country Park and Castle, letting Handsome Jack out we set of to find the castle in the 200 acre country park. Even better it was on the southern tip of Loch Lomond which meant we could at least se the loch.

Beautiful lawns and trees were everywhere with lots of dogs chasing balls and attending to tree trunks as we rounded a corner and walked straight towards the castle. Balloch Castle was built in the Scottish baronial style as a residence in 1808 by the architect Robert Lugar at the order of John Buchanan of Ardoch, using stone from a much earlier castle built in 1238 on the same site.

The first thing I noticed was the fencing round it quickly followed by the boarded up ground floor windows, not only was it not open it was derelict, I was not a happy mammoth.

None of us were thrilled except the mutt who happily led the way down towards the shore of the Loch and enjoyed chasing the waves and a stick as we admired the grey views across the water.

We strolled further along the loch side with the mammoth still in full sulk until turning up hill and getting our last view of the very closed castle.

Woolly says – The walk had at least given me time to reassess the situation, and I’d had an idea, with the sat nav programmed accordingly we headed off to another castle a few miles away.

Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Scotland, which is pretty impressive and sits on a volcanic plug of basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is 240 feet (73 m) high overlooking the Scottish town of Dumbarton. Pulling into a parking space the rain had now begun in earnest, the humans donned waterproofs, and I raced towards the gate to find it closed. Not just closed but padlocked and chained, what on earth was going on with the world today, google had let us down again, the sign on the gate said closed for the day but google obviously wasn’t aware of that fact, I was seriously unhappy and climbed back into the car to sulk and kick a few things.

Sometimes you just have to give up and today seemed to be one of those days, I felt my short companions distress but promised him a hot chocolate when we reached our nights’ accommodation to help make up for it.

Woolly says – Nothing was going to make up for such a day, I sat mournfully watching the cars sploshing through the water on the motorway when suddenly Zoe cried out ‘Abbey’ and took the next junction off the busy road and into the town on Paisley. I craned my neck but couldn’t see an abbey, managing to squeeze the car into a small space we all climbed out and looked around.

A bridge went over the river and just above the trees looked like a possible abbey potential, knowing our luck that would be closed, and I could continue to be miserable for the rest of the day. Noticing a couple of very grand looking buildings around I was quite impressed with the town even in the rain.

We approached the abbey and admired its splendid exterior along with the square tower that sat on top of it.

Paisley Abbey is a parish church of the Church of Scotland on the east bank of the White Cart Water in the centre of the town of Paisley, its origins date from the 12th century, based on a former Cluniac monastery. Following the Reformation in the 16th century, it became a Church of Scotland parish kirk. It is also home to the last resting place of Majorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce (Robert I Scotland) who died in 1316 following a riding accident while pregnant and her grandson Robert III of Scotland. Even better it was open!

We entered through the cloisters which were lovely with a beautiful garden adjoining them before arriving inside the abbey itself.

Two lovely ladies greeted us and spent several minutes fussing over the long eared one who happily gave them his belly to rub. Once we had managed to extract Handsome Jack from his fan club we turned our attention to the building around us.  Huge arches rose up to the ceiling with a tall arch at the bottom and smaller arches on the next two levels.

A small chapel lay to the back which had a white arched ceiling leading to a large stone cross inside it. The Barachan Cross had been carved in the 900’s and would have originally stood in Baracahn itself. The window above was in recognition of Wallace the locally born freedom fighter ad Guardian of Scotland.

We stood looking down the church before turning our attention to the wonderful stained glass windows that were in every window bar one.

The floors had plenty to look at as well as we walked over memorials of all shapes and sizes.

The choir stalls were huge and filled with the much more modern wooden seating, the vaulted ceiling was incredible and unlike anything I had seen before using a range of colours it was almost rainbow like in design.

The tombs of the Bruce’s were lovely and very well maintained but they seemed insignificant when compared to the impressively large stained glass window.

To the side was a small museum with display boards telling us about the monks who had founded the abbey and archaeological finds made during the many times the abbey has been rebuilt in its history.

This also had the same wonderful rainbowish roof as well as some interesting items on the walls.

Happy that we had at least seen something and that the abbey in fact had been a brilliant find we headed back to the car and the last few miles to our next hotel for a jam packed day tomorrow.