Doune

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Doune is a small and exceedingly charming village. There's not a great deal to it, other than three little main streets spreading web-like from a grand old mercat cross. It has a castle, and that's about all there is to see and do. But it's a very nice castle. It was used during the filming of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', when cows were fired from the battlements onto knights below. Even thinking about the scene makes me laugh. According to my 1920s 'Blue Guide to Scotland', it was also where prisoners were taken after the Battle of Falkirk in 1746, when the castle was in the hands of Macgregor of Glengyle. One of the prisoners is said to have escaped by means of 'a rope of twisted bedclothes'. These days Doune Castle retains a level of completeness that allows it to present a most formidable pile. You can creep through dim pends into great courtyards, sneak into the baron's large hall, or slink up narrow winding stairs where once men were men and cattle were nervous. (You don't honestly expect me to believe that we're making our way up these steep stairs so that I might be milked?)
My 'Blue Guide' also tells me that Doune was once noted for its fairs of Highland Cattle and sheep. One can only imagine preliminary discussions at such events, perhaps something along the lines of: 'Hoo're yer sheep, Macgregor?' 'Well, Fergus, let's chist say ah cin guarantee they'll travel a guid fifty metres through the air, although I should tell ye that ah've a coo that'll dae a hunner.'