Veronica and Monica's Mommy Abandonment Tour 2008

What better way to kick off my photo album than with a shot of Castle Campbell?!  Not to be confused with the Campbell Castle at Inveraray, this castle, once known as Castle Gloom, is located in Dollar Glen in the Ochil Hills.  It's a spectacular sight, and one that would've inspired waves of hatred and fury in the hearts of so many of my heroes...

Castle Campbell is surrounded by wee burns (i.e. streams) on either side, one known as the "Burn of Sorrow" and the other known as the "Burn of Care."

Here is the tower, up close.  Readers of Sword of the Highlands will recall this as the place Magda was brought.  This is what I pictured when I wrote the words stout and windowless.  There is a castle caretaker now, and believe it or not, he actually lives at the castle!  What a job...

This is the view down to a cramped pit used as a prison.  It's located just off of the dining hall for quick peeks between courses.  I shudder to think how many of my heroes' clansmen did time down there...

Many of the castles we visited had quite clever little latrine areas.  Seriously.  I was impressed!

The word "castle" evokes visions of such grandeur, but the reality was often so much smaller than we novelists portray!  Castle Campbell was grand indeed, and yet this is one of the largest interior rooms and represents the entire footprint of the tower.

Looking down on Castle Campbell from the roof.  Readers of Sword of the Highlands will note the grassy, terraced area where I'd imagined Magda's escape on horseback!

The stairs were their own defensive mechanism.  It's impossible to scale these cramped and tiny steps quickly.  And Monica told me that her broad-shouldered husband had to walk up some of these castle stairs sideways!

Such a big site!  Much larger than Campbell's Inveraray Castle.