Dracula’s Castle

Dear Bill,

I’ve finished the Fiona top and will be mailing it to your house tomorrow. It’s for your three-year-old daughter. Do e-mail when it arrives and tell me how it looks and if you like it. (This is hopeless. I know you’re not reading any of this. Your wife, our daughter number 1, will deal with it. Most importantly, I want to know if I should make a smaller version for the one-year-old daughter or if I should move on to the two little white cardigans I have in mind to knit next for them.)

Here’s the photo from the pattern. I tried to get a good picture of the top I actually knitted but not one of my photographic endeavors turned out. They were all fuzzy. Why? Why, indeed. I don’t know why, and it’s put me in a bad mood.

You’ll have to trust me when I say that the Fiona top I knitted looks just like this only the blue trim is pink. I used Siena cotton yarn and US#2.5 and# 4 needles.

And no, Colo (son number 1), that is not your dad modeling it. 

So, daughter number 2 is reading Dracula apparently. The amazing thing is that Bram Stoker got the idea for his book while staying at Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Cruden Bay is a small town just south of Peterhead, where we used to live in the 1970s and about which I’ve been blogging pretty consistently. Isn’t this a good example of sychronicity in the universe? I certainly think so. 

 Here’s a picture of Slains Castle. This is the very castle that was Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula’s castle.

Often, during the time we lived at Peterhead, my sweetie husband and I would take the kids for an outing to this fantastic place. The children would clamber all over the castle and look through its windows–but always very carefully. You can see from the next photograph that the castle overlooked a very steep cliff, and in many places the walls simply opened onto it.

Yes, that’s the castle wall on the left.

The next and final picture shows the Bullers of Buchan–which were just a continuation along the coast of this cliff formation beside Slains.

This picture shows what was actually an ancient sea cave that’s collapsed in.

I can’t begin to tell you how terrifying the cliffs were. In order to look over and see the waves you had to get pretty close to the edge. It was very clear once you crawled up to it that there was nothing, nothing whatsoever, to stop you from falling or jumping off. Your were totally in charge of your own fate. I found it almost hypnotizing. Certainly, it was a very strange feeling and one I’ve had no place else. The possibility of falling or not falling, the freedom to jump or not jump was so clear, so chilling, that you could only stay with it for a few seconds before retreating, shaking like a leaf. I’d be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this dizzying kind of feeling.

Apparently, in 1012 a great battle took place in the area–between the Danes and the Scots, the latter under King Malcom II. Needless to say, the Scots won since Cruden Bay remained part of Scotland. Alas, there was a terrible amount of blood shed on both sides. I think it would have been better had the Scottish soldiers simply encouraged the Danes to get up close to the Bullers of Buchan and admire the view for a while.  Who knows how many would have simply disappeared over edge of the cliff in a trance. 

Back to Slains Castle: It had once been home to the Earls of Errol beginning in the 16th century. In 1916 the Errol line had to give it up, I suppose for financial reasons, and it was sold to a shipping magnate. He in turn had to give it up, also for financial reasons. In 1925 the roof was removed to avoid paying local rates which were calculated on a roof’s square footage. So, of course, the castle soon after began to fall into serious decay. Apparently some developer is planning to remodel it into holiday flats. A grand idea as long as the residents don’t lean too far out their windows or look down too long.

Love!

Momma