Bring Me 6 Bloody Ploughman For The Pie

Floors Castle was our destination for today. We were really impressed with whoever had been out clearing the debris off the lanes from yesterday's storm. Floors is the home of the Dukes of Roxburghe.

That's not our picture. We just put it in so you could see the beautiful symmetry of the Adam brothers design. This is what we saw.

It was built in the 1720's. Then one of the Dukes married an American heiress in the late 1800's and she wanted it to look more like a French chateau so embellishment were added. Again, no pictures were allowed inside but it was very much like a chateau. We were allowed to take pictures in the walled garden.

The thistles were above our heads. It was in the walled garden that we learned about the estate's desire to grow apple types from the past. One of these is called the Bloody Ploughman apple.

The story is that a ploughman was shot for stealing apples and a seedling grew out of his grave. They were very red. Storm Ali had blown most of the apples onto the ground and we were sorely tempted to pick them up and run home to make pie.