The castle grounds and park include a nice walled garden, complete with 'swan pond' and various interesting buildings including a lovely, well situated 'pagoda'. We were captivated by the meditations of a large Grey Heron, standing in perfect stillness and silence on the edge of the pond.
There is a nice wee cafe in the grounds, called the Swan Pond cafe where we enjoyed a nice lunch before looking round the grounds.
We continued along the beach to the village where we made a short detour to see the harbour area. Later, on a matter of principle, we took a detour to avoid the Turnbury golf course, going along the road before turning down to the area around Turnbury Lighthouse.
Turnbury Castle, thought to be the birthplace of King Robert the Bruce, was originally in the hands of the Earls of Galloway. By the 1300's, it was owned by the Earls of Carrick. Bruce's mother was Marjorie, Countess of Carrick. In later years during the Scottish Wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce both freed the castle (1307) from England and, subequently had it burned down in 1310, to prevent it falling back into English hands. There is little that remains of the castle now apart from the lower vaults and cellars.
There were two small detours, one at the village of Turnbury to go round some water and another at Dowhill to go round some works. Going up from Dowhill we walked through farmland where there were workers in the field planting potatoes. I took time to speak to one of them to find out that they were planting early Ayrshire potatoes, which were considered a particular delicacy when I was growing up. They were always cooked in their skins and my father would sit with a huge plateful of them with a slab of butter, happy to eat nothing but the tatties for his dinner. There was a very short stretch of road walking from Dowhill to Dipple from where we returned to the beach.