I wish I had a photograph of my great gran’s house to place here.

I was eight when she died, but I remember it vividly. Whenever I visited, I was told not to touch anything, for a curious child like me that was almost impossible. Her home wasn’t filled with priceless antiques, but it felt like a museum all the same. Every surface and space held something. It was quirky, cluttered, beautiful, and completely over the top. She used to tell my mum and gran that I was a “nosey bairn,” always wandering into rooms, opening drawers, peeking into cupboards.

Walking through Haddo House recently, I caught myself doing exactly the same thing. I was drifting from room to room, taking everything in and I could almost hear her laughing. Some things just don’t change.

This trip took us across some of Scotland’s most beautiful historic homes:

Saturday: Falkland Palace

Sunday: Craigievar Castle & Castle Fraser

Monday: Haddo House & Drum Castle

Tuesday: Balmoral Castle Grounds & Crathes Castle

One of the things that stood out most was the National Trust for Scotland tour guides. They were very knowledgeable and they were storytellers. They brought each home to life through family dramas, gossip, triumphs, and failures. Again and again, familiar character types appeared, like the reckless heir who gambled away fortunes, the one who rebuilt and restored, the visionary who never lived to see their plans completed.

In some homes, like Castle Fraser, there were even strategic decisions about survival. The sons were sent to fight for a cause, while the fathers stayed behind to preserve land and titles, able to plead ignorance if needed. It felt less like a history lesson and more like stepping into a living drama.

Rather than describing each house individually, I’ve grouped what inspired me most into three themes: Paintings, Pattern & Ornamentation, and Pottery & Objects.

Paintings

Craigievar Castle stays with me for three reasons. First, Craigievar Castle is pink and is said to have inspired the colour of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. Second, the bespoke ‘Pink Castle’ tweed created by Lochcarron of Scotland (I bought myself one of the ‘Pink Castle’ tweed scarfs). And third, the portraits of the Forbes family.

Craigievar Castle, Lochcarron of Scotland ‘Pink Castle’

One in particular of Red John which felt almost like a caricature. His reputation for anger, paired with the exaggerated style of the portrait, brought him vividly to life. The stories behind these figures made them feel less like paintings and more like characters in a drama. Even the Forbes coat of arms with its three muzzled bears, carried personality. Red John reportedly wanted them changed to barking dogs to send a message to rival families.

Red John and his wife, Margaret (Tea Collection Blog & artuk.org)

At Haddo House, a series of six animal paintings set into wooden panelling represent moral values tied to the Gordon family. I was immediately drawn in as I’ve always loved animals in art, especially when placed in landscapes. My favourite featured a stag, which led me down a rabbit hole of learning about antler classifications: royal, imperial, and monarch. To be classed as a monarch stag, it must have sixteen points. There is one mounted in the ballroom at Balmoral, though I personally prefer seeing them alive in the wild.

Then there were the ceilings at Crathes Castle. Painted in the 1600s and later heavily restored in the Victorian era, they are rich with symbolism, mythology, and bold colour. They reminded me of illuminated manuscripts which are intricate, decorative, and deeply narrative. Figures like Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great appear among the ceiling designs, layered into centuries of storytelling.

Pattern & Ornamentation

Castle Fraser was a standout here. The interiors are fearless, especially the Victorian bedrooms and Georgian rooms layered with bold wallpapers. One bright yellow design, possibly woodblock printed or hand-painted, transformed a dim room into something warm and alive.

Another room featured exaggerated tropical birds, flowers, and pineapples in flat, almost silhouetted colour. Pineapples appeared throughout the trip. At the time, they were a symbol of travel and status, a quiet way of saying: we have seen the world. What struck me most was the commitment. These rooms weren’t tentative, they fully embraced their palettes and patterns. That kind of confidence is something I find deeply inspiring in my own work.

The library was unforgettable. The wallpaper was so bold it almost overwhelmed the space, enclosing it like an ornate garden fence, reminiscent of Versailles. I was so inspired that I created my own interpretation of the design.

It quickly escalated into twelve variations ranging from flat colour to textured collage. Some of these may find their way into future Meditation Symphonies or even wall hangings.

Pottery & Objects

At Castle Fraser, a collection of pottery houses completely stopped me in my tracks. I’ve always been drawn to this kind of pottery. It directly connects to my own scene paintings, like Extra Magic Time One and Two, inspired by Peruvian folk pottery churches.

There’s something powerful about imperfect objects. I create asymmetrical vases myself, some barely stand upright but that imbalance gives them character. I’ve come to see flaws not as weaknesses, but as special character traits.

At Drum Castle, we were shown a curious object and asked to guess its purpose. It turned out to be an 18th-century tulip vase, designed to display individual stems as a symbol of wealth and status. It’s definitely something I’ve mentally archived for future work.

I was also drawn to these green Chinese dragons collected by later generations of the Irvine family. They act as reminders of travel, storytelling and the desire to bring pieces of the wider world back home.

And then there was Wedgwood at Haddo House. The jasperware fireplace and vases immediately caught my eye. I’ve been collecting blue Jasperware for years. I am drawn to its strange balance of beauty and awkwardness. The matte texture, the white relief against blue is like icing on a cake. Seeing it applied to a fireplace was completely new to me.

We didn’t tour inside Balmoral this time, that’s for next year.

But the trip didn’t end when we came home. As a birthday treat (and to soften the post-trip blues), I bought a set of yellow Wemyss Ware cats. They’re joyful and slightly strange. They sit somewhere between traditional and pop art, which is exactly why I love them.

Writing this blog and creating the twelve wallpaper-inspired designs has been part of holding onto the experience a little longer. It brought me back to that “nosey bairn” my great gran used to laugh about, the one who couldn’t stop exploring and wondering. Perhaps that curiosity isn’t something to grow out of, maybe it’s something to follow.