Dunrobin Castle Gardens DCNN0347 – Another site moved from outside the garden walls to inside.

57.980970 -3.0431577 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 4 Temperature records from 1/3/2001

Firstly it is worth saying the Dunrobin Castle really is a spectacular example of a Scottish Stately home. The grounds are equally special as can be seen from the above image. The whole area is immaculately well kept and is a major tourist attraction in the area. What should have been a routine review though became oddly complex.

The Met Office only shows digitally archived records for this site from 2001. I found this was very surprising as Scottish Stately homes like this were the bedrock of the original weather stations in Scotland. Sure enough a quick glance of the Scottish Meteorological Society records indicated readings going back to 1859. Quite why the Met Office overlooks these types of site’s long history is a mystery particularly when some long closed sites, such as Manby and Scole , seem unable to be deleted from ongoing climate averages over 50 years after their demise.

I cannot locate the original site location from the only partial coordinates supplied however, the site in the headline image within the walled garden has only been there since relocation on 28/4/2021. It was previously at this site below.

In reality neither site is good and both suffer from being situated in artificial micro climates, though I expect the newer pristine environment to be more susceptible to temperatue elevation. The changeover from LIGT to PRT (3/9/2017) will have had little time to affect the older site but now, in the more cultured site will inevitably be reading higher than before. Rather like Poolewe instant anthropogenic climate change from the close relocation and instrumentation change – no CO2 needed.

Finally though I have to admit this place is on my bucket list of spectacular architecture to visit – the Castle is much more interesting!