Author: Adelle

Karen at Creity Hall served us up a wonderful breakfast that included smoked salmon and eggs for me and an Ulster breakfast for Dan. Dan’s included fried haggis, which we found actually tasted very much like tortiere meat. Clearly many of the same spices are used.

We started the day visiting Doune Castle. Another great experience. The organizers have done a fabulous job with the audio guide. It provided valuable historical context and significance while also making references to both Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Outlander. The castle was also used as Winterfell for Game of Thrones. A lovely walk around the grounds included finding one of two geocaches.

From there we drove to Glencoe, stopping at the visitors centre. The drive took approximately two hours on narrow roads with a ridiculously high speed limit of 60 miles per hour. For the most part, there was no way in hell I was going to navigate those roads at that speed. Don’t get me wrong, the roads were beautifully paved, well-marked, and well-maintained, but they were rather narrow and twisty. There were some areas that were really not wide enough for two lanes of traffic. There were some areas that were posted with signs warning of oncoming traffic being in the middle of the road. Why? Don’t know! Maybe if the speed limit was slower traffic wouldn’t have to cross the centre line when going around a corner. Just saying…

Anyway, the scenery was lovely. There were several areas that reminded us of driving through the Rockies, in particular going towards Fernie and Kelowna.

We arrived at Treetops B&B in Fort William around 5:00 pm. Met our hosts, who are lovely people. Got the tour of the house, which is gorgeous. Then went for supper at the Ben Nevis Inn, which sits at the foot of Ben Nevis. Spectacular view of the highest peak in Great Britain. Actually, it’s a very vertical view. Supper was really good. Tried haggis again; it was a different recipe. Still similar to tourtière meat, but with more peppercorns. The texture of this one was more like a loose, meaty stuffing, not fried. I really liked it, honestly, but I preferred the spices in this morning’s haggis. A short walk around the foothills prefaced our return to Treetops, where I finally felt awake enough to complete these last two days’ blogs!

Creity Hall A tree fort above a creek behind our B&B

Doune A church in Doune

L’Angolina’s Pasta and Pizzeria

Doune Castle

Doune Castle Looking up from the cold storage room

Doune Castle Looking down the stairs from the Lady’s privy. Note how narrow the hallway is.

Doune Castle The Great Hall

Doune Castle The view from the top

Doune Castle The dining hall

Doune Castle The kitchen. Dan is standing in the fire place.

Doune Castle

River Teith Dan had to find out how cold it was. Nothing we’re not used to.

Glencoe A little crick behind the visitors centre.

Glencoe

At the foot of Ben Nevis

Valley beside Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis The view from Treetops B&B

Well, after a brief side trip to the hospital (don’t worry – it turned out to be nothing serious), we were on our way to Edinburgh. It took us nearly five hours, but that includes a stop for lunch at the Loch Lommond Lodge and navigating the first two hours through ridiculously narrow roads. I keep telling Dan I don’t want to know how few inches there were between the car and the stone guard rails or bridges on his side. Getting on the M8 was like a breath of fresh air, even with the construction delays, and made for a very relaxing final hour and a half of driving.

We unloaded our stuff at our room at 4KT Guest House, then walked down Coates, Haymarket, Clifton, Atholl, and Shandwick before stopping at The Cellar Restaurant for supper. It literally was in the cellar of a bar, and the booths along the outer perimeter were sunken rooms. Service was great, food was great, it was all great.

We talked about our activities over the next few days here, then walked back to our room. I thought to do laundry, but apparently the laundrette (laundromat) closes early compared to at home. We found an alternative that we can use on Monday. Don’t worry, we won’t be walking around in stinky, dirty clothes for half of our stay.

Not just any maple syrup flavoured bar

Loch Lommond

Loch Lommond

Loch Lommond

A former school for the deaf…we think

Our lower level booth at The Cellar Restaurant

William Eward Gladstone

Monument to football players who died in WW1 & 2

Our host, Davey, served us up a fine breakfast of omelette for Dan and savoury continental for me before we ventured out on our first full day in Edinburgh. Our goal: read the title.

We made our way by foot up to Edinburgh Castle. Not only is the rock it sits on huge, but so is the castle! What a sight to walk up to. And when I say walk, I do mean walk UP and UP and UP. There was a set of stairs to get us from the side street we approached from the back on to the main parade ground in front of the castle gate. I was thoroughly impressed with this young couple who carried their child in the stroller all the way up.

The climb is worth it. The castle is magnificent, and so is the view. No wonder the castle has never been taken by force…its been surrendered a few times, but never taken by force. It changed at one point in history from the royal residence to a strictly military castle, and remains so today. One of the largest on site buildings is a military barracks. There’s so much there and we did not get to see it all. The Scottish Crown Jewels are kept there, along with the Stone of Scone (pronounced scoon).

The Stone is also known as the Stone of Destiny, and it is a piece of stone about 3’x1.5’x1.5′ from the Scone area of Scotland. If I understand correctly, starting about 906 AD, the kings of Scotland were required to sit on the Stone when they took their oaths to be king, the Stone being a symbol of the ties between the people and the land. A ‘king’ was not a king until he sat on the Stone. And it has been this way right up to this day. Now, the Stone stayed in Scone for hundreds of years, but the last King of Scotland to be inaugurated on it was Balliol in November 1292. In 1296, after conquering Scotland, King Edward of England moved the Stone to Westminster Abbey and had it ensconced beneath the seat of St. Edward the Confessor. That seat was and is used to inaugurate England’s kings and queens; with the Stone there they basically were being inaugurated as Scotland’s kings and queens as well. The Stone remained there until 1996, when it was returned to Scotland and is now housed in the vault at Edinburgh Castle. It still must return to Westminster Abbey whenever a new King or Queen is inaugurated, but between times it is back in Scotland’s hands.

Anyhoo, we could have stayed at the castle far longer than we did. Unfortunately we had to leave sooner than we really wanted to because we had booked a tour with The Real Mary King’s Close. Fortunately, the tour was really good and informative. It took us to a part of old Edinburgh that used to be where the common people lived that had been built over by the powers that be so they could put another building overtop it. This of course meant all those people were kicked out of their homes. The close refers to a street, and Mary’s street was one of the wider ones at roughly four or five feet.

After that we had lunch at an Indian restaurant, and then made our way to the other end of The Royal Mile to visit the Palace of Holyrood House. This is where the kings and queens of Scotland eventually lived when they realized how cold and uncomfortable the castle was. Holyrood remains the current Royal family’s summer residence. It is definitely more comfortable than the castle, more opulent, and very fine. Apparently the Royal Company of Archers have unrestricted access to the palace grounds to practice on. Appropriate, considering they also act as the Royal bodyguards when the family is in residence. What I found odd, though, is that their ground target on the lawn is at the end nearest the palace. That seems dangerous to me. Why wouldn’t they have it farthest away from the palace? I would have asked, but they weren’t there at the time.

We ended the day with another fantastic Italian meal and then a movie: Captain America: Civil War.

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Our Edinburgh Castle Tour Guide

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Key to Edinburgh

The Closet Where King James IV and I was Born

The view from King James’ birthplace

The Church

Edinburgh Castle

The view

Mons Mag

The World’s End

The Canongate Kirk

The Queen’s Gallery

Palace Of Holyroodhouse

Holyroodhouse

The Abbey at Holyroodhouse

We planned to do more, we really did. But it wasn’t that bad a day anyway. The weather was beautiful. The first part of the drive was nearly perfect.

We went to Rosslyn Chapel this morning. The stonemason work on that building is truly extraordinary. It’s a shame it went unused for so long (150 years), but the restoration efforts are coming along beautifully.

The scenery overlooking the Glen’s are breathtaking. In fact, we found the whole area very pleasant. And we should know by now. We spent unplanned hours trying to complete a multi-cache that was not very clear in its instructions with a GPS it turns out I wasn’t using to its full effectiveness. We walked literally all over the village and down walking paths. As I said, it was absolutely beautiful, just incredibly long.

We didn’t do much after that, just went back to our room, put our feet up, and chilled.

The glen behind Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel

Very old curling club house

Private guided tour with Iain Stewart of Serenity Tours – in short, a fantastic day.

What a great birthday for Dan today turned out to be! I had hoped my plan would work out this way, but I couldn’t have asked for better. Iain was exactly what we were looking for in a guide: personable, knowledgable, informative, and very pleasant. And he’s a musician, but we didn’t actually get to hear him play. Turns out he grew up with The Proclaimers…how cool is that?

Iain took us out for a drive to see the battlefields of Pinkie Cleugh and Prestonpans, and to the castle ruins of Dirleton, Tantallon, and Fast, and with time for lunch at the Buttercup Cafe in North Berwick. He helped us visualize how the battles would have played out on the fields, how things have changed over time, how people would have lived at and around the castles, and helped get the familial, religious, and political characters and motivations straightened out.

All the sights were along the coast east of Edinburgh, making for a very lovely drive, notwithstanding my motion sickness — I wasn’t driving, and accidentally took a decongestant instead of gravol before leaving in the morning. Watching the horizon only works when you can see it; fast moving hedges suddenly blocking your view do not help at all. But we had enough stops with good walks between drives that it didn’t get too bad.

We went looking for The battle of Dunbar memorial and ended up finding the Doonhill Homestead where the site of a wooden hall of a 6th century British chief, and of an Anglican chief’s hall which superseded it in the 7th century, were revealed by aerial photography followed by excavation in the 1960s. The hall was larger than you would expect for its age, at 23 metres long. It was remarkably sobering to stand on the site and realize just how ancient the remains were, and how far back the history of Scotland actually goes.

The castle ruins in particular were also breathtaking, as were the views from them. The walk down to Fast Castle was juuussst a bit steep, but not so much as to deter Dan from continuing on. I knew my limits and only went down about half way, recognizing the climb back up might be a bit much for me. Dan really enjoyed it, but nearly pushed too hard himself. He was a smart boy, though, and recognized he needed to slow down, so he did.

Apparently the bridge connecting the “eponymous” promontory used to be a draw bridge but now is just a narrow, elevated bridge with near-vertical cliffs on three sides. The castle itself is almost non-existent. It’s placement on the promontory makes you wonder at the purpose of such a dismal setting, especially with it having been a place someone like Mary Queen of Scots stayed at (in 1566). Dan also noted that Fast Castle was like your typical Game of Thrones Iron Isles castle. He can’t figure how they even got the materials there to build it.

It’s worth noting that “fast” has its toots in the word “false”, and the holders of the castle used it to create a false light house which would divert passing ships into the rocks causing them to wreck, and from which the holders would salvage the cargo for profit. They paid the iron price, haha.

Not many stops on this drive to Pitlochry, but the two we did make turned out to be very interesting. First was Culross, which is a village that has maintained its 16th and 17th century architecture to a remarkable degree, so much so that shows like Outlander have been able to use the site with very little dressing to represent historical periods. In Outlander, Culross is used in place of a fictional village called Cranesmuir in 1742.

We also visited the Abbey, which really turned out to have its own character and interesting features, and the Kirk contains very old and prominent “residents”. Apparently the Culross Palace is supposed to be worth the visit, but we had to be on our way.

Next stop was Aberdour Castle, which was also a surprisingly interesting visit. The castle was built over five periods between the 12th and 17th centuries. Now, part of it is still standing and can be used for meetings or gatherings, part of it is in ruins, and part of it is almost completely fallen. The gardens have been well kept, and they’ve replanted the small orchard. It’s really a very interesting visit (I know, I’m repeating myself), and Historic Scotland really must be given it’s due for the excellent work they’re doing to preserve and promote historical sights.

Alas, we had to get on the road to Pitlochry, which turned out to be a very pleasant drive on decent highways, and Pitlochry itself is really quite beautiful. It very much reminds us of Banff, Jasper, or even Canmore. It’s a shame we can’t stay, but tomorrow is the Hogwart’s Express!

Davey and Dan

Culross (Cranesmuir)

On the walk to the Abbey

On the walk to the Abbey

Cat’s Close is very close indeed

Culross Abbey

Culross Abbey

Culross Kirk

The Church Organ!!!

The Altar

The Kids Doing Good Work

Magg’s Steps

Culross

Aberdour Castle Gatehouse

Aberdour Gardens

Aberdour Castle

The Dovecot

A damn big tree next to Aberdour Castle

Aberdour Castle

The Service Courtyard

The Kitchen

The Earl’s Room

The newest part of the castle

Sweeney Todd Demon Barber

We planned to leave Pitlochry early anyway in order to be sure we would make it to Fort William in time to catch The Jacobite train, but based on my average driving speed, being unfamiliar with the road we would be taking, and googlemaps 1.75 hour estimated driving time, we thought it best to put a good 45-minute buffer into the drive and left Pitlochry around 7:15 a.m.

Our stay at Rosehill Guest House, while short was lovely, even with the train tracks in our back yard. Our host was kind enough to provide us with toast, since we were leaving well before breakfast was scheduled.

The first half of the drive was a breeze, being on a decently wide stretch of highway with plenty of room for two lanes, akin to the Mackenzie Highway although with trees close in. Ha, just noticed our NWT Highway No. 1 has a Scottish name. I must be tired. The second half of the drive was the part I was a little more concerned about, and it did in fact become narrower and windier, but not at all as bad as the stretch going down to Glasgow previously. It turns out googlemaps was right. Just slightly more than 1.75 hours after we left Pitlochry we parked at the train station in Fort William. A truly pleasant surprise. We even had time to have a bite to eat before boarding the Hogwart’s Express.

Yes, you read that correctly. The very train they used in Harry Potter is the train we took for a return trip to Mallaig. I surprised Dan (again) with first class seating in “cars recently refurbished in the Harry Potter style.” It was very cool, if I do say so myself.

The engine is a coal burning steam engine, upon which it is best to leave the car windows closed regardless of the heat due to the smoke and soot that was spewed by the engine and blown by the passing wind. And yes, we were very lucky again today to have remarkably warm weather and sunny skies

We sat with two very nice older couples, one from nearby Oban, the other from south England, and had wonderful conversations with them. The scenery was again spectacular. We went over the Glenfinnan Viaduct with its 21 stone arches — a truly spectacular feat of engineering built in 1898 — and stopped in Glenfinnan for a short visit. For those Immortal buffs, this is where Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod was born. The nearby monument to the Jacobite Battle of Culloden — currently under repairs for a foundation problem — is called the Unknown Highlander and, no, it is not referring to the Immortal. The monument stands on the site where Bonnie Prince Charlie placed his standard, calling the clans to arms against England.

Moving along, we passed the silver beaches of Loch Morar, where scenes of the Highlander movie were filmed, and a few more bridges and tunnels. In Mallaig we had an hour and a half to kill before returning to Fort William, so we had a seafood lunch at the harbour of this working fishing village and then watched a large car ferry depart from the port.

Our return trip was uneventful but enjoyable and, for us, was entirely worth it.

We checked into our hotel (the one and only time we are not staying in a B&B), and then took a drive to see Inverlochy Castle. It is a ruins of a castle which sat at the southern point of the waterways connecting to Inverness. It used to have a deep moat. It was owned by the Comyn family, who were very powerful in the region a few hundred years ago, until they stood against Robert the Bruce who effectively wiped them out in retaliation for their disloyalty. This is my spin on the story, so I might not have it entirely right. Did I mention I must be tired? The ruins were quite interesting to look around at and try to figure how it must have looked back in the day. It’s in a good state of disrepair, but Historic Scotland is working on it to preserve it. It sits on a very lovely area on the shore of a river. We also managed to get another geocache while here before heading back into town for supper.

We had reservations at The Tavern before which we took a stroll along High Street. The cobblestone street is primarily for pedestrians, containing hiking stores, sweet shops, and other touristy retailers, as well as several eateries and bars. The Tavern was a small, busy restaurant where we met Brian William Patrick Xavier Stewart (the second). Could there be anyone else with a name so associated with both Star Trek TNG and X-Men? He was a very nice, outgoing young man working at The Tavern.

Having been a very long day, I ended it with a bath before writing here, while Dan promptly fell asleep after having his shower. Tomorrow: Inverness.

Platform 9&3/4

Two Magical Engineers and Hagrid

The Glenfinnan Viaduct

Hogwart’s Express

On the way to Mallaig

Mallaig

Inverlochy Castle

Inverlochy Castle

Inverlochy Castle

Today we experienced a rather lovely drive to Inverness broken into three parts with two stops at castles: Eilean Donan and Urquhart.

Eilean Donan is an old castle built on a tidal island at Dornie. It is located where three large lochs meet: Loch Alsh, Loch Duich, and Loch Long (ha – that’s Long Lake; a heck of a lot longer than our Long Lake).

Urquhart is an old castle built on a promontory on the shores of Loch Ness, at the northern end of the Great Glen.

Both pieces of land were first inhabited by about the sixth century AD: Eilean Donan by a Christian bishop probably from Ireland who established a cell there; Urquhart by a Pictish tribe that was visited by St. Columba and converted to Christianity.

Scottish King Alexander II granted the lands to two different noblemen in the early 1200s, tasking them with building the castles and governing the people. Both did what was required of them, and both suffered raids and various attacks over the centuries that eventually led to both castles being abandoned and left to ruin.

In 1911 Col. John MacRae-Gilstrap regained possession of Eilean Donan for his family and began rebuilding the castle to what it is today, with the significant help of Farquhar MacRae. Unfortunately, while the Colonel came to realize his dream, he did not survive to witness it, passing away a mere six months before its completion.

Urquhart Castle, on the other hand, had been purposely and spectacularly destroyed by the occupying Grant family when they realized they were about to lose it to the Jacobites. It remained empty and left to ruin. Historic Scotland came into possession and preserved the ruins and established them as a significant tourist facility, preserving the history not only of the castle and nobility, but also of the household hierarchy of its staff and tenants.

Dan and I found both visits very informative, and the respective architecture and engineering interesting. The two sites provided a juxtaposition between restoring a site to a ruin and restoring a site to a functional contemporary residence. Eilean Donan continues to be used by the MacRae family as a temporary residence on occasion.

On a side note, you can check Eilean Donan in the Highlander movie with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, and you can check out Urquhart Castle in the PBS-NOVA special on trebuchets.

All in all, an interesting day. Our host at Inverglen Guest House seems very nice, our room is very bright and lovely, and we had a truly fantastic Italian dinner at a place called Little Italy.

Eilean Donan Castle

Bridge to Eilean Donan

The Portcullis Gate

The Exhibit Room

Eilean Donan

The view from on high

Panoramic from the village side

The outer entrance

Bastion

Panoramic of the three lochs side

Urquhart Castle

The Trebuchet

Loch Ness

The Bridge

The Prisoner Cell

The Castle Toun

Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle

The Waterway Gate

Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle

Dan’s in the kitchen again

The Lord’s Apartment

The Grant Tower

The gun port

Overlooking Loch Ness

Stephen’s Street, Inverness

After yet another fabulous B&B breakfast, Dan and I drove to Duffus Castle in Duffus. Duffus Castle is a stonewall castle built on an earth and mound foundation of an old motte and bailey fortification. This turned out to be a bad idea, because before long the shitter fell out… No, really, the north wall of the tower, which contained the latrine, slid down the embankment. A castle’s no good without a shitter, so of course they had to abandon it. (Can you hear Dan in this writing?)

We found it curious that the castle, let alone the motte and bailey fortification, was out in the middle of nowhere. It literally now sits in the midst of a field, with no apparent water source for the moat. We also wondered what possessed the stonework castle owners to build on an earthworks foundation. It all seemed very odd. But it now makes for some pretty good photography.

Next stop was unplanned, as we had seen a sign for it on the way to Duffus. We made our way to Burghead where the largest Iron Age Pictish Fort used to be. The community has established a small volunteer visitors centre that has some great information on the site it sits on. Again, we found ourselves standing on a promontory overlooking the North Sea. On one side, the tide was out revealing a proper sand beach, from which parasurfers were doing their thing. On the other side was the main body of the ocean, with surf crashing against the rocks. The promontory clearly showed three levels going down to the sea shore, the highest level of which presumably was occupied by the chieftains (kings).

The entire site had once been surrounded by a stone and timber wall, which was topped by a row of stones with drawings of a bull on them. The bull represented strength, and was placed on the outward facing side of the wall so as to show visitors that they were approaching a strong tribe.

There is not really any evidence of the Pictish culture today, as they did not write their histories; they were absorbed by the Gaels, who became the Albans, who are now known as the Scots. The Pictish people were warriors, farmers, fishermen, sailors, and artists, and it is their art that is now being found that speaks to who they were.

Our last stop for the day was Culloden Moor, the site of the last Battle between the Jacobites and Cumberland’s English troops in 1746. The visitor’s centre is extremely well done and contains an extraordinary amount of information from the point of view of both sides. In fact, there may have been almost too much information to absorb in one visit. You definitely need at least two hours to really take everything in. The walk among the moors itself is quite sobering, and yet remains a tranquil experience. Historic Scotland is making efforts to restore the land to the same condition it was when the battle occurred to give visitors a better understanding of the terrain the parties were dealing with. Dan and I noted that if the land is currently anywhere near what it used to be, then not only would the kilted Scots have had to run through boggy, uneven ground, but also soft heather and spiky gorse. The English pretty much stayed in one place and let the Highlanders come to them, which was smart. I came away thinking somebody should have swatted Bonnie Prince Charlie across the back of the head for making his tired, hungry men fight in terrain they were not comfortable in.

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

Duffus Castle

The North Wall of the Tower

The Tower Hall

Duffus Castle

Our car in the parking lot from the motte

Duffus Castle

The Bailey

Between the Motte and Bailey

Looking up the motte from the ditch

Looking up from outside the motte

Look! A proper beach!

Look! The North Sea!

Burghead

Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor

We said our farewells to the lovely Susan and John at Inverglen Guest House in Inverness and headed out on a longer drive today. We broke it up by stopping at the Highland Folk Museum and The Falkirk Wheel.

The museum is an open air museum exhibiting lifestyles of the highland folk from the 1700s to the 1930s. The property is about 1.6 kilometres long, and you start at one end and make your way through time to the other. We visited the 1700s village first, since that was our main reason for coming and stayed within our travel theme. This is where the scenes from Outlander were filmed when they go around with the Mackenzies collecting rent and Dougal shows Jamie’s back to solicit Jacobite support, and where Claire comes upon the women setting dye in the cloth with piss. The village is very cool to walk around, and there are interactive activities and period appropriate villagers to talk to. One villager in particular is adamant that hens be properly identified: “A chicken is what you have on a plate; those are hens. The ducks are just a pain in the arse.”

The Falkirk Wheel is an engineering marvel. It’s a modern boat lift that replaces a series of 11 conventional locks. Check out the photos to get a better idea of what I’m talking about. We didn’t spend much time there, but it is designed with activities and park trails that you could easily make your visit a day trip on its own.

We’re staying tonight at Shieldhill Castle Hotel, which is actually more like a stately manor than a castle because there are no fortifications. There is a tower, and extensions have been added on over time. The core of the building has been standing since the 1190s. Our room is opulent, and called Bonnymuir. All the rooms are named after either a historically significant battle or person. The grounds are beautiful, the dining room serves great food, and the lounges are comfortable. There is a pigeon roost (dovecote or doocot) on the grounds that is purported to be a place that William Wallace met with his chiefs to plan battles. And the cat’s name is Oscar.

The Grain Kiln

1700s Settlement

Bairns Barn

A Wagon

Grinding Grain

Thatch Hut Framing … Before

… And After

Highland Folk Museum

Highland Folk Museum

The Singles Hut

They’re not chickens, they’re hens. And ducks.

Highland Folk Museum

Highland Folk Museum

The Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel

Shieldhill Castle

Our Rooms, at the top

The Pigeon Roost