This is going to be a big few posts, I can already tell! I usually try to write these over a series of days so that it doesn’t all build up, and as I begin to write this we have just finished our third day in Scotland and we have covered a lot of ground!
Edinburgh
On Thursday we made our way from Windermere in Lake District to Edinburgh. I already mentioned a few things we did on the way in the previous post. We eventually passed the border into Scotland which was very exciting! We’re now into country number two on our journey!
We got off the highway and took the more scenic route into Scotland to make it more interesting. The scenery at this point was pretty similar to what we have experienced in England. The towns that we drove through had narrow roads and you never knew what was going to come around the next corner toward you!
Once we arrived in Edinburgh, we settled into our little hotel room on the outskirts of the city and managed to find an American sports bar to have dinner. How very Scottish. Not much more to report on that day!
On Friday morning we skipped our usual morning coffee (yes, I brought all the equipment to make Aeropress coffee. Yes, a hand grinder. Yes, beans from Ark in Takapuna. Yes, I have scales to weigh it thanks to Sam who talked me into buying a travel set), as we had planned to have a coffee in town at a place recommended to us by a couple of people.
So first we had to figure out the public transport because we didn’t want to have to find a park in town. The tram system is pretty easy and seems like it’s quite new. We bought an all day pass for only £4.50 which gives you access to all inner-city public transport (buses and trams) – pretty good deal!
Once into town we went straight to Lowdown for coffee (the headaches were starting to set in!). The coffee was great! Even served with good oat milk. Highly recommend for anyone who is visiting Edinburgh.
We started to walk around a bit and began to soak in all the sights around us! The castle up on the hill, the many large monuments, so much history! We walked up to the Royal Mile as that seemed to be where most things are and we were met with thousands of people. The streets were packed! We enjoyed walking down the hill past all the old buildings, pubs, whiskey shops, gift stores (best name: Thistle Do), and down to the Scottish Parliament buildings which are just in front of the Palace of Holyroodhouse (a 16th century royal palace).
We then decided that we should squeeze in a quick walk up to Arthur’s Seat before our booked time at Edinburgh Castle. What an amazing walk! I haven’t mentioned yet that the sun was shining and there was a slight breeze – until we got to the top! Then it was gale force winds. Such an incredible view out to all of Edinburgh.
Once back down in the low-wind zone, we headed back up the Royal Mile (via a Tesco for the meal deal for lunch) and arrived at Edinburgh Castle.
The castle has a concert venue out the front of it which was being set up for a show in a couple of days time. So as we approached the entry to the castle, we walked through the seating area and around the stage! Would be a cool place to see a concert!
We hadn’t realised that we timed our visit perfectly because at 1pm every day, they fire off a very large cannon-like gun so that the sailors could set their watches and ships clocks. We arrived just before it was about to happen to stood around to check it out! Eventually a man came out in uniform and looked at his watch for a while before firing the gun. It was extremely loud which I think everyone was expecting, but no one was ready for!
The castle was pretty cool. It’s been through a bit over its time. It contains the Scottish Crown Jewels which (don’t tell any Scots) are a little underwhelming compared to the English ones. However, they are older so I’ll give them that.
The castle was filled with loads of history of the Scottish royal family up until they became combined with the English royals which was interesting.
We spent the rest of the day resisting more walking but also wanting to see more things! We spent some time sitting down at the Princes Street Gardens, we checked out the Scott Monument, and we walked up to the Nelson Monument. The view from up by the Nelson Monument is amazing looking back at Edinburgh. Definitely worth the walk for something a little more central!
Our final stop was dinner at a pub called The Last Drop. The ironic thing about its name is that it is next to an old execution site. Miriam tried some Haggis and enjoyed it. I had a beef stew kind of thing and it was also good!
Having down more than 25,000 steps, we made our way back on the tram to our hotel! We know that there is plenty more for us to do in Edinburgh, but that will have to wait until we come back another time! It is an awesome city and I’m glad we were able to spend a day with good weather there!
Driving: Edinburgh to Loch Ness
We’ve set ourselves a big target of getting all the way to the top of Scotland via the east coast, and all the way back down via the west coast! It’s a lot of driving, but we are loving what we are seeing!
Saturday was another day of amazing weather! We set our sights for Balmoral Castle first, but along the way we got our first taste of the Highlands. The landscape here is incredible! I don’t even know how to describe it. The mountains are covered in grass with rocks scattered through them, and there are sheep roaming the roads. You go over a bunch of cattle stops on the main roads so when you’re not avoiding oncoming traffic, you’re avoiding sheep! We even had to slow down for a baby deer at one point.
We sat and had lunch (Tesco meal deal) outside the cafe of a ski field. It was weird to be sitting at a ski field and not be able to see any snow at all. Once again, amazing views.
After winding through some more little towns, we made our way to Balmoral Castle. I was excited for this one because it’s where the royal family spend their Christmas and summer holidays every year.
The grounds were purchased by Queen Victoria and she had the castle built and then destroyed the original castle that was on the property.
The first thing that greets you are the gates at the front with GR & MR (George Rex & Mary Regina) written on them as King George V and Queen Mary had them commissioned during their reign. Straight away you get to see the history of this very special estate for the royal family!
In the grounds you can walk around all of the gardens and see the castle from many different views. They have so much food growing in the garden and they have to time it so that it is all ready for harvest when the Queen and her family arrive in August. It’s quite amazing how they manage to grow so much food in one of the coldest parts of Scotland!
You can’t go into the castle itself as I’m sure you wouldn’t like 1000s of people walking through your bach either! But you do get to go into the ballroom where they have loads of information about what happens around the place.
Overall it was very cool to be able to set foot in those grounds! It would be amazing to be a fly on the wall for one of the holidays there!
We still had quite a bit of driving left in the day so we set out again and drove from Balmoral, through Inverness and down the western side of Loch Ness to our hostel accommodation. The sun was shining and our room had a view of the lake! It was an awesome day of amazing views and we were both shattered! The daylight hours are crazy here with sunset after 10pm and sunrise at about 4:30am. It never truly gets dark during the night either – it’s pretty much dusk for the 3-4 hours of darkness during the night.
Driving: Loch Ness to Tongue
Our next day was a big driving one too! We had a few places we wanted to check out so we set off on our way!
First stop was on the side of the road to get a good shot of the lake. Couldn’t see the Loch Ness Monster, but maybe it forgot sunscreen and didn’t want to get burnt on this sunny day!
We drove up through Inverness and then followed the coast. The scenery was incredible! We were now driving through mountains one minute and beach towns the next! We stopped to check out a little beach called Golspie Beach which was amazing! A white sand beach is not quite what I was expecting from Scotland! Miriam touched the water with her feet and decided it was far too cold for a swim which must mean it was pretty cold!
We kept driving – more amazing views of the water and mountains! We stopped at a little harbour called Latheronwheel Harbour which was very cool. They have built big concrete walls in the water to create mini harbours up the coast so that boats can come in. The water at this harbour was so clear!
We kept going and bought some lunch (obviously from Tesco) and sat in the carpark to eat it because you make the most of a free carpark in the UK.
After lunch we kept driving north until we got to John o’ Groats which is considered the top of Scotland! Weirdly it’s not actually the northernmost part of Britain, but it’s the part that always gets talked about. There is a signpost there that points to a couple of places, and you can see out to the islands which run even further north. We didn’t have time to get a ferry out to the islands!
The sun was still shining up there which we were stoked with! We’ve just had such amazing weather so far and we are very grateful for that!
Our next stop along the way was The Castle of Mey which was purchased in 1952 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The castle was about to be destroyed because it was so run down, but the Queen Mother spotted it one day and fell in love with it. She purchased the castle and had it restored.
This was the first home that the Queen Mother had ever had the ability to make changes to. As Queen consort, she was not the owner of any of the castles she lived in, and as Queen Mother it was her daughter making the decisions on the buildings. So she was happy to be able to design and have a castle of her own to entertain guests and spend her holidays.
We spent ages looking through the castle and hearing from the staff about all the items and things that go on in there. Since the Queen Mother died, the castle has been used yearly by Prince Charles and Camilla. It was another cool experience to be in a castle that is still used regularly by the royal family. Such a strange establishment, but I think that makes everyone curious about them.
After spending some time in the gardens we headed on our way to Tongue. We went through many little towns and finally got there. We were hoping to have dinner at a pub in Tongue, but the one we thought was going to be open was closed with no notice. Thankfully we had some peanut butter and bread and strawberries! We got through!
We have seen so much amazing stuff so far and I’m very excited for the rest of what is in store for Scotland! Today was probably one of my favourite days on the trip so far. Can’t beat sun, beaches and mountains!
I think I’ll leave this one here and see how we go over the next few days!
Bye for now! 👋🏻
