I'm still in a bit of a state of post-vacation blues after this last trip we took. We spent a very full 7 days traveling all throughout the country of Scotland, and there was not a single dull moment. Even when we were resting our feet in the car, our eyes were constantly scanning our surroundings, taking in mountains, castles, quaint villages, and even a stray sheep or two. Simply put, driving through Scotland is like driving through a fairytale. In this post I'll detail our first five days, starting from Edinburgh, roughly circling the country, and ending back in Edinburgh by the end of Day 5.
Day 1: Edinburgh to Inverness
We flew into Edinburgh around noon, heading straight to the rental car agency and hitting the road as soon as possible, bypassing the city for now and making our way north. We had a lot of ground to cover and several detours to hit before we landed in Inverness for the night. Our first detour was St. Andrews, which was a little over an hour from Edinburgh.
St. Andrews is an adorable seaside town that is absolutely worth seeing, even if you aren't a huge fan of the game of golf, like myself. There were certainly enough boutiques, cafes, bookstores, coffeeshops, and lovely architecture to keep me entertained for hours! Unfortunately, we didn't have time to sit at a sidewalk cafe and lunch in the sun, but we grabbed some delicious sandwiches to-go from a very friendly little shop and headed over to St. Andrews Cathedral--which turned out to be a fabulous spot to picnic!
The cathedral dates back to 1160, and is now in ruins due to the Scottish Reformation and the country's transition to Protestantism during the 16th century. Basically, over time it was taken apart and its elements repurposed for other buildings. Apparently many old homes today still contain stones taken from the cathedral--I can only imagine how much those houses are worth now! Anyway, after we finished our lunch, we strolled through the remains of the cathedral and enjoyed a little seaside stroll.
And we spotted our first bagpiper along the way! This is a moment in time I'd love to revisit. Staring into the North Sea with the warm sun and salty breeze on my face, while the quintessential sound of bagpipes filled the air, gave me the full realization that we had finally made it to Scotland.
We then walked through quaint streets, admired a few stately university buildings, and eventually made our way to St. Andrews Golf Course. If I had it my way, I would have spent the majority of my time wandering the campus of St. Andrews and imagining what it would have been like attending school here with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. But, understandably I suppose, the hubby wanted to see this famous piece of grass with 18 holes in it. So we continued on.
The course has a beautiful backdrop, I'll give it that! After an obligatory picture or two, and a quick stop at the pro shop, we promptly made our way back to the car. We had to make it to our next stop by 4:30 pm, and we were definitely cutting it close at this point. We could have easily spent several more hours at St. Andrews, but unfortunately time just didn't allow.
Next stop: Glamis Castle! The childhood home of the "Queen Mum", this was a mammoth of castle, and we made it just in time for the last tour of the day.
The castle is so impressive that I didn't actually realize I was in this picture in the bottom left corner. The tour of the interior was also highly entertaining, full of factual details and even a couple of ghost stories. Rumor has it that Shakespeare once stayed here, and drew his inspiration for writing Macbeth from the spooky interiors of this castle--which also goes to show how old this place is! The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 14th century, in fact.
We had one last castle stop before heading to Inverness, and that was the Dunnottar castle. I had seen pictures of this castle on blogs, and I convinced Thomas that the detour would totally be worth it. And it definitely was! Though now in ruins, the castle's position against the sea makes it every bit as striking as any of the other castles we saw on this trip, if not more. This is also where the Scottish crown jewels were hidden during the 1700's when Oliver Cromwell invaded.
So after three enthralling stops, it was time to head straight on to Inverness. We drove two hours through mist, rain, and undulating hills, now very aware that we were in the heart of the Highlands, and also aware of the fact that we would be arriving into Inverness way past our dinnertime. Despite the hunger pangs, we enjoyed a nice evening walk from our B&B once we finally arrived, crossing the River Ness and beginning our quest for a tasty meal. (There is no shortage of B&B's here by the way. This is a very popular town for tourists to stay in when visiting Loch Ness. We stayed at the friendly Kilcumin Guesthouse, in a tiny but sufficient enough room for one night).
We settled on some late night pub grub since it was past 10:00 pm by the time we made our way out on the town. I actually quite enjoyed my meat pie, though due to my ravenous state, I probably wasn't the most discerning food critic at that point. We finished our night with some live Scottish music at a pub called Hootananny. With a name like that, who could resist a peak inside? We walked in to discover a group of locals gathered around a big table, sipping their drinks in between songs and entertaining the crowd with an assortment of strings, woodwinds, and a couple sets of bagpipes of course. It was a perfect way to end our first day in Scotland.
Day 2: Inverness to Portree (Isle of Skye)
Day 2 started at Culloden Battlefield. This stop was added last minute to our itinerary after perusing a few guidebooks and learning a little Scottish history. It came highly recommended, and was only about a 20 minute's drive from our hotel, so we headed there as soon as it opened at 9:30 am. This battle was a part of the Jacobite uprising of the 18th century, which was essentially a civil war that pitted those who were loyal to the English crown against those who wanted to restore the Stuart family to the throne. Unfortunately, the battle quickly became more of a massacre than a fight, resulting in about 1,2000 Jacobite casualties, while only a little over 50 government soldiers were killed.
For those interested in military history, this is a great stop. The museum was very interactive and the guided tour of the battlefield was excellent. Even if you're not interested in battles and such, there is still a lot to be learned about the Jacobite uprising and the complexities of this time period in Scottish history. In conclusion, it was a worthwhile stop and I felt like I had a much better understanding of Scotland as a whole after we left Culloden.
Next stop was none other than the famous Loch Ness! Much to our disdain, we didn't spot Nessie. But we did get another view of the remains of yet another castle, dramatically perched right against Loch Ness. Here is Urquhart Castle, whose ruins date back to the 13th century.
I would have loved to cruise on this glassy water for a few hours, soaking in the views and the gorgeous weather by boat, but we had an itinerary to follow. We settled for a few scenic stops and about an hour's worth of driving alongside Loch Ness instead, which was still an amazing experience.
After leaving Loch Ness, we passed a couple other beautiful lochs until we stumbled upon yet another gem of a fortress: Eilean Donan Castle. We spent a few minutes admiring it from the outside, but didn't have time to do much exploring. We had whiskey on the itinerary, and only a few more hours to spare.
As we drew closer to the Isle of Skye, the landscape changed pretty dramatically from wooded forests and meandering lochs, to verdantly green volcanic mountains. If I hadn't known better, I would never have guessed we were still in Scotland. In all actuality, the landscape reminded me more of Iceland or Hawaii.
See what I mean? We could have easily been in some exotic volcanic island off the coast of the Pacific. As we crossed over Skye bridge and landed officially into the Isle of Skye, we enjoyed the winding mountainous drives around the many ocean inlets as we cruised onto our next stop: Talisker Distillery. Since it was a bit out of the way from our planned journeys for the following day, we decided to try to squeeze it in now before we checked into our Airbnb. When I finally had cell phone service, I called the distillery and asked about tours for the days. He responded that "all of the telephone reservations were booked" but if we got there soon, they would "do their best to get us on a tour." So we continued straight there, only a little bit perilously flying through the windy mountain roads, passing slow moving caravans whenever we had a chance, with me feeling like I was in a scene from a James Bond movie. Thankfully, Thomas's driving prowess got us to Talisker just in time to snag two spots on the last tour of the day. We had thirty minutes to kill before the tour started, which was just fine with me because I was in need of a snack and a little caffeine jolt at this point.
Luckily there was a really cute little coffee shop right across the street, picturesquely situated right on the waterfront. The coffee was actually excellent, and we shared a really delicious caramel-coated baked good of some kind. It had a funny name, whatever it was, but it was seriously TASTY. And the views we enjoyed while we indulged in our afternoon treats weren't too shabby either.
So after I relished my little slice of heaven, we headed back inside to start the tour. This was more of a "Thomas" activity, as I didn't even drink Scotch whiskey before I was pregnant and obviously can't now, but it was fun to see the inner workings of a distillery and learn the process for making a smoky, peat-infused, Scotch whisky. (Although our guide was a little dry, and probably could have used a shot of the stuff to pep her up a bit.)
After the tour and tasting concluded, we said goodbye to Talisker and the cute little town of Carbost, making our way to finally check in to our Airbnb. Oh, but wait. One more stop.
I had Thomas pull over so I could get out and take some pictures here. I just thought it was a gorgeous backdrop, but didn't realize until later that these are the Cuillin mountains, which contain the highest peak on the Isle of Skye. Fun fact: The last clan battle on the Isle of Skye was fought in this area.
Okay, FINALLY we made it back to our Airbnb in Portree. Portree is a common base for activities on the Isle of Skye because it is well- situated in between all the sites, and it also happens to be the most populated town on the Isle of Skye, thus having more lodging options. (But I'm glad we booked early because the town was packed and there weren't many vacancies.) Portree is probably most well-known for this picturesque little harbor, which is perfect for an evening stroll after dinner. I also highly recommend Sea Breezes restaurant for great seafood right on the harbor. But if you decide to get fish and chips to-go instead, you better watch out for those seagulls. They are ruthless. We actually saw one steal a piece of fish straight out of a guy's hand once.
So when we got back to our place after dinner, we pretty much collapsed on the bed. It had been an insanely full day. But we still had hours of daylight left. What to do? Hmm. Why not drive another hour and go watch an awesome sunset? So we mustered up some energy and jumped back in the car, bound for Neist Point.
When we arrived, we walked along the cliffs amongst the other tourists (of course we weren't the only ones with this grand idea) and found a nice spot to sit and take in the views. To our left was a lovely little lighthouse that looked straight out of a painting.
And to our right we watched as the sun dipped slowly down to the horizon beyond the Uist Islands. Ah. Glorious end to the day, right?
At about 10:15 pm we headed back to the car, still with plenty of daylight to find our way back. You sure can pack a lot of sightseeing into one day with 18 hours of daylight! I'm so glad we made our weary selves take the two hour round-trip journey out here. It was definitely an unforgettable highlight of our time on the Isle of Skye.
Day 3: Circumventing the Trotternish Peninsula
This is a popular drive for sightseeing, and is convenient because you can start at the base of the peninsula in Portree, work your way around the coastline in a loop, and wind your way back into Portree. If you drove it straight, it would only take you about two hours, but where's the fun in that? We made our first stop at the Old Man of Storr. This is essentially a giant famous rock, which is part of an ancient formation that resulted from a landslide some thousands of years ago. You can see it from the road, but we decided we wanted a closer look. So up the hill we went.
Oh wow, this was going to be a doozy! We had barely started and I was already winded. In my defense, it was really steep. And we don't have a lot of hills where we live. Anyway, the views were spectacular so I never felt guilty about resting for a scenic photo op.
After lots of climbing, and shedding several layers of clothing, we finally arrived. That's the onerous old man on the left. He was a tough little cookie. But we conquered, and the views were certainly rewarding.
After carefully making our way back down the mountain, we headed toward the famous Kilt Rock, first taking a quick scenic stop at Lealt Gorge. Here the River Lealt tumbles into this stunning gorge and then flows out to sea in between two dramatic cliffs.
And I thought these cliffs were amazing...Our next stop was Kilt Rock, where I was rendered even more awestruck. (Cue the Jurassic Park music for this view.) Interestingly, there actually are some dinosaur prints on the nearby Staffin beach! Maybe next time I'll have some extra time to find them. Anyway, there behind the majestic waterfall is Kilt Rock. The basalt columns are supposed to resemble the pleats of a kilt. I think that's a bit of stretch, but it's a captivating sight nonetheless.
And the views on the other side of the point weren't too bad either.
Next we stopped at the Quiraing to get out and do some more hiking. This was our last eventful stop for the day, as it rained the rest of the afternoon and we were pretty beat from all the hiking. Although the Quiraing hike was much less strenuous that our morning's hike, we both agreed that hiking the Old Man of Storr was actually more fun. However, the views here at the Quiraing certainly did not disappoint. I felt like I was wandering through a magical fairy land.
Day 4: Isle of Skye to Inveraray
Speaking of fairies, our first stop on Day 4 was a place that is actually named "The Fairy Pools". Of course I told Thomas that this was a HIGHLY necessary stop, regardless of the fact that it was a little out of the way for our day's journey. And, if I do say so myself, my itinerary recommendations for this trip never once disappointed. So we parked our car at the designated car lot and hurriedly made our way out of there to escape the biting "midges". No, these are not mythical creatures as the setting might suggest. They are real and nasty little biting gnats. Luckily they seemed to only hang out at the parking lot, so once we made our way into the valley we were midge-free.
I truly could not get enough of this place. Even before we made it to the actual fairy pools, just walking through the mist-laden valley was like walking through a Tolkien dreamscape.
So these are what fairy pools look like I guess! I didn't spy any winged friends, but I sure did enjoy a bit of frolicking myself.
After several more hours of driving, we finally made it to our next stop: Glencoe. To be honest, I just wanted to stop here because I had read so many blogs and seen amazing pictures of Glencoe Valley. I felt like I needed to see it in person to know it was real. (I know, we were really hurting for beautiful scenery on this trip at this point.) Also, the stop was on the way, so why not? We stopped in Glencoe village first and ended up at this quirky little folk museum. The museum is inside this original 18th century croft style house and maintains a very eclectic collection of over 200 years worth of locally acquired items--from butter churners and spinning wheels to 80's television sets and retro clothing. But the most interesting part was the exhibit behind the house where we learned more about the tragedy of the Glencoe Massacre, which definitely shed a different, and considerably more morbid, light on the area. But I really value learning the history behind these places, so it was a worthwhile stop before we headed into the valley.
Despite the dark human history, there is no denying that Glencoe Valley is one of the most incredible places on Earth, in my humble opinion.
We had intended on possibly doing a hike, but after our morning jaunt to the fairy pools and a lot of hours in the car, I was honestly just ready for a hot shower and a legitimate meal at this point. So we drove through the valley instead, stopping whenever we wanted to get out to stretch our legs and admire our surroundings, and made our way to Inveraray to retire for the night.
Oh, but not without one more unexpected castle sighting along the way!
We drove through a beautiful forrest alongside a stream for about an hour until we finally reached our bed and breakfast in little loch-side town of Inveraray in the Argyll region. This actually ended up being my favorite town that we stayed in! And it seems like hardly anyone has heard of it. We stayed at the most adorable little B&B called Brambles of Inveraray, which perfectly maintained all of its 18th century charm. In fact, it seemed like the entire town had not been touched since the fifth Duke of Argyll commissioned it to be built in the late 1700's. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at the George Hotel, followed by after-dinner drinks at the attached pub, where jovial locals entertained me while Thomas sampled different Scottish beers.
Day 5: Inveraray to Edinburgh
We tried to sleep in a little today, since we had been going nonstop our whole trip, but I was still up by 7 am ready to greet the day and get our adventures started! We had another big day ahead of us. First we walked the sleepy town a little bit and marveled at the views of Loch Fyne, as the morning mist crept its way across the across the hills in the distance.
After eating the best breakfast of the trip at the Brambles Cafe (incredible french toast AND eggs and bacon for me) we set off for Inveraray Castle. If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you might recognize it from one of the Christmas episodes. It is a relatively "new" castle--building began in 1744--and is still home to the current Duke of Argyll and his family.
If you're going to dance in the rain, you might as well do it in front of a castle, as I always say.
Next we drove around Loch Lomond and headed to the town of Balloch to watch the Loch Lomond Highland Games. Luckily, the rain let up for a couple hours so we could watch the events--which ranged from track, cycling, wrestling, hurling, hammer throw, caber toss, and even tug-of-war.
I was most impressed by the caber throw. I can't even imagine how much practice and skill it takes to simply pick up, balance, and carry that giant log, let alone chunk it across the field and get it to stand up on its other end.
Last but not least, our epic journey through the Scottish Highlands was concluded at the Glengoyne Distillery. This was by far the better of our two distillery visits. Our guide was highly entertaining, knowledgeable, and very interactive. Plus, we paid a little extra for a more personalized tasting of three different types of whiskey in a cozy little tasting room at the end of the tour, which was totally worth it and fun even for this non-drinker! Now I know how to properly taste and drink a Scotch whiskey, if the mood ever strikes in the future.
Days 6 and 7 were spent in the awesome city of Edinburgh, which I will discuss in a later post because this one has gone on long enough I think! In conclusion, the Highlands of Scotland are everything you would imagine them to be and more. Stay tuned for some continued Scottish fun in the Lowlands!