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| Twilight at Eileen Donan Castle |
Scotland, land of the bagpipe, home of William Wallace, range of the highland cow, and castle heaven. Being that we are already on this side of the pond and also that I (Caleb) had saved up a few dollars for our anniversary, we decided to take an early anniversary and enjoy seven days of Scotland. Since I was planning the trip, logically, it would include as many castle stops as possible. We drove over 1,500 miles and along the way saw more than 25 castles, magnificent and rugged Scottish countryside, waterfalls, holy sites, ancient Roman walls, and quaint little villages.
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| Hadrian's Wall 122AD (74 miles long) |
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| Justus not liking the cold-windy walk - Hadrian's Wall |
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| Overlooking Edinburg |
Our trip started out by what was supposed to be 4 ½ hour trip (according to our faithful GPS) from Newcastle-Under-Lyme, England to Edinburgh, Scotland. It turned out to be 9 hours. We learned that whatever estimated time the GPS said it would take us, we were to double it due to nursing, food, potty, castle, and beautiful view stops. The saying, “getting there is half the fun” was our motto except we changed it to “getting there is half the fun and twice the time” Especially, since every other day we spent a day driving getting to our next destination. We had a blast seeing most of Scotland. On our way to Edinburgh we stopped at the English/Scottish boarder to check out the 2000 year old Hadrian's Wall. If you've seen the movie "The Eagle" they show what it would've looked like 2000 years ago when the Romans where trying to keep the Pics (ancient Scots) from attaching Roman settlements. The wall went from the West to the East coast.
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| Justus enjoying a picnic in the castle courtyard |
After Hadrian's wall we arrived in Edinburgh, which is full of history with its castle that has changed from Scottish to English hands and back and forth again, to its palace, and ancient city. Charity and I seem to be on the same page, big cities are interesting and full of history and museums, but we prefer the small town and countryside. Of course, the exception to that would Rome and Prague. While in Edinburgh, I dropped Charity off to get some pampering=haircut (she has had her hair cut in 4 different countries{USA,Mexico,Ireland, and Scotland) and snuck off to buy her some exquisite Celtic jewelry. That night we went for a romantic walk around Edinburgh. It is always fun to see a city in the daytime and then at night again.
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| William Wallace Monument - Looks like something out of the Lord of the Rings |
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| FISH and chips - "What ya got Mama?"-Justus |
After a couple of days in Edinburgh on the east coast we took the scenic route to the west coast port town of Oben(with a few stops at the Wallace Monument/Sterling Castle/Inverary Castle). Here we stayed at a great B&B with the best hostess. Of course being a coastal city we had to have some fish and chips.
The next day we booked the three Isle tour, Staffa, Mull, and Iona. I don’t usually like to do tours, but this was kinda forced upon me since there was no other way to see the Isles. In the end I was very glad we did. Our coach driver was hilarious. It was like a comedy show, but on a bus. Here are a few extracts:
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| Highland Cow |
“See those cows? Those are Highland cows, they are strong, brave, good looking, humble, courageous, and benevolent…I am a Highlander as well.”
“You know how they do those sales, the buy one get something free? Well, the other day I bought a cup of coffee and got a free wife.”
“This part of the trip is boring. It’s a great time to take a nap, I’ll go ahead and take one too.” – he’s the driver
“See that boat (it was a two man dilapidated boat)? That is similar to the one you’ll be going on to the Isles, expect yours will be smaller”
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| Isle of Staffa |
The boat rides to the Isles were amazing. The Isle of Staffa is an incredible and unique volcanic formation. The isle is made up of naturally formed hexagonal pillars and home to puffin birds. Fascinating!
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| Isle of Iona Monastery |
Afterward we spent half of the day at the sacred Isle of Iona, where Saint Columba started a monastery in 563 A.D. The monastery was hugely successful, and played a crucial role in the conversion to Christianity of the Picts of Scotland in the late 6th century and of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in 635. A large number of satellite institutions were founded, and Iona became the center of one of the most important monastic systems in Great Britain and Ireland. While here one can feel the spirit of peace. I felt as if the centuries of this Isle being used to seek God had left an imprint of God’s peace. The Scottish writer, William Sharp, poetically expressed the spirit of Iona "To tell the story of Iona is to go back to God, and to end in God."
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| Eilean Donan Castle |
Our journey continued into the Scottish highlands where we got see some of the most impressive castles I’ve ever seen. As we meandered through barren and rough mountainous highlands we came upon Stalker castle, which was built completely on an island and could only be accessed by boat or when there was a drought. Further on we got to see Eilean Donan Castle. Eilean is one of my very favorite castles; I even had it on my bucket list.
After the castles we drove to Isle of Skye, (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) it is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous center dominated by the Cuillin hills. Even though there was a cool waterfall and landscapes, this area and the B&B we stayed at were our least favorite (the breakfast at our B&B was old and the bread was even moldy…yuck). If you are going to Scotland, avoid Skye and enjoy somewhere else instead.
Even though we’d gotten to see some spectacular things in Scotland there was more to come. For about an hour we drove next to Lock Ness looking for Nessy, but to our chagrin we didn’t get to see him/her. We ended up in Cairngorms National Park, the epicenter of castles. After so much traveling, Charity had seen as many castles as she needed to. So we decided that she would like to spend the day in town visiting the little shops and taking it easy and I would do some castle hoping. We both had a really fun time respectively.
We finished the glorious trip with a visit to the Boarder Abby’s in the south of Scotland.
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