To the Kilt: Our Scottish Adventure (cont.)
 |
| The Kelpies in Falkirk, Scotland |
Day 5
The day dawned partly cloudy. While hubs and my son slept in, I slipped out for breakfast at the nearby Castlegate Cafe. Fortified, I began walking toward Dean Village and the Water of Leith Walkway. This historic area is nestled along the Water of Leith, which flows right through Edinburgh. It's a milling community founded in the 12th century, and it remains inhabited and lively today.
It was still early, and the morning was quiet, but I passed several other walkers and joggers along the way. It's quite a beautiful area of town, and with the sound the water makes as it trips along its way, you'd never know you were in the middle of Edinburgh save for the occasional spires you can see over the treetops in the distance.
 |
| Under the Dean Bridge |
Once I'd enjoyed the morning, I picked up a few baked goods for the fam and headed back to the rental. There, we packed up a bit, and hubs and I caught an Uber to the Hertz rental car office to pick up the vehicle we'd pre-booked. I'd booked us a mid-size automatic transmission vehicle, but when we arrived, the very nice Hertz agent pitched us an upgrade to a small SUV.
My concerns with the SUV were:
- It was more expensive.
- It was bigger, and thus harder to drive on narrow roads and park in smaller spaces.
 |
| Inside Inverness Cathedral |
However, it was a hybrid (so the gas mileage was close to a wash). And if we took the car we'd initially booked, my son would have to share the backseat with at least one suitcase. In addition, the SUV had more ground clearance for some of our adventures in Scotland's more rural areas. So, hubs decided in favor of the upgrade. We finished up the paperwork and drove the car to our rental.
When we decided we'd drive in Scotland, hubs and I hit the road with a few assumptions that served us really well:
- We were going to be slow and careful. It was going to take us a little longer than normal to get from point A to point B. And we were going to be ok with that.- Our being slow and careful would probably frustrate local drivers, who may honk at us. We decided that we weren't going to care about that.
- We were going to support each other (navigation, etc.) and take turns driving.
Starting with these assumptions proved to be very helpful to us as we drove all over Scotland for the next nine days. We had to keep a close eye on the left-hand curb, be very mindful of oncoming traffic (particularly on narrow country roads), and we had to get VERY used to roundabouts. But we figured it out!
We loaded the car, then set our GPS for our first stop - The Kelpies in Falkirk! I had seen dramatic photos of these huge statues - the largest equine statues in the world - online. We were headed for Inverness by the end of the day, and seeing The Kelpies along the way was only a brief detour. Viewing the statues is free, but you do pay a small fee to park.
 |
| Burgers at Rose Street Foundry |
The Kelpies sit in a larger park featuring trails, playgrounds, other art, etc. (If we'd had more time, we could have easily spent several hours here. As it was, though, we wanted to continue on to Inverness.)
After we'd enjoyed The Kelpies, we drove to our rental in Inverness. This place ended up being perfect for our stay! It's very centrally located, and parking is included in a nearby garage. Once we got checked in, unpacked a little, and got the car stowed safely, we walked to dinner at nearby Rose Street Foundry. Hubs and I had big, juicy burgers and fries, washed down with Guinness and a smoky old fashioned. (It was apparently karaoke night, and though restaurant staff asked if we were planning to stay and sing, we were BEAT. So, back to the rental and to bed we went!)
Day 6
The next morning, I walked to breakfast at a place recommended by our rental hostess - Comfort Foods. Perfection! I had a gorgeous bowl of oatmeal, a cappuccino, and a lovely fruit bowl (bananas, strawberries, and blueberries) at my table by the window while I watched Inverness rumble to life all around me. The food was delicious, the staff was incredibly friendly, and the price was low! Utter perfection. This was one of my favorite little cafes of the entire trip! Before leaving, I picked up a few freshly baked fruit scones for hubs and my son.
 |
| Pedestrian bridge over the River Ness |
I dropped those off at the rental, where the rest of my traveling party was slowly awakening. As they were still slow moving, I opted for a little walk around Inverness to get my bearings. The Ness Walk seemed as good a place as any to start. I started at the Inverness Cathedral, where you can pay a few pounds to tour the inside. They even allow visitors to access the altar and the choir loft, and you have a wonderful view of the length of the sanctuary from that vantage point.
Along the walk, I passed the Inverness War Memorial and crossed a pretty pedestrian bridge over the river, as well as getting acquainted with some statues of the Queen's Own Highlanders. You can follow the Ness Walk farther than I did (to some islands in the middle of the river), but I was ready to get back to my family. So I met back up with them at the rental.
 |
| Standing stones at Clava Cairns |
Clava Cairns, which is free to visit, is a prehistoric site dating to about 4,000 years ago. The cairns, which once had roofs and are still each ringed with standing stones, are oriented to the winter sun. On the shortest day of the year, the winter sunset would have streamed into the small channel in each cairn, illuminating the burial chamber within.
This was such a cool, self-guided stop. We had a lovely morning for it, with the sun filtering through the trees, and though we saw other visitors, the site wasn't crowded at all.
Once we were finished at Clava Cairns, it was on to Culloden Battlefield. When we arrived, we still had fairly good weather, so we decided to pick up a brochure at the visitors' center and walk the battlefield itself first. The site memorializes the battle in which the British army scored a decisive victory against the Jacobite revolution (mid-1700s), putting an end to their uprising and Prince Charles Stuart's hopes to rule Scotland.
As you walk the battlefield, red and blue flags mark the positions of each army, and interpretive signs throughout the site explain troop movements and key points in the battle. In the middle of the field, you'll find memorials to the soldiers that died here, including markers for many of the clans that suffered significant losses.
 |
| Culloden Battlefield |
This was such a fascinating visit. When we were done tromping the battlefield (and began noticing a few drops of rain here and there), we retreated into the museum and visitors' center, where docents explained the weaponry and clothing of the Jacobite army. (They even let us try it on for size!) In the museum, you follow a chronological path that interprets both the Jacobite and the English chain of events that culminated in this historic battle.
When we were finished enjoying the site, we stopped for a very uninspiring lunch in the on-site cafe. (We tried to find something else close by, but came up with nothing. We got caught a couple of times like this. The tourist site cafes weren't all bad, but we tended to have better luck finding good food in town.)
 |
| Barrels of whisky aging at the Tomatin Distillery |
After lunch, we made the short drive to Tomatin Distillery, where we'd booked the afternoon Legacy Tour. We chose this distillery because we'd sampled Tomatin whisky at our Burns party back in January and really loved it. This tour is a little over an hour and includes a tasting of four whiskies. (If you are driving, they provide your tastes in little bottles to take with you.)
Our tour guide, Colin, started out by explaining the ingredients for whisky and some of the processes they use to produce it. (We even got to hold a chunk of peat!) Then, he began walking us through the distillery itself, which is a working facility producing whisky at scale.
 |
| Beautiful stills at Tomatin Distillery |
When the tour concluded, we drove back to Inverness to take a break before dinner. We had reservations (luckily, because if you didn't have them, you didn't get a table) at Fig & Thistle Bistro for dinner. I had a lovely bowl of wild mushroom linguine, washed down with a big glass of red wine. (This place was also recommended by the hostess of our rental.)
Then, to bed!
Day 7
We packed up and headed out this morning, as we were going on to Isle of Skye! Our first planned stop along this journey was early - at Urquhart Castle, a castle ruin on the banks of Loch Ness. The castle opens at 9:30 a.m. daily, and we arrived there at around 10 a.m. However, they were turning away visitors at the gate. They'd scheduled staff training on that day (which hadn't been posted on their website when we'd done our research and planning for this trip), and weren't opening until 11:30 a.m. And because of the delay in opening, the 11:30 tickets were all already sold out. (Many visitors, like us, had arrived earlier to try and gain entry.)
What to do? The first tickets we could get were at around 12 or 12:30, which meant we'd have to stay in the area and kill an hour or two to be able to keep Urquhart Castle in our schedule. We decided to pre-purchase the earliest tickets we could for the castle, then backtrack a bit to The Loch Ness Center in the meantime.
 |
| This is a manned submersible that was actually used to search for Nessie. |
This ended up working out well. The Loch Ness Center is hokey but fun. A series of films and interactive multimedia presentations (narrated by the excellent David Tennant) guides you through the history of "sightings" of the Loch Ness Monster. They have some of the actual submersibles that folks have used to try and locate Nessie, and at the end, they ask you to decide for yourself. (Our verdict: As much as we'd like to believe in Nessie, we didn't see any conclusive proof.)
After enjoying ourselves here for a while, it was time for our entry to the ruin. We navigated back to the location, parked, and went in. This site is so cool. Visitors start their tour by a replica of a trebuchet, then enter the ruin through a gatehouse. (This entrance would have largely been kept closed, while most of what came in and out of the castle complex would have come in through the "water gate" on Loch Ness.)
 |
| Urquhart Castle ruins, on the banks of Loch Ness |
For the next hour or two, we snooped through the whole site. There are several places where you can climb up into what remains of upper floors, enjoying sweeping views of the loch and the surrounding mountains. When we were done exploring, we had a bite to eat in the castle's very good on-site cafe. (Soup and salad and sweet treats! Unlike our meal at Culloden Battlefield, we found many more fresh food options here.)
Then, it was on to the next stop - Eilean Donan Castle. This structure was restored in the early 1900s, and visitors can tour many of the interior rooms. (However, there are no photos allowed inside.) We saw the great hall and several furnished bedrooms. But I think my favorite rooms were the kitchen and the larder. They had them fitted out with fake food and some mannequins that gave you a sense of just how much work it took to feed the castle's residents and guests.
 |
| Eilean Donan Castle |
At the end of a long day, we finally made it to our rental in sweet Portree on the Isle of Skye. We parked the car, unpacked a bit, and walked into town for some dinner. We discovered quickly that many restaurants in Portree had lines out the door for dinner. (And we were really glad we had reservations for our remaining nights in town.) We were able to slip into a table at An Talla Mor Eighteen Twenty, a two-story pub where we got cottage pie, fish and chips, and glasses of Tennent's. It hit the spot, and then we went back to the rental and hit the hay!
More to come . . .
Comments