on London time

Castles of Scotland

We visited MANY.

Skelbo Castle ruins (near Dornoch)

Inverness Castle at night

Dunrobin Castle on coast north of Dornoch

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

Balvenie Castle ruins (right next to the Glenfidditch distillery)

Chewie getting in on the castle action

Crathe Castle near Aberdeen

approaching Dunnottar Castle on coast south of Aberdeen

Stirling Castle

Edinburgh Castle in the sun, and...

at night.

Any visit to Edinburgh is time well spent. It's cosmopolitan yet retains an old world charm - and there is so much I still haven't seen (lucky me, I'm going back in a little over a month!) Because we had the rental cars, our first day included taking in the sights of Rosslyn Chapel and Stirling Castle - both places we visited in November, thus I didn't take huge amounts of photos at either location. We all enjoyed a scrumptous dinner that evening which included Scottish fare of haggis and mussels. Delish! The next day was all about Edinburgh Castle, the "Royal Mile," (and my side trip to the Grassmarket and Victoria street!) nipping into neighborhood pubs and Mexican for dinner. We were all sad to see our Scottish holiday come to an end in the morning but we took the edge off by relaxing to the seaside and countryside views as we trained back to London.

lunch location in Stirling

William Wallace monument from Stirling Castle

in deep thoughts

view of Stirling from the castle
(taken more for the weather than the town)

the view of "New Town" from Edinburgh Castle

the Firth of Forth in the distance

Victoria Street

the Grassmarket

a last drink at the pub to end our holiday

Aberdeen

Though our time there was brief, we had the most wonderful hosts: the Aberdeen McKays. We didn't expect the amount of time, home and hospitality they afforded us but we truly appreciated every minute spent together. Hopefully our paths will cross again with both the Aberdeen and Inverness McKays.

Our first day brought us to an extensive kilt shop in downtown Aberdeen, yet another beautiful castle and grounds and a spring salmon stream (although none were jumping at that location quite yet.) The next day we took in the view of the busy Aberdeen harbor before driving down the coast to the imposing Dunnottar Castle. We then, regretfully, parted ways with the McKays to begin the final leg of our Scottish journey in Edinburgh.

Chewie, thoroughly enjoying the sun porch

lovely home of the Aberdeen McKays

such a pair

walking Crathe Castle grounds

I can just imagine the salmon jumping

Aberdeen Harbor

the walk into Dunnottar Castle

along the coast near Dunnottar

lots of rain and sun make rainbows!

Inverness

So, it's April! Time moves on even when you're on holiday ;) In the last few weeks, I was lucky enough to: tour beautiful Scotland, spend quality time with my in-laws while learning about their family history, meet their distant relatives (who were the kindest, most welcoming people I've ever encountered,) visit castles, take country and forest hikes, eat at great restaurants, and generally relax with Gavin and Chewie. It was a fantastic time away from London.

We started in Inverness and stayed in a cute hotel along the River Ness, just south of Inverness Castle. Our first full day there was full of touring the nearby towns and hillsides to view the McKay family's ancestral beginnings. The second day took us to Loch Ness (no Nessie sightings...) Plodda Falls, and a run-in with a herd of cattle. The third day we bid the Inverness McKays adieu and headed on to Aberdeen with stops at the Benromach distillery and views of the Cairngorms.

I hate to go into too much detail, because then, where do I stop? I'll let my pictures do the talking!