We preparation for our
Europe van trip, we took a week’s holiday to tour Scotland in our camper
“Dusty”. The first night we drove from London to Yorkshire where we camped and
made an early exit from, eager to get to Scotland.
Our first stop was in
Dumphries, a small town south of Glasgow, which was the last home for Robbie
Burns. We visited a museum in his honour, which talked about his life;
including his passion for women despite remaining married his whole life and
his fame and fortune with poetry and song writing. It was a nice link with our
last visit to Scotland where our friends Simon and Fiona had taken us to see
Robbie Burn’s birthplace in Ayr. We also visited his mausoleum in Dumphries and
his home before heading to Prestwick to stay the night with Simon, Fiona and
their two children, Ben (4 years) and Ella (2 ½ years).
After some helpful
tips on the sights of Scotland and our itinerary planned, we headed to Oban, a
quant seaside town in the lowlands where we walked to a coliseum before travelling
onto Glencoe for the night. We
parked up at a seaside camping ground quite late, so really did not appreciate
how beautiful it was until the morning came and we woke to find we were
overlooking the beach and the snow capped mountains surrounding Ben Nevis. Such
a beautiful spot for a camping ground!
The next day we headed
past Ben Nevis and the five sisters of Kintail (where Dad got the name of his
farm from) onto the thirteenth century Eilean Donell Castle, which is in the
McKenzie country near the Isle of Skye.
We toured through this castle, which remains the residence of the McCray
clan. It was so beautiful and charming on the seashore and it even seemed
liveable after walking through the inside rooms. The castle itself had been
attacked on many occasion in its long past but had been rebuilt which is why it
is in such a good condition today. A recommend to everyone to visit this
castle! So picturesque we practically ran our camera battery out! We then
headed back towards Drumnedrockit, after stopping to take a picture of a
highland coo and observing the five-tiered locks in Fort Augustus (which is
also the start of Loch Ness). We found a camping site (after a long hunt-turns
out many of the camping grounds were not open until Easter) at a Horse stables
of all places!
The next morning we
headed to Drumnedrockit to the Nessy Centre, which covered all the myths and
mystery surrounding Nessy, very interesting but quite sad as it surmised that
Nessy really doesn’t exist! Shame! After this we took a cruise on Loch Ness and
headed for Inverness where we stayed the night and considered heading further
north to try and see the Northern Lights. But because the weather was so bad
(cloudy), we decided not to travel north and instead headed to Culloden Battle
Field, where we learnt about Bonny Prince Charles and got to hold antique
swords and shields. Apart from the driving rain, it was a nice walk around the
battle fields, where many men fell and are now buried there. It was great to
immerse ourselves in the history of Scotland.
We then travelled on,
through a snow blizzard to Crieff, a small town where we enjoyed a delicious
meal of chicken stuffed with haggis and a whiskey cream sauce. The following day we headed for
Edinbrugh via the Wallace Monument, where we saw his actual sword (which was
about as tall as me!) and then onto Stirling Castle, where we walked the
grounds. We also attempted to see the Falkirk Wheel (a rotating canal boat lift
that bridges the 35 metre gap between two different canals) but unfortunately
it was not operating that day.
The last two days were
spent in Edinburgh, where we visited the castle, immersed ourselves in the
history by joining a tour and I got a chance to taste Cranachan (which was like
eating a mouthful of cream and whiskey…not my two most favourite ingrediants!)
and walked around city, marvelling at the similarities between Edinburgh and
Dunedin, predominantly in the street names. We found all the street names that
our flats in Dunedin were on which was really cool. After a great trip around Scotland,
we then made our way back by completing the nine hour drive home to London.
