- 1. 8/25 Arriving in Edinburgh
- 2. 8/26 Edinburgh
- 3. 8/27 Scotland – West Highland Lochs & Castles
- 4. 8/28 Edinburgh Castle
- 5. 8/29 North England – Holy Island, Bamburgh & Alnwick Castle
- 6. 8/30 Edinburgh – Palace of Holyroodhouse
- 7. 8/31 Scotland – Loch Ness, Glencoe & Highlands
- 8. 9/1 Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland
- 9. 9/2-9/7 Family Visit in Dawlish
- 10. 9/8 London
- 11. 9/9 The Tower of London
- 12. 9/10 London – Westminster Abbey
- 13. 9/11 London – Buckingham Palace
- 14. 9/12 London Museums
Today we took a West Highland Lochs & Castles tour. It was beautiful! And we learned a few Scottish words used in place names. For example, loch means lake as in North Loch, dun means fortress as in Dundee, aber means “at the foot of” as in Aberdeen.
In total we saw four castles during the tour. Doune Castle was made famous by the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. Kilchurn Castle was small but fun, because you could climb up and down the castle ruins. Inveraray Castle was actually some rich family’s mansion turned into a museum, but it didn’t feel like a castle and was not worth the money to visit, although Downton Abbey was filmed there in case you’re a fan. Stirling Castle, we only saw the outside from far away, but it looked like a serious castle and had historical significance, worth visiting some day.
Here are some pictures from inside Inveraray Castle. Please note that the interior of a castle can look very different depending on what the castle was or is used for, so the interior of one castle doesn’t represent the interior of other castles. For example, Inveraray Castle was the home of Duke of Argyll and it was more for family use than for military purpose. The thing about visiting a castle is that once you’ve seen the inside you don’t find it special; but without seeing the inside you always feel you don’t have a sense of the personality of the castle.
On the way back to Edinburgh, we saw two bridges in and out of the city across River Forth. The Railway Bridge is more than 120 years old. Although the Road Bridge is much newer, the strands in its suspension cables are failing one by one due to corrosion.
Complicated Rain’s notes:
Doune: the left side is famous from the “fetchez la vache” and general taunting scenes. The right side, on the other hand, was (I think) used as Castle Anthrax (memorably peopled by naughty maidens).
Rest and be Thankful: for scale, notice the tiny house in the bottom of the valley….
Forth Road Bridge: …and that’s why they’re building a new one (construction visible to the left of the existing bridge).