#lifeinscotland

[ahundred-andathousandmore]

Highland Adventure Day 1: Culross & Inverness

Welcome to day one of our trip around Scotland! For a wee bit of background, check out my post from yesterday. Also, apologies for the unedited photos below, lol.

We left Edinburgh around noon, and after a quick stop near the airport to drop my son off at the kennel, we drove to Culross in Fife. This quaint little town has been on my “to visit” list for a while, and while it’s only an hours drive from Edinburgh, it’s not very easy to get to on public transport. So I figured while we had the rental car and since it was on our way anyway, we might as well drive through.

We had a late lunch at the Biscuit Cafe, and then wandered the streets and waterfront. For those who don’t know, Outlander filmed some scenes in seasons 1 and 2 here, and learning this promoted my dad to say “Is this entire trip just going to places from that show?”. Ahem, NO, dad. The village would be worth a visit regardless! 

Main town square

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go to this exhibit, but if you have the chance it looked interesting!

I made friends with this ginger cat 

These colors tho!

Me being broody or something in one of the side streets

We then drove up to Inverness, which took about 3 hours (plus stops). Everything anyone has told me about Inverness turned out to be true: it’s not really worth a visit. It’s nice enough but it lacks the old charm of Edinburgh or the spunk of Glasgow. It is, however, a good place to stop for a night on your way further north so that’s what we did. We stayed at the Kingsmills Hotel, about a 20 minute walk from the city centre, and nice and quiet. We walked to town for dinner, and though we were underwhelmed by Inverness itself, we had a good dinner at Prime on the River Ness.

This is not a very photogenic city, but I did manage this shot from the river!

Will share Day 2 tomorrow!

[ahundred-andathousandmore]

Highland Adventure Day 3: John O’Groats, Castle Mey & More

Day 1: Culross & Inverness

Day 2: Loch Ness, Culloden, Dunrobin Castle & John O’ Groats

This day was BUSY so stay with me folks. In hindsight, how we smushed all of this in I have no idea.......

We drove from our flat on John O’Groats to Castle Mey, just a few miles down the road. For those who don’t know, Castle Mey was the Queen Mother’s home in Scotland (her purchase of Mey was featured in the Crown, but they filmed elsewhere). 

Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside the castle, but it’s lovely and homey, and the guides in each room know SO MUCH about the Queen Mother and how she lived here. Apparently she had a great sense of humour- be sure to look out for the Nessie hidden in the first room! It’s fascinating and I can’t recommend visiting Castle Mey enough. Also, shout out to the Major in the dining room who personally worked for the Queen Mother, and who brought his sweet black lab to work with him.

We also toured her garden and animal centre, which I really enjoyed (and was able to take pictures of, woo hoo)

BABIES

After having lunch at Castle Mey, we drove another couple miles down the road to Dunnet Bay Distillers to try some of their Rock Rose gin. We were too early for a tour, but we tasted some of what they had on offer. I’ll be honest, I have a hard time distinguishing between gins without adding tonic, but this tasted nice to me. Plus the bottles are SO pretty that I bought one to take home with me. 

Because this is Scotland, it was another day, another whisky for us. This time we stopped at Old Pultney’s distillery in Wick, and took the distillery tour. Unfortunately we were there during their quiet time, when they shut down production in order to clean and repair, so we didn’t see any whisky being made. But the tour was very interesting anyway and I enjoyed the whisky (even if I couldn’t taste the sea saltiness that makes it unique). And again, NOT owned by Diagio, so yay for helping out the little(er) guys! 

And thus started our great lighthouse adventure... my brother got it into his head that he really wanted to visit a lighthouse, not an outrageous idea given that we were on the coast. But he hadn’t done any research as to where they could be, so we blindly typed them into our GPS and just went for it. This led us NOT to a lighthouse, but to the ruins of Castle Sinclair, which was pretty spectacular. You can’t really see it from the road, and you can’t even really tell how amazing it is until you’re almost in it. It is very much a ruin, but as long as you’re careful you can explore all the way down to the little cove at the base of the castle. In true Scottish fashion it started to rain while we were there but it was completely worth the detour!

We then tried to find another lighthouse, and for the life of me I can’t remember where this one was... I think it was called the John O’Groats lighthouse, maybe, but it’s still a ways off John O’Groats itself. Regardless, you also couldn't go inside this lighthouse so instead we took a short walk around the coastline and said hi to some sheep. 

The little white dots in the rocks were birds all cuddled up sleeping, so cute!

I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day but it was one of the nicest of our entire trip. 

[ahundred-andathousandmore]

I’m BACK & Highland Adventure Misfortunes

Hi all,

I’m  finally back in Edinburgh/back in the land of universal cellphone service and WiFi. I had the most AMAZING week, and would love to share my adventure with you all. We did so much that I think I’m going to do a separate post for each day of our trip, and will include as much detail/advice as possible for anyone else planning a trip to Scotland (outside of Edinburgh/Glasgow, that is!). 

Will add quickly that unfortunately my mom was not able to come on the trip with us in the end. The original plan was for my parents, my younger brother  and myself to travel, but the night before we left Edinburgh my parents got a call from the kennel where their two Bernese Mountain dogs were staying back in the States. One of their dogs had a twisted stomach and needed emergency surgery, and we weren’t sure he would make it. Thankfully he did and is doing really well (and eating like a MACHINE!), but my mom left right away to go back home and take care of him. These dogs are like her babies now that my brothers and I are out of the house so it’s been a rough one for her. My parents decided that, rather than cancel the trip altogether, my dad would go, but everything was bittersweet because we all missed having her so much! She and I are planning a trip together either later in the summer or in September, but it was a really shitty situation all around and I feel terrible that she wasn’t able to join. We’re so grateful that this goober is such a fighter and that he’s slowly but surely getting back to his old self!

Looking forward to sharing Day 1 of the trip with y’all soon! 

[ahundred-andathousandmore]

Life in Scotland: March 2018

I’ve been embarrassingly inconsistent with these posts, but I had family and friends in town almost all month so I have plenty of pics to share as I got to play tourist instead of exhausted law student, woo hoo! 

Tried out a cafe that I’ve been meaning to go to for ages (It’s Thomas J. Walls, in case you’re wondering, worth a stop in if you’re in the area saying hi to Greyfriar Bobby!).

Went shopping for business clothes in Glasgow and had to pay tribute to the best statue ever (yes, that’s a traffic cone).

Saw this HILARIOUS cutout of Jamie Fraser in Grassmarket. More like his evil twin, Jamu Fraseur, no?

Was too nervous to hold this cutie but still managed a pic (outside the National Trust on the Royal Mile).

Went to Holyrood Palace and wandered around the Abbey on a rare beautiful day.

Spent a morning in the National Museum.

Saw the castle from a new perspective. 

FINALLY went to the Scotch Whiskey Experience with a visiting friend, it’s actually so much fun and is one of those rare tourist traps that is totally worth it! Above is a selection of the over 3,400 unopened whiskeys in their collection. 

Visited Dean Village, such a beautiful hidden treasure...

...(my son agrees).

Wandered the Water of Leith Walk.

Was an Instagram cliche in Circus Lane.

Dreamed of warmer climates in Stockbridge. 

And went to the Ivy for afternoon tea yesterday. This is the second time I’ve been (last time for dinner) and it is a fantastic restaurant, beautiful art deco decor and amazing food. 

The picture I took of the sandwiches and scones had my friend in it but they were delicious. Desserts were: creme brûlée donuts, raspberry cheesecake, and a chocolate caramel mousse. Can’t recommend this restaurant enough!