Scotland travels
- sophieleblanc
- May 10, 2019
- 7 min read
My mum grew up in Scotland, came to Canada to do her Masters, met my dad, and, well, the rest is history. My grandparents and cousins still live in Scotland. Last summer, my family went to Scotland for two weeks to celebrate my eldest cousin's wedding, and here I will describe our travel itinerary. If any of you are planning on traveling to Scotland in the near future, hopefully this will provide you with some inspiration!
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is a stunningly beautiful city, a medieval castle perched up on a hill, narrow cobblestoned streets, Greek-style columns and architecture features earning it the nickname "Athens of the North," along with the elegant Georgian buildings of the New Town. Upon arriving and getting our rental car, we walked around a farmer's market on Castle Terrace. Scottish strawberries are amazing and flavourful and I highly recommend eating some if you are there in the summer months. Our AirBnb was just around the corner on Spittal Street.
We walked to the famous Victoria Street and the Grassmarket. Victoria Street is said to be the inspiration for J.K. Rowling's Diagon Alley, and we went to an adorable Harry Potter shop there. Another cool place for Harry Potter fans is The Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling did some of her writing on the famous series.
The next day, we did a tour of Edinburgh Castle. We bought our tickets in advance online and got there fairly early in the day: around 9-10 am. I highly recommend doing that, especially in the summer, because it was a very crowded, touristy location. We saw the dungeons, a tiny chapel dating back to circa 1139, Mons Meg, the largest canon in Europe, and more (big history nerd so I was thrilled).
Walking from the castle we descended the Royal Mile, the main street in the oldest part of the city. It is a bustling cobblestoned street, very touristy but worth a visit. We did go to a cute gift shop called Cranachan & Crowdie, which features tasteful, quality gifts such as Scottish shortbread and Harris tweed.
If you are there in the summer, you may be able to attend some of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We didn't go last summer, but I did the previous time I was in Scotland in 2015.
We did the tour The Real Mary King's Close, which was spooky and fascinating, and we heard about the city's long history and learned about the plague.
After visiting the medieval part of town, we headed over to the Georgian New Town, built in the late 1700s. We visited a quaint little museum-type place at No. 7 Charlotte Square, which has been furbished with original era furniture and fittings, demonstrating the home and lifestyle of an upper middle-class Edinburgh family in the Georgian era (think Pride and Prejudice). I really liked this exhibit because I've always loved history and learning about how people lived in the past, and it was not crowded or touristy at all.
We had afternoon tea at the Balmoral Hotel, and then we went for a walk to Calton Hill, which is a lovely park with nice views of the city.
Another fun thing for fans of the Marvel Universe is that some of Avengers: Infinity War was filmed in Edinburgh, including the Royal Mile and Waverley Station, which is right next to the Balmoral Hotel.
We did a food tour of Edinburgh, which turned out to be more of a food and drinking tour but ah well (my sister was only 17 but no one asked any questions). As we walked, our guide pointed out important landmarks, and told us about the famous bodysnatchers, Burke and Hare. They actually murdered people in order to sell their bodies to physicians, because at the time it was not possible to donate your body to science! My sister and I are kind of morbidly curious about these kinds of things, so we were loving it.
We went to several food places, and even though I usually eat mostly vegan food, I did want to try all the Scottish meals we were offered including a sample of haggis (which tastes way better than it sounds) and Scottish cheeses. We even went to this private whiskey place which was pretty cool.
Our final morning in Edinburgh, we packed up our things and drove to Arthur's Seat, the inactive, ancient volcano that offers 360 degree views of the city from its peak. The weather was uncharacteristically good for Scotland - even climbing above 20 degrees Celsius with blue skies and everything! However, in general I would definitely recommend bringing a rain jacket, long pants and sweaters if you are traveling to Scotland, even in the summer.
Fife and Dundee
On our way out of Edinburgh, we had a brief stop in Leith to walk around, and had lunch at a very cute place called Ostara. I had a delicious vegan, gluten-free pad thai salad and pressed strawberry apple juice. We then did a scenic drive along the coast of Fife and stopped at the Royal Yacht Britannia, the Queen's yacht where we did a audio-guided walking tour.
We were driving to Dundee to visit my grandparents. On the way, we stopped in the adorable fishing village of Crail. I wish we could have explored it more!
The next morning we drove to Perth to visit my cousin and her soon-to-be-husband. Then back to Broughty-Ferry for a walk along the beach with my grandparents followed by some ice cream.
The evening was spent strolling through St. Andrews and we had MORE ice cream at Jannettas Gelateria (so good! I had Fife strawberry and chocolate fudge), and ended with drinks at the golf course hotel.
Dunkeld
The venue of the wedding was the beautiful Dunkeld House Hotel on the banks of the river Tay, a salmon fishing river near the highlands. The hotel grounds feature huge conifers planted from American west coast species during the Victorian era.
The morning of the wedding, my parents and I went for a walk to see the Hermitage and drove to Birnam to see the famous, ancient Birnam oaks, mentioned in Shakespeare's Macbeth: “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.”
The wedding was beautiful and the weather was amazing - no signs of rain. It seemed everyone in family someone ended up wearing some sort of shade of blue...
West Coast
The next leg of the trip involved traveling to the west coast of Scotland.
We stopped in a village called Dochart where pretty rapids flow under a stone bridge.
We stayed in an AirBnb in the town of Oban and got some groceries at the local Tesco. Marks & Spencer is also a great UK chain for food and pre-made salads and sandwiches.
The next morning, we did a day-long boat trip to some of the Hebrides. We took a ferry to Craignure on the Isle of Mull.
We took a bus across the island of Mull where we got on a smaller boat that took us to the uninhabited Isle of Staffa. Our bus driver was talking to us over speakers in the bus, narrating our journey and regaling us with local stories, but, being the narcoleptic that I am, I mostly napped.
On Staffa, we saw Fingal's cave, named after the mythological giant Fingal who built the Giant's Causeway between Scotland and Ireland. We also saw a lot of puffins! Cute little birds.
We then were taken to the small island of Iona, famous for its rich religious and spiritual history and turquoise waters. We toured the ruins of an old nunnery and the Abbey where St. Columba lived and taught.
Then it was back to Mull, Craignure and Oban.
Skye
Skye is actually where my parents went on their honeymoon, but this was my first time going there. Unfortunately, the weather was not as favourable as it had been in Edinburgh. On our way to Mallaig where we were to take the ferry to Skye, we made a few stops:
Glencoe - beautiful views of green highland hills, also a distillery
Loch Shiel - the "Black Lake" in the Harry Potter films
Glenfinnan viaduct - the "Hogwarts Express"
Silver Sands Beach in Morar - absolutely stunning white beaches, the islands of Rúm and Eigg visible across the water.
Our ferry took us from Mallaig to Skye, and our AirBnb was in Camus Croise.
We walked around the area and we even walked out to a lighthouse that is only accessible when the tide is low.
The next day, we visited Glen Brittle to see the famous fairy pools. There is not a lot of parking available, and it is a very popular spot, so get there early!
We also went to Quiraing, all mossy green grass, low-lying clouds and craggy peaks. Unfortunately, it was very foggy so most of the views were obscured, but we still hiked for a few hours (mostly because my dad insisted).
We went to a restaurant called Red Skye for dinner with my grandparents. Our waiter was a guy about my age, and he got chatting with my dad, who is from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, about fiddle music. The waiter actually ended up inviting us to watch him play the next night at a pub, and we went!
Well, apparently it was at this point in the trip that I stopped writing in my travel journal...but based on my recollection and the photos I have, I believe that after Skye we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle and did a tour of it. There are a LOT of ancient castles in Scotland.
We also met up with my cousins and hiked up the hills around Balquhiddher, with views of Loch Voil. We saw the grave of famous Scottish outlaw and folk hero, Rob Roy. My youngest cousin is 8 years old, and he could do this hike - I would say it is kid friendly.
We stayed at Mhor 84, a very cute motel, in the area, before driving to Glasgow and flying back to Canada.
The trip was two weeks long in total and it was really nice to spend some time with my family and my Scottish relatives. And now, as it turns out, my little sister will be attending the University of Edinburgh in the fall to study veterinary medicine! So hopefully I will have the chance to visit this beautiful city again in the next couple of years.
I hope this was helpful! Thanks for reading.
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