We visited the Churchyard of Luss.
Here they have a Hogback stone. It dates back to the Vikings.
We love the Coos.
More adorable Coos.
Our car stopped off at a beautiful overlook in Glencoe. Then a quick stop at the Three Sisters before we met up with the rest of the group. The Visitors Center closed at 5 pm though so we didn't have any time to look around. McKinley did have enough time to pick out some pins however. Once we met up with everyone, we went back to The Three Sisters.
When we were done it was dark out. We drove to our hotel for the night at Ft. William.
10/12
Today we visited the Glenfinnan Viaduct to see the Harry Potter train (Jacobite steam train).
First we walked across the street from the parking lot to see the Glenfinnan Monument.
Then we hiked a little to get a good view of the incoming train.
There were lots of others there too
Beautiful! McKinley and I wished we had booked tickets to ride it as well, but we had no time for that in our itinerary this trip.
Just a cool looking mushroom we saw on the way back to the cars.
Next, we had to hustle up to Loch Ness because we underestimated the drive time between venues.
Luckily we made our boat tour. McKinley brought her Nessie to enjoy the voyage.
Urquhart Castle view from the boat.
We spotted the Loch Ness monster!
After our boat ride on Loch Ness, we toured Urquhart Castle.
Our hotel for the night was 2 hours away, and our schedule so packed during the day that we didn't get to eat lunch or dinner :(
We drove to our hotel in Portree for the next 2 nights.
10/13
Today we are on the Isle of Skye. We hiked a lot of the way up Old Man of Storr. It was very windy and rainy off and on. There were such breathtaking views from every angle though!
There was Heather all over the place. Unfortunately it was past blooming time. We were able to find a couple little blossoms left. I bet it's so stunning on the mountains during peak bloom time!
Then we drove on further to see Lealt Falls. We had a beautiful seaside view here. Our car grabbed burgers and hot chocolate from the food truck here.
Next was Staffin Beach to see the dinosaur tracks. We could not for the life of us find them until McKinley found a few tik toks showing where to find them and we could finally puzzle it out.
Then we were on to Kilt Rock. Beautiful ocean view and Mealt Falls pouring into the sea.
After lunching at the Hungry Gull Cafe, we visited Duntulm Castle. It was very windy, but worth it for the views.
With all the rain came all the rainbows! We counted up to 23 that we spotted during the trip.
We love all the sheep across the countryside
Fairy Glen was our last stop. We hiked the little loop trail. This is Fairy Castle. It;s a rock formation that just resembles a castle.
10/14
Today we made a loop around the Isle of Skye to see the rest of the things we wanted to.
Neist Lighthouse was a bit of a walk, but at least it was on paved trail.
I love a good rugged coastline! We made sure to add our own Cairns to the sea of Cairns in the open area.
More cute sheep grazing.
Next was Dunvegan Castle
Then we went to the Fairy Pools. This was another trail to hike and see all the waterfalls and pools.
A few people were brave enough to take a dip in the Fairy Pools.
After the pools we stopped by Sligachan. river to dip our faces in. Legend has it that if you dip it for 7 seconds and then let it air dry that you will be blessed with eternal beauty. It's worth a try!
We didn't make it to Eileen Donan Castle before closing time at 5, so we just looked at it from afar.
We drove on to Inverness for the night.
10/15
We had a tour at Culloden Battlefield at 10 am.
Learning about the history was really interesting.
More cute Coos
We named this one "Trixie"
These mounds were full of the battle victims remains and were marked later by these headstones.
After our tour and a bite of lunch at the cafe, we stopped by Bow Fiddle Rock.
We explored a little sea cave that opened to the ocean. We found a little bit of sea glass there.
We stayed the night in Cruden Bay.
10/16
We woke up bright and early to get a start on our very packed day. Luckily the sunrise was amazing to soften the blow.
First was these interesting coastal rock formations called the Bullers of Buchan
Not far away, we explored the ruins of Slains Castle
We stopped at Cruden Bay Beach to look for more sea glass, but it was a sandy beach so we had to quickly move on.
Our next stop was Newburgh's Seal beach. We were there in the morning time, and apparently the seals like to fish out at sea in the morning. We did get lucky to spot a few swimming in the bay area.
We toured Dunottar Castle. An employee told us it was the inspiration for Disney's Brave castle, as well as the site of many other movies.
There was a little rocky beach at the bottom of the trail, and we were able to find a few pieces of sea glass again.
We took a little side trip on our way to our hotel and stopped of at St. Andrews golf course so McKinley could get Davis some presents.
We also saw surfers! Brrr
We slept in Kirkaldy for the night.
10/17
In the morning we toured Rosslyn Chapel. In addition to it's rich history, it was also the movie site for the final chapel in The DaVinci Code movie.
We spent the bulk of our day in Edinburgh.
Victoria Street. We did a bit of souvenir shopping.
This street is said to have inspired Harry Potter's Diagon Alley.
The Elephant House is the cafe that JK Rowling jotted down her Harry Potter ideas and is considered the "birthplace" of the series. It was closed due to a fire in the building recently.
The Royal Mile
We did an underground ghostly tour of the vaults under Edinburgh
This cute young man was playing the bagpipes on the street for tourists.
Then we had our tour of Edinburgh Castle
After the castle tour we set of to find Greyfriar's Bobby. We happened upon the graveyard site that inspired Tom Riddle's name in Harry Potter.
Greyfriar's Bobby. A ghostly dog.
If you rub the statue's nose, it's supposed to bring luck.
We had to arrive for our dinner reservation at Dalhousie Castle by 6:30 pm. We ate in the dungeon. It was a fancy yummy meal.
My dessert dish-
We slept at Dalhousie Castle. It is supposed to have a haunted past, but it was nothing but good sleep for us!
10/18
Another early morning appointment. Today we started at Stirling Castle.
In this picture from the Castle grounds, you can see the Wallace Monument on the hill in the distance.
Then we drove over the William Wallace Monument
It was interesting to learn more about the struggle for independence that Scotland has been through in the past.
We rode a shuttle up to the monument, and then walked the downhill trail on the way back.
We made it to the Owlery just in time to see the last owl show of the day. We got to see a few owls fly around the room a bit. All of the owls were so beautiful.
Then Shanna's family left to Glasgow to catch their morning flight, while the rest of us slept in Largs for the night.
10/19
It was a windy, stormy night and day. We were planning on visiting the Isle of Arran, but the ferry was not running due to the weather conditions. So for our backup plan we visited Kelburn Castle. They commissioned world renowned muralists to paint on the castle.
It seemed to be a very pro-artist area with many installments on the grounds.
We walked the grounds in the rain. This giant leafed plant was a Chilean Rhubarb.
We stopped for lunch and ice cream at Nardinis.
Out the restaurant window we spied this giant viking statue. He's called Magnus. It was made to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the Battle of Largs.
After lunch we went out to see him.
Luckily, McKinley stopped down on the rocky beach behind him. This is where we hit the sea glass jackpot! They were everywhere. We all came home with pockets full of sea glass.
We turned in our rental car in Glasgow and slept the night right by the airport to be ready for our 6 am flight.
10/20
Kristy, McKinley and I had another long layover in Amsterdam on our way home. This time we decided to tour the windmills at Zaanse Schans.
We had fresh stoopwaffels, visited the cheese shop and got some yummy cheese, then watched them make wooden shoes at Klompjes store.
It was a soaking wet rainy day, (much worse than any day in Scotland) and our shoes got filled with water. At the airport we had to buy new socks or slippers so we wouldn't have to be miserable for the 9 hour flight!
