With Mum and Dad in the UK we made our way up country to Scotland for just over a week! We caught the train to Edinburgh early and picked up our motorhome. Once we were settled into our wagon and had a spot of lunch in Edinburgh, we headed through Fife to St Andrews, Dad's Mecca! We stayed at a little camp ground that overlooked St Andrews bay. The next day we headed down to St Andrews town and walked through the old cathedral and the British Golf Museum before heading to the St Andrews Old Course we we ended up having quality posed photos on the bridge - Dad was in heaven! We then made our way over the the club house and had a bit of lunch.. very nice and the grin on dad's face stayed there all day! After lunch we stopped at a couple of golf shops and dad picked up a tartan cheesecutter which hasnt left his head since he bought it - very cool!
What a poser!
We left St Andrews and made our way through the Grampion mountains towards Inverness - we stopped on the way at Blair Castle. This was awesome - it is absolutely incredible, there are 35 rooms that you can go through that are filled with the most amazing treasures. Everything is so opulent and grand it is difficult to describe. There were peacocks walking the grounds and deer in the paddocks next to the castle - it was easy to see how it would have been to live here in the day. We carried on from Blair Atholl to Culloden and set up camp for the night. The next day we headed to the Culloden battle grounds.
The battle ground has a new visitor centre which has been open for about three weeks - this was one of the first stops where I subjected the family to a heap of history.. Shane is used to me going on and on about what has happened and why, mum and dad however havent had to put up with this for years oh well! We spent time walking through the centre and learning all about the Jacobite and Bonnie Prince Charlie history. We then headed out on to the battle ground - this was very eerie, over 1200 highlanders were killed within 60 minutes on that site, less than 50 English soldiers lost their lives. It was an absolute slaughter and there were a number of key mistakes made by the Scottish that could have changed the outcome had they done things slightly different!
After leaving Culloden we headed towards Inverness and onto Loch Ness... all of us in search of Nessie! We jumped on a boat trip and headed out on the loch, our skipper had been searching for Nessie for over 40 years and was very interesting to listen to. There are a whole heap of theories as to the sightings of Nessie over the years and after listening to some of the explanations we have come to the conclusion that Nessie (as per the myths) doesnt really exist. I have to admit though that I did buy the book with all of the conspiracy theories in it... just for a little more research! We carried on driving after our boat trip and headed towards the Isle of Skye on the west coast of Scotland.
We crossed at Kyle of Lochalsh and headed up the isle to Sligachan where we camped for the night under the Cullin mountain range. This was very impressive setting and we were awed by the beauty of the area. We settled in that night for a couple of games of 500 and a few Baileys night caps - very nice.. Shane and I kicked butt in 500 as well! The next day we headed up the isle to Portree for breakfast and cruised around the taking in the scenery. We stopped at the Talisker Distillery for a taste test... I will never be a whiskey lover! While I was assured that this was all very good quality stuff we walked away from there with burning throats and any bugs that might have been lurking we well and truly demolished! We left Talisker and made our way back down to Armadale Bay to catch the ferry across to Mallig. We didnt go to far before we found one of the most picturesque settings and set up camp right on the water. It was gorgeous and quiet and felt so much like Coromandel it was scary. We had the most incredible sunset that night and Dad took to posing on a rock to get the ultimate karate kid pose - it was hillarious!
Our next stop was Fort William, as we headed this way we came across the Caledonian Canal and stopped to have a look at the lock system that connected two of the lochs. This was an incredible set up and even more so as it has been a working lock system since the 1800's. There are two bridges (a traffic and a rail bridge) that pivot to let through boats before they work their way through 7 locks. We watched a small yacht and a large survey boat work their way through a couple of sections. Very cool. We stopped in Oban for a coffee and watched the hustle and bustle of the small port town before making our way towards Loch Lomand and Stirling. We stayed the night in Stirling not far from the William Wallace monument.
We woke up in the morning and saw in my birthday... another year older and wiser??? just older I think! Anyway I got spoilt rotten and then we headed up the hill to the William Wallace memorial. This was a nightmare walk up the hill and then up the monument (246 steps thanks very much) but worth it - Wallace's sword is encased there and it is huge! It must have been a huge man to have wield the sword. The view from the top of the monument was fantastic and you could see for miles in all directions. We left the monument and headed up to Stirling castle for a nosey. We left Stirling and headed towards Falkirk. We had heard about the Falkirk Wheel but didnt really know it was all about.
We headed there anyway and when we got there we were in for quite an engineering spectacle. Basically is was a wheel that was counterbalanced and moves one boat from above and one boat from below to alternate positions so that they can continue down the canal. This was opened in 2002 to join two canal systems and over 1000 boats per year use it. It takes about 12 minutes for a boat to move from the top to the bottom which is about a 30 metre difference in height. We took a boat ride and went through the wheel to get a first hand experience of how it worked - is a very impressive operation, very quiet and apparently only uses the electricity of 8 toasters to operate.
The next stop was Edinburgh - a final destination in our whirlwind tour of Scotland. We stopped and caught up with Jamie before heading into the city and tramping around the old and new town looking for lamb for my birthday dinner! We found it and some very nice wine in a restaurant on the Royal Mile... it was a great way to spend my birthday night and I even got a candle in my sticky date pudding to celebrate - nice one! We left the restaurant and had the most hillarious taxi driver take us back to the camp - he decided that I was the one to pick on and made fun of my accent and pronouncation until we were in hysterics and I couldnt really speak... he also told us alot of very dirty jokes... he asked if it was ok first though!
Our campground had a golf course next door so first thing in the morning Dad and Shane were up and off for 18 holes. Mum and I headed into town and commenced a spot of shopping before meeting up with the boys later. Mum & Dad went to Edinburgh Castle and later that afternoon had their picture taken in full scottish dress before meeting up with us later for dinner. That was our final night in Soctland, we spent the next day returning the motorhome and picking up last minute souvieners before jumping on the train back to London town! All in all it was a great holiday and we had a blast. The scenery was awesome and we loved it but spent a lot of time reminiscing about home and comparing what we had seen to NZ.... very similar just alot more castles, ruins and stone walls.... oh and we managed to spot a hairy cow!
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