Tuesday August 2nd, 2016
We head to London Stansed, but we do not leave the airport. Another flight and we land at Glasgow Airport at 2 pm and rent the car. We booked a small car, but with our pleasant surprise we are given a full optional Jaguar.
So we start to explore Scotland reaching our hotel, located in a quite central area, and we head straight to the cathedral. Before visiting the cathedral, we visit Provand’s Lordship, a medieval house, today a museum. As it’s late afternoon, we decide to go first to the graveyard behind the cathedral, full of tombs of famous people.
Then we visit the museum and the cathedral inside. Before returning to our hotel, we go to the People’s Palace, a museum with a greenhouse. Unfortunately, it’s late and closed, we see only the exterior and the Doulton Fountain that stands out in front of it. We take a break at the hotel and go out for dinner.
After dinner we want to reach the City Chambers but it begins to rain a lot, so we try to reach our hotel as quickly as possible (we walk and don’t have an umbrella).
Wednesday August 3rd, 2016
We leave Galsgow and reach Edinburgh where we immediately visit the castle. We leave the car at the foot of the hill and walk up, it looks very high, but the climb is not too tiring. It’s not raining, but the sky is cloudy. We visit the various environments of the castle (most of them are military museums).
After visiting the castle, we head to Rosslyn Chapel, a few miles from Edinburgh. We have lunch and visit the small church. The building is rich in sculptures both inside and outside and has become famous for the book (and the movie) The Da Vinci Code: some scenes of the movie have been filmed here. Unfortunately inside it’s not possible to take pictures.
We return to Edinburgh, walk through the Royal Mile and stop visiting St. Gilles Cathedral. Continuing on this long road, we reach the Scottish National Gallery. We pass by the Scott Monument and return to the Royal Mile until we arrive at Greyfriars Tolbooth & Highland Kirk, with the graveyard where one of the friars’ dog tomb is located, which for years has guarded his master’s tomb.
We conclude the Royal Mile with the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Then we head to the hill where the National Monument of Scotland is located and near to it an observatory. From here we admire the city’s panorama. We go back to the hotel and then go out for dinner.
Thursday August 4th, 2016
We head towards North, stopping at Culross, a small village with ancient houses and the remains of an abbey. Then we reach Stirling with its castle (we decide to visit it immediately instead of waiting the last day). The visit takes a long time, but it is definitely interesting.
Immediately after we visit the church of Holy Rude, not far from the castle. We continue our journey North, stopping at Perth, where we visit the Cathedral, and reach Dunkeld with the remains of an abbey.
We reach our hotel in Newtonmore and after dinner we go to Kingussie to see the remains of a Roman camp (they are very beautiful illuminated).
Friday August 5th, 2016
We continue north and we take a short stop at Fort Augustus, at the far end of Lake Lochness. The village is crossed by the 97-km Caledonian Canal, which thanks to a weirs system, allows connecting the two coasts from Inverness to Fort William.
We continue by car across the lake to the ruins of Urquhart Castle. We visit it even if there are only a few ruins, and we climb up the tower from which we admire the lake view (but we do not see the monster).
At lunch we stop at Inverness where we visit St. Andrew’s cathedral and the Victorian market. In the evening we should get to the northern point of Scotland, so we still have some time and then we stop near Golspie to visit the Dunrobin Castle. The castle is closed, but we can visit the gardens under a light rain.
Next to Wick, we take a break to walk along the cliffs. We arrive at John or ‘Groats, where we will spend the night (the worst hotel on our trip, but in a good position for the cliffs) After dinner we go through a small road crowded with many sheep to reach the Duncansby Head lighthouse and we walk to see the cliffs.
Saturday August 6th, 2016
As soon as we wake up we go back to the cliffs, it’s early but there is already the sun so we take so many photos of the beautiful landscape. We also see seals in the bay.
We continue to explore the Scotland along the coast, stopping at Dunnet Bay Beach, at Strathy Point cliffs and Ceannabeinne Beach. Finally at Durness we go down a path to get to the entrance of the Smoo Cave, a cave crossed by a river and where you can do boat tours. We don’t have the time to stop (and when we’re coming they are almost closing).
We continue without further stops to Ullapool. In the town there is not much, even for dinner the choice is quite limited (in the few restaurants there is a lot to wait for). In return the bed and breakfast we chose for this night is very nice, fairly new and the hostess is very kind.
Sunday August 7th, 2016
We leave the Scotland inland and go on to Skye Island, on the road we find directions to the Corrieshalloch Gorge (we had seen it on the guide, but we didn’t have it included in our itinerary). We decide to stop by making a small detour. It’s a narrow and deep throat where a river flows. Above there are 2 bridges from which you can admire its height.
The next stop is Eilean Donan Castle, one of Scotland’s most famous castles, featured on many postcards. Unfortunately, the weather is bad: it rains and it’s windy. We visit the castle trying to avoid staying too long outdoors.
After the visit we cross the bridge connecting the island of Skye and arrive at Portree where we have our hotel. Here too it is raining. When weather improves we head to Neist Point, on the west coast of the island to admire the landscape. There is some sunshine, but there is still strong wind. After walking a little around the lighthouse, we return to Portree for dinner.
Monday August 8th, 2016
Today we will visit some of the most famous places on the island, starting from the Old Man of Storr, a rock formation from which you can enjoy a beautiful panorama. The sun alternates with the clouds, but this allows us to climb without too much effort.
There are many people who come to this walk, and even during the descent we will meet many people. Once you reach the Old Man of Storr, we turn around the pinnacle. The climb is a bit difficult, while the descent is simple, and then we continue to the scenic spot not far away.
Shortly afterwards we find the Kilt Rock, a kilt-shaped basalt rock from which a waterfall descends. It is possible to see the waterfall from a platform at the top, but it is not possible to get off at the base (there is not a shore or a beach but only overcast rocks).
We reach the Quiraing pass, another very busy place and from here we take a short stroll. The sun continues to shine, we continue our visit to the island, passing through the Fairy Glen, small cone-shaped hills, finally reaching the Fairy Pools, a series of waterfalls and ponds.
The landscape is beautiful but we are surrounded by a large amount of mosquitoes. Finally we return to Portree.
Tuesday August 9th, 2016
To leave the island we would like to take the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig, but we haven’t booked it, there is much to wait. Therefore we are forced to return to the bridge. We pass by Eilean Donan Castle, the sky is cloudy, but at least it doesn’t rain. We briefly stop to take some photos.
Then we continue to Fort William, where we walk a bit in the center, visiting the West Highland Museum. From there we walk (partly on foot) to Steal Falls, a 120m high waterfall, reachable through a gorge, the Nevis Gorge.
We have lunch in front of the waterfall and watch childrens and adults having fun crossing a Tibetan bridge over the river: we decide to avoid it. Then we head to Tyndrum, where we will spend the night.
Wednesday August 10th, 2016
Today we wanted to take a stroll on Ben Nevis, a mountain well-known here. Unfortunately the rainy weather forces us to change our itinerary.
We stop at Luss, a small village with houses from the 18th and 19th century. Going on, we also stop at Balloch at the southern end of Loch Lomond. Later we visit the castle of Dumbarton, which rises on a rocky spur over the bay.
We also visit the Doune Castle (rain again), one of the most preserved castles, but without anything inside. Finally, the Cathedral of Dunblane. We go back to Stirling for the last night.
Thursday August 11th, 2016
Last day of our trip. First of all we see the botanical garden with the greenhouses, then we go to the transportation museum (very nice). Then to the nearby Tall Ship, now a sailing ship museum. We end our trip of Scotland going back to the airport.
