Scotland | travel

UK roadtrip: Scotland

We are on a roadtrip from Edinburgh, through the Scottish Highlands and Isle of Skye down to southern England to our end-station; London.

Edinburgh part I

Edinburgh greeted us with Scottish weather, with heavy rainfall and a few glimpses of sun. During August, Edinburgh hosts the world’s largest art festival, the Fringe, and the city is packed with visitors (1 million visitors in a 0.5 mio. inhabitants city). We climbed the local volcano, Arthur’s seat, saw a Fringe show and walked around the city and enjoyed the many street events the festival offered, while slightly overwhelmed by the massive crowd of people.

After two cold nights with rain pouring down on our tent that we had pitched up in Edinburgh’s Pentland Hills regional park, we decided to skip further city sightseeing and move north.

On top of Arthur's Seat overlooking Edinburgh

Doune Castle and St Andrews

On our way north, we stopped briefly at Doune Castle, a castle ruin from 13th century made famous by Monty Python’s “The Holy Grail” which we had all to ourselves in the early evening rain.

Next day we continued north-east to Dundee and the picturesque Scotland’s oldest university town St. Andrew, also known as the birthplace of golf. We spent the first night indoor in the small harbor village Tayport.

Outside Doune castle in the pouring rain

Dunnottar and Stonehaven

The weather improved and we headed for the lovely village, Stonehaven, and Scotland’s most beautiful castle ruin, Dunnottar castle which through history has been attacked by Vikings, captured by William Wallace, visited by Mary Queen of Scots and held out a 8 months siege to protect the Scottish Crown Jewels.

Dunnotar Castle near Stonehaven

The Scottish Highlands

We continued the day heading north-west by to Balmoral castle through the largest National Park in UK, Cairngorms, and the stunning scenery of the Scottish highlands which was covered with a purple heather carpet.

Blooming heather in Cairngorms National Park

We woke up in the small village of Nethy Bridge which hosted the regional Highland Games (a traditional Scottish sports event) and clan gathering where we spent hours watching caber toss, bagpipe- and traditional dance competitions.

Highland games and clan gathering at Nethy Bridge

We continued through Inverness and passed the Loch Ness monster on our way north-west where we spent the night with view of Eilean Donan castle, one of our favorite castles we stumbled upon on our trip.

Eilean Donan Castle at night

Isle of Skye

Next day we crossed the bridge to Isle of Skye: lush green meadows and Atlantic coast scenery with white washed croft houses and herds of sheep gracing. While the eastern part of the island is most known to tourists, we fell in love with the quiet atmosphere of Dunvegan and the stunning scenery of the western Skye coast.

West coast of Isle of Skye

...and back south again

After two days at Isle of Skye, we continued the coastal trail south close to Isle of Mull to some of the most idyllic harbor villages we passed on our journey.

After several days on the western-most parts of Scotland, we continued past Ben Nevis (UKs highest mountain) and across the country to Stirling, once capital of Scotland, now a picturesque university city.

On the way, we passed the modern landmark “the Kelpies”, the largest equine sculptures in the world.

10 days after our arrival, we were back in Edinburgh for a Fringe festival round 2. We went up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle, the National Gallery and a few other things we had on our laundry list including Craigmillar castle.

Early next morning we headed south to England and Wales.

The Kelpies at Falkirk

Mini-kelpies outside the Scottish parlament in Edinburgh

Craigmillar castle outside Edinburgh

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