Destination #12 - Scotland

Aye...

Took a wee trip to Scotland for the first long weekend of May. This is a country that I was looking really forward to seeing and the views did not disappoint. However, I severely underestimated how the weather would be. Word of advice: If you go to Scotland, bring lots of layers and a rainproof jacket!

To explain this trip better, I`ve included a lot of pictures as we crammed much of Scotland in 3 days!

My flatmates and I arrived in Edinburgh late Friday night and I was immediately in love with the city for it's architecture, streets, and 18th century feel. Our tour started the next morning with a group of about 18 young, like-minded travellers....mainly Aussie's...again. Our end destination for the first day was to Inverness. Along the way, we stopped at:

Dunkeld - A small village we stopped at for some coffee.

The Highland Folk Museum - An outdoors museum that showed how the highland folk use to live.

Culloden - This is where a battle between the British Government and rebellions called the Jacobites took place in 1746.

Clava Cairns - An area near Inverness that still contains ring cairns, which are believed to be graves, dating back to over 2000 years ago.

Loch Ness - If you're wondering, no, we didn't see the Loch Ness Monster.

That night in Inverness, we got to know a few of our trip partners a little better over dinner and drinks.

The next day, we headed over to the Isle of Skye. If you haven't heard already, Skye is beautiful. Along the way we stopped at:

Urquhart Castle - This castle may look familiar as the Loch Ness monster was spotted here back in the day.

Eilean Donan Castle

Kilt Rock - My flatmates and our tour guide below

Sligachan - Our guide told us that if we put our faces in the water of the river for 7 seconds, we would be eternally youthful...

Duntulm Castle

And a couple of other really cool, unknown, random spots that our tour guide knew about.

We settled down that night in a small village called Kyleakin and I must say, it was really nice! We all went to the local pub that night for a meal and drinks. I tried a bite of Haggis and it wasn't too bad actually. I also ventured in trying a number of different Scottish whiskies that night. After it was time to head back to the hostel, I really appreciated just how quiet and quaint the village was. It was easy to fall asleep that night, that's for sure.

On the third day, we made the long journey back to Edinburgh. Along the way, we stopped at:

Glen Shiel

Glencoe

Doune Castle - If anyone is a Monty Python fan, many scenes were filmed here.

Our tour ended late that afternoon and although a lot of time had spent on a small bus, our tour guide kept us entertained the whole time with tall tales that usually linked to the next place we were going to see. That night, we got some dinner with a couple that we met on our tour and then went on a ghost walking tour of Edinburgh. We went through this underground area that is supposedly haunted and went through a graveyard as well. It was neat but unfortunately, we didn`t see or hear any strange phenomenon!

On our last day, we attempted to explore Edinburgh. Of course, it was particularly wet and cold this day so we really didn`t get much joy out of seeing the city. I`ll admit, after seeing Edinburgh Castle, we sat in a pub for some time and then after seeing Holyrood Palace, we sat in Starbucks for some time! Lame, I know. It was around late afternoon that we made our journey back to London and some nicer weather.

I would highly recommend Scotland and especially going to see the Highlands and Skye. I would also recommend bringing proper attire. Next week, Dublin!!

Edinburgh Castle

Holyrood Palace - where the Royal family stays