Memorial Day 2019 – Scotland Road Trip

Before I even go into the trip itinerary, there were a few speed bumps that I hit before the trip. I left for my parents house on a Sunday. I drove the 4 hours and made it home for dinner. Maybe an hour later, I realized I left my passport in my apartment. We looked into all the options – expediting, getting a new passport…There was no other choice than for me to drive back and get it. Thankfully, my super caring roommate agreed to meet me halfway so I only did 4 hours of extra driving. Yay. My brother and I had plans to watch the Game of Thrones series finale that night, but I had to make my drive instead. We stayed up and watched a later showing when I got back which meant a 1-2 am bedtime. Not to mention I had to wake up for work at 6 am Monday morning. I worked for a full day then left for the airport around 4 pm for our redeye flight. Being standby, it’s hard to plan vacations, but thankfully all four of us made the flight and were content with our middle seats. In flight entertainment featured: Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary Poppins, and Into the Spiderverse. 

Day 1: Edinburgh 

We arrived early Tuesday, May 21 in Edinburgh. After many arguments with the parents, I was wrong and the city name is not pronounced like it’s spelled. Onto the logistics! We rented a sedan and booked hotels as we went. Mom prefers Budget and I tend to lean towards AirBnb. Since Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, it’s important to remember the driver sits on the right side and the cars drive on the left side. It was still too early to check into the hotel so we parked the car below Edinburgh Castle and jumped into tourist mode. 

First stop was a little cafe for breakfast. The family chose more American options, but I went full “When in Scotland”. Turns out I’m a fan of haggis, beans, mushrooms, and eggs for breakfast. For those wondering, haggis sounds gross (trust me and don’t google it), but it tastes very savory with all the spices and flavors. We were all tired from jet lag, but getting food in our stomach gave us the necessary energy to explore the Royal Mile. We started with Victoria Street which was the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. We stopped by the Elephant Cafe where Rowling actually wrote the books! To continue the Harry Potter tour we went to Greyfriars Kirk (church) and Greyfriars Bobby (dog statue). The Greyfriars Kirkyard was where Rowling found the names for her characters and made a fun cemetery scavenger hunt for us. We continued walking the Royal Mile, toured St. Giles Cathedral, and watched a street performer. We ended the afternoon with a tour of Edinburgh Castle which overlooks the city. 

I do want to point out there are multiple castle tour packages offered to save you money. I’ll try to dig up old receipts (I save everything), but I can’t remember the name at the moment. I know there was one for the lowlands with Edinburgh, Stirling, and a few others. We had another option for the highlands. 

After a long, exhausting day exploring Edinburgh, we went back to the car and got checked into the hotel which really had more bed and breakfast vibes. We took a long afternoon nap. Mom stayed in to rest while the rest of us went out for some nightlife. We Ubered to George IV Bar, a traditional pub, for fish and chips with a pint. We even got live music. We stopped by Royal Mile Tavern for real Scottish whiskey and more live music, but it was crowded so we didn’t stay long. Final stop of the night was Banshee Labyrinth which was a modern theme bar with multiple rooms and even a movie theater. Eventually we turned in to sleep before a long day of castles.

Day 2: Castles on way to Loch Lomond

Starting off with my personal favorite, Midhope Castle. AKA LALLYBROCH. Day 1 was a lot of Harry Potter, but beware the rest is a lot of Outlander. Check the Midhope website. The Castle is privately owned and is only available for certain days. You also have to purchase a parking pass. You can’t go inside, but pictures of the front are the best view anyway. We chatted with the parking attendant while buying souvenirs and he recommended we add Blackness and Linlithgow Castles to our list. Blackness was a super cool design for a castle and was nicknamed “The ship that never sailed”. For Outlander fans, this was the location where Captain Randall nearly whipped Jaime to death. Linlithgow Palace was used for a jail scene in Outlander, but it is more famously known as the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. If you’re not a history nerd, she was super cool. The palace had a beautiful cathedral out front and took the opportunity to rest our legs and listen to a 10 minute reading and prayer. We were running out of time in our schedule, but we rushed through Stirling Castle and the gardens. Mary Queen of Scots was crowned at this castle and Bonnie Prince Charles tried to take control of the castle during his rebellion. Another worthy wikipedia study is Prince Charles.

We arrived at Doune Castle 30 minutes before they were closing. This was a family favorite. It’s really out in the middle of nowhere but I highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of Monty Python especially. The castle is also used as Winterfell in Game of Thrones and as Castle Leoch in Outlander. We rushed through the castle, but spent most of our time galloping around clicking our souvenir coconuts together and quoting The Holy Grail. We buckled in to drive to our room in a house off of Loch Lomond. I will say I initially scoped in a half day at Glasgow, but I don’t think we missed anything. Glasgow is a modern city with a lot of museums and galleries. We prefered the castles in the middle of nowhere.  

Day 3: Loch Lomond and Loch Ness

This day was a lot of driving to get to Inverness. We started off with Balloch Castle which was at a local park down the road from the house we were staying at. From there, we began our scenic drive along Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. There is a famous scenic outlook in Glen Coe that I was trying to find, but it was a time consuming trip for hikers and not for quick road trips. We did a quick walk around the National Park Visitor Center to stretch our legs. After getting a little lost, we finally made it to the Glen Nevis gondola just before they closed. While there was no visibility at the peak, we did enjoy a quick snack and watching the extreme bike trails going down the mountain.

We continued our drive along Loch Ness and stopped at Urquhart Castle. We missed the opportunity to tour the inside since it closed by the time we got there, but we got pictures from the overlook. Finally, we arrived at the AirBnb house I booked in Inverness. We walked from the house to the city for dinner at a fancy place by the river. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to tour Inverness Castle with our schedule, but it’s worth checking out if you can.

Day 4: Culloden and Cawdor

We talked about circling back to see more of Loch Ness and Urquhart. We probably could have, but today wasn’t one of my better planned out itineraries. Instead, we continued on east to Culloden Battlefield which I definitely geeked over. Culloden had a museum, cafeteria, and gift shop all set up indoor, as well as walking trails in the battlefield. Free audio tours provided for the museum and outside. Dad and Bradlee appreciated this more than my other stops because it’s a historical battle. Mom was less interested.

After exploring, we stayed for lunch at the cafeteria and drove on to Cawdor Castle and gardens. A nice change to the castles we were seeing because this one was furnished and lived in. Think Downton Abbey or the Biltmore in North Carolina. It was really beautiful. The gardens included plants and trees from around the world. We were especially surprised to spot Redwoods in Scotland! We grabbed a snack in the cafe before leaving. Sueno’s Stone was an optional item for me and I wished we skipped it. We continued west and found Sueno’s Stone tucked behind a residential neighborhood. It was definitely impressive, but not cool enough to justify the extra drive time. We went back to Inverness for pizza and whiskey. 

Day 5: South to Edinburgh

If you have more time, you can add Aberdeen and see the eastern coast of the country, but we were out of time and quickly running out of energy. We drove around Cairngorms National Park to find Dunsinane Hill. We got lost and gave up, but I wasn’t too disappointed. I also planned on touring Falkland Palace, but we stopped at Perth for lunch and ended up staying. We toured Blackwatch castle and crashed a wedding. There was also some sort of festival downtown, but we didn’t stick around for that. We continued to our hotel outside of Edinburgh airport and took a nap before finding dinner. We ended up at a fish and chips place down the street. We turned in early since we had a morning flight home. We also did a lot of airport souvenir shopping, but I had to buy all the tartan. 

Overall, it was the first vacation with all four of us in a long time and I’m honestly just impressed we didn’t kill each other. I think the trip provided something for everyone – movie locations for me, historical locations for the boys, and castles for Mom. Maybe next time I’ll talk them into doing a backpacking trip around Skye.