Exploring Scotland One Castle at a Time

For ten years I've been talking about taking a trip to Scotland. For five of those years I scrimped and pinched and saved to be able to do it. And for the past two weeks I've been there. And it was well worth the money and the struggle to get there.

I thought I'd post just a little of our trip, whenever I could. And I'm starting with our first day there. We arrived in England on May 26th to find our flight to Edinburgh had been canceled. A strike by British Airways employees held all flights in and out of Heathrow Airport at a stand still. British Airways did arrange an alternative flight and we arrived in Edinburgh a little late and picked up our rental car from Eurocar.

OMG it was a brand new Mercedes with only 100 miles on the odometer.

Mitsi bit the bullet and climbed behind the wheel and off we went to our first Bed andBreakfast, Miller’s 64 on Pilrig Street.

Miller’s 64 was so clean you could eat off the floors. It’s a Victorian townhouse fully renovated. The stairs spiraled upward. A real challenge with our 50 pounds of luggage, but we rose to the occasion. After a short trek into town for an Italian dinner at a nearby restaurant we crashed from our 17 hour long trip.

The next morning at 8:15 we caught a taxi to Waterloo Place to meet up with our tour bus.

Down the street from our bus stop, the National Archives building sat with it’s impressive statue of Wellington in front. Wellington was the general who defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo on June 18th, 1815. He was the British Prime Minister from 1769 to 1852.

From where we stood at the bus stop we could also see the Dugald Stewart Monument.

Stewart was a Scottish philosopher and professor of Mathematics who taught Sir Walter Scott at the University of Edinburgh.

Our bus arrived promptly at 8:45 and we boarded and sat back to enjoy our tour just south of the Scottish border to Norththumberland. We arrived in Scotland less than 24 hours before and we’re heading for England. Go figure.

We drove South to the border.
 

Along the way, the gorse plants caught my attention. I had read about them in books but never seen them. Gorse is a hardy plant that blooms all over Scotland and parts of Ireland. It is covered with thorns and the blossoms have a waxy feel to their petals. They smell lovely (as the Scots say).
 
 

Flax plants bloomed all along the way. The Scottish government encourages farmers to grow the plant and subsidizes it’s growth because of it’s many uses. The seeds can be used as a dietary supplement high in Omega-3 fatty acids that can lower cholesterol , can be used as a laxative, and may stunt tumor growth. It can also be used to create varnishes and paint polymers. And the stems are used for fibers with which to weave.
 

We crossed the border about an forty-five minutes later and had to stop to commemorate the occasion.
 
 

 
After a quick stop at the border, we arrived at Bamburgh Castle (pronounced Bambro by the Scots). It is one of the most impressive fortresses in Britain. It was used as the location for the movies of Mary Queen of Scots, MacBeth, El Cid, Becket, Ivanhoe, and Elizabeth. The place is massive and beautiful. Parts of the castle date back to 1066 when the Normans built a castle to replace the one destroyed by the Vikings in 993. That structure provided the core of the castle that now stands.
 
 

 
It’s perched above the beach on the Northeast coastline of England. The sea appeared so blue it looked surreal. I could have stayed there for hours.
 
 

Once you step inside the walls of the castle you are projected back in time.
 
 
 

I'll post more photos and commentary tomorrow.  I don't want to overload the images and info I give you.  But I'll complete our tour of Bamburgh and Alnwick Castles tomorrow.

Write on,

Teresa Reasor