10 days probably isn't enough to do justice traveling abroad, but this trip seemed especially so.
After arriving in Edinburgh, we started our trip by driving to the west
coast and catching a ferry from Androssan to Brodick, Arran. Arran is
my middle name, and that of my son. I've wanted to visit because of
the family significance and wasn't disappointed. It's an incredible
place - they call it Scotland in miniature and I'd have to agree that
it has a lot of what the mainland has to offer. We only had two nights
and one full day to explore, not nearly enough but a good start. We
were happy with our accomodations at the
Auchrannie House Hotel
, but next time I think I'd like to find something on the coast like at Kildonan or near Machrie.
There is a nice road that circles the entire island - that's what we
did on our one long day. We stopped at several points along the way.
We enjoyed the drive up to the highest point on the isle reachable by
car, Monmore Glen on the Ross Road, near Lamlash. The entire south
Arran coast is stunning. We stopped at one of the many cliff-top swing
sets near Kildonan, apparently swinging is a big pastime in the area.
This was another special stop for us. There is a small but rugged
island "Ailsa Craig" to the south, a bird sanctuary, that we stopped to
take pictures of (my namesake!). The short hike to some standing
stones and stone circle near Machrie was beautiful. We saw Lochranza
castle and Arran distillery, and enjoyed the spectacular scenery on the
drive back to Brodick (where we arrived too late to get in the castle
but did look about the grounds).
Reluctantly, the next morning we caught the ferry from Lochranza
back to the Kintyre Peninsula on the mainland at Claonaig. There we
accidentally found one of our favorite spots on the entire trip -
Skipness castle very near to the ferry terminal. We had time to kill
before the next ferry trip, saw the castle on our approach to the
terminal, and made the quick trip down there. It's a bit of a walk
from the car park, but well worth it. Be sure to heed the warnings
about fearless (ruthless?) poultry in the area.
We then boarded the next ferry for the trip from Kennacraig to Port
Askaig, Islay. Once again, we allowed ourselves far too little time to
tour this beautiful island - one day and two nights - but it's better
than nothing. We stayed in Bowmore, sort of centrally located on the
island at the Harbor Inn.
It's in a cute old building and had very nice restaurant and friendly
staff. Our room was a bit of a disappointment - it smelt very strongly
of mold that was covered up with air freshener. Very hard to spend
time there. But we hope that the rest of the Inn is nicer - our room
was sort of off to one end and look like maybe it had been annexed and
refurbished. Maybe the rest of the building is more pleasant - I
didn't detect that smell outside of our room. It was our second night
here that we learned my son Matthew was in intensive care with newly
diagnosed diabetes. Very hard to be half way around the world when
that happens, let me tell you! My family persuaded me, and after much
consideration we decided to stick it out and finish our trip. It sort
of cast a cloud over the rest of the stay, but we did the best we could
- checking in as often as possible without driving those at home crazy.
Our day on Islay was very much like that on Arran - we spent most of
it in the car, driving around as much of the inverted "U" shaped island
as we could. We first drove south past Laphroaig and Lagavulin
distilleries. We were too late for their tours, but enjoyed the
grounds at both - the home of my two favorite single malts. We
continued on to the iron age cross at Kildalton Chapel. A beautiful
place that must be experienced. We marveled at the tombstones so worn
that you could hardly recognize them as such, and imagined what knights
and other folks must be buried here. We then took a short cut back up
to the north, and then down the other side of the "U". We passed by
the Bruichladdich distillery - and tried to stop at an urgent care
facility for my increasingly sore throat. The doctor was out on a
house call and we decided not to wait around - fortunately it got
better on its own. We continued south to the Isle of Orsay and the
Rhinns of Islay lighthouse there. Very scenic indeed. When we reached
the southern tip of the island it was pouring rain. We sat in the car
for a bit, enjoying a picnic lunch. When the rain cleared, we could
see Northern Ireland in the distance to the south. We walked along the
coast across the inlet from the lighthouse, taking some pictures. We
then continued on a very small single track to the north up the outside
of the "U" through beautiful landscape. We detoured to the Kilchoman
Old Parrish Church and walked out to the beach nearby. The wind was
houling and it was cold, so we hurried back to the car - drove down a
couple more dead ends before heading back to Bowmore for the night.
The rest of the trip is sort of a blur (after learning about Matthew's condition, but I'll remember what I can....
The next morning we caught the ferry from Port Askaig back to
Kennacraig. Actually, that ferry (at 630 AM) was canceled due to work
on the pier, so we had to race to the other end of the island at about
250 mph to catch the boat there.
Upon reaching the mainland at Kennacraig, we drove north through
Argyll. We took the long up hill hike to Carnasserie Castle (we agreed
that no one could have attacked it because they'd be dead tired by the
time the reached the top of the hill). In ruins, it was fun to imagine
what it must have been like, climbing its two tall spiral staircases in
the towers.
We continued north to Oban, where we stopped for some incredibly
good fish and chips for lunch. We drove further north hoping to make
it to Skye. We took a quick detour at Castle Stalker in Loch Laich -
very scenic. We saw Ben Nevis, and as we turned on to the peninsula
towards Skye it started to rain hard. Since we didn't have much time
there, and most of what we wanted to do was look at scenery that we
couldn't see, we decided to turn around and head toward Edinburgh - our
ultimate destination. The drive across the lower Highlands is
absolutely breathtaking - the glacial valleys colored in the brightest
greens you can imagine. We were too tired to stop - not that there was
anywhere to pull out because of all the traffic - and continued through
Sterling to Edinburgh. We didn't have a good plan for finding our
apartment so we stopped and bought a map. It didn't help too much, as
the streets in Edinburgh change names every block and change from bus
traffic only to open traffic. But we finally found our destination.
We spent five nights in the
Canon Court Apartments
and were quite pleased with our choice. It is a perfect spot for
someone staying more than a couple nights - equipped with full kitchen
and small living room with TV, and private bath. It is quite a hike
from there to old Edinburgh - only requires about 20 minutes, but an
uphill climb all the way. We decided to alternate days in Edinburgh
and days in the car.
The first day in Edinburgh, we saw the Scotland - New Zealand All
Blacks rugby world cup match at Murrayfield Stadium. Though Scotland
was defeated by New Zealand 40-0, it was quite a spectacle. The
stadium is 100 years old, and it was great to see the All Blacks do
their Haka - and see one of the finest teams in the world in any sport
do their thing.
The next day we toured southern Scotland - something I didn't do the
first trip. Again we didn't allow ourselves enough time - but based on
what I've seen I enjoyed my time in the highlands much more. We drove
west to Ayrshire and had a picnic lunch at Dunure Castle. From there
is another great vantage point to Ailsa Craig and Arran. We took a few
pictures and drove south to Culzean Castle. We paid a ridiculously
outrageous amount to tour this fancy castle and came away mostly
disappointed. The grounds and castle are beautiful, don't get me
wrong. But we both enjoyed the ruins and hikes a lot more than paying
a fortune to see somebodies fancy furniture and heirlooms.
We continued south as far as we could go - I drooled over the golf
courses at Turnberry - and turned back to the east to Kirkudbright
where we saw Threave Castle - also situated in a small loch. You can
take a row boat out to the island and tour the castle, but we were too
late for that. Exhausted, we sprinted north back to Edinburgh.
In Edinburgh for a day, we toured the old town. It was pretty
rainy, not a great day to be hiking all over town, so we stopped off in
the National Gallery. We skipped the Andy Warhol exhibit, but enjoyed
the rest of the museum as we dried off. We then stopped of at the Camera Obscura
in old town, an attraction we'd highly recommend! They have a "camera"
that uses mirrors to reflect an image of Edinburgh on to a white
tabletop. The camera can be pointed in any direction, so you get a
full pano of the city. Pretty cool for technology over 100 years old.
There are lots of fun exhibits there too with optical illusions and
such. We walked around searching for some tartan fabric for a good
friend of mine, and were relieved when we finally found it.
We had been dragging the golf clubs around in the car the entire
trip and hadn't even thought about taking them out of the travel bag.
We decided we couldn't go home without a trip to St. Andrews. Though
the weather was cold and rainy, we were both quite happy we made the
decision. I played at the "Jubilee Course", the hardest one in town as
stated by a couple of locals. I can easily vouch for that - it was 40
degrees and the wind was blowing about 40 mph steady. I spent most of
my time searching the heather and gorse, and taking in the beautiful
scenery that is St. Andrews. Laura froze to death as my caddy but
agreed that walking a golf course at St. Andrews was as good as any
hike we had taken in Scotland. We ate an overpriced/underwhelming
steak dinner at the Old Course Hotel and headed back to Edinburgh.
Our last day we spent collecting souvenirs and photos. It was
sunny, so we decided to spend the money for the castle tour. It was
worth it, very interesting history and architecture, and great vantage
points over Edinburgh.
