A Trip Of A Lifetime --Part 3

After our wonderful week in Ireland, and crossing back to Holy Head,Wales, on the ferry we spent  the night again at the Holy Head Travel Loge.
Our English hire van was still there safe and sound and  the next morning we loaded it up again and made a decision to head directly up the motorway towards the top of Scotland.
We passed through some very picturesque countryside,

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We  ended up at booking a B&B ,"The Ship Inn" at the Port of Cromarty Firth at Invergordon.
We were given a whole house to share next door to the Inn, it was wonderful.The building on the right was our accommodation.

Directly across the road a cruise ship was getting ready to leave as we arrived and we could hear the bagpipes playing to farewell them.

Invergordon was a pretty old fashioned port town with narrow streets and quaint old buildings.

The next morning we headed to Urquhart Castle near Inverness.
On the way to the castle we stopped off at a massive car boot sale which we wandered around, Bernie and Kerry bought themselves  a "Jimmy Hat" each which they continued to wear around most of Scotland.

Urquhart Castle has always been very  high up on my  wish list of places to visit as the area  is part of my family history.
Please  forgive my overload of photos of the castle and the famous Loch Ness but I was just overwhelmed  and couldn't stop taking pictures of this stunning bit of history.

My first view of Urquhart Castle from the road,

We went in to have a good look around,

We watch a small film about the history of the castle and on completion the curtains were pulled and the view out  the panoramic window was spectacular.

I think the best bet is to just put the photographs here. We wandered the ruins of the castle for a couple of hours, climbed the old tower and just took in the beauty that is Loch Ness.

This visit has been a dream of mine for so many years, I really thought I would never  really see it,
I am so happy  that  our fellow travellers were happy to help me make my dream come true.
After leaving Urquhart Castle we headed back to Inverness , We had a quick look at Inverness castle , sadly it wasn't open to the public ,but we were able to climb the tower for a few photos.

As we wandered back to the car I took this photo of Kerry in front of the beautiful lilacs that were blooming everywhere.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Glen Ord Whiskey Distillery and did the tour.

The tour was wonderful, so much more 'real' than what the Guiness Storehouse  Tour in Dublin was. The young man was really informative and we were able to see and smell the process first hand.
We then went and sampled some of the whiskey,

We purchased a bottle of whiskey that the boys drank of the following few days.

We drove to a  nearby lookout that had been recommended to us.
There are quite a few oil rigs in this area and earlier it was foggy and misty rain and we were unable to see them barely.

On the way home I took this sneaky shot of Bernie in his cap.

After  getting back to our accommodation we had a small  drink and nibbles in our communal lounge area,

Then headed next door to the Inn for dinner.

We tried Haggis in wine cream sauce  for an entree which  we all agreed was delicious.

The mains were  delicious, Brian had the fish and I had the pie.

Early the next morning we headed south towards Edinburgh but by chance saw a sign to Blair Castle near the town of Blair Athol.
What a beautiful fairy tale  looking castle. Once again please forgive the sheer number of photos.

To enter you walk over a bridge over this pretty stream.

The front entry to the castle itself was amazing, all the walls were lined with weapons of all kinds, the boys loved it and spent ages looking at them all.

The hallways were lined with deer antlers,

Stunning ceilings and walls,

Beautiful formal dining rooms , drawing rooms, bedrooms,

The main central  staircase was never ending ,

There were beautiful displays of ancient  sewing samples and the china room was to die for, I have never seen so much beautiful china in one place.(There was also more china in other rooms as well.

After our really lovely tour of Blair Castle we headed on towards Edinburgh.
We decided top stop at a travel lodge at Dunferline about 29 klms from Edinburgh.
The next morning we  parked our van at the 'Park and Ride" station and caught the bus into Edinburgh.

The 3 amazing bridges over the Forth Estuary are truly beautiful, this one called the Queensferry Crossing is stunning.

Once in Edinburgh we took advantage of the hop on hop off bus and did a tour around Edinburgh.
This is the monument to Walter Scott.

The next few photos are streets and  buildings taken at random as we drove around. The next picture is country side right near the city,

This one is the statue in honour of 'Greyfriars Bobby',

And we drove past Holyrood castle gates, but unfortunately the castle was closed to visitors that day.

There were stunning churches and cathedrals and other buildings too numerous to photograph, Edinburgh is a beautiful city full of amazing architecture.

And something I loved was that they were reusing the old red phone boxes as Automatic teller cash points.

We alighted the bus at Edinburgh castle to do a tour.

We wandered the castle, the boys loving all the big cannons and military collections .

We checked out the old  prison below the castle,

There were big crowds of tourists wandering around.

The views from up high were brilliant from all the different vantage points.

Over the park and the ancient cemetery were especially lovely.

We watched "The Changing Of The Guard',

I got a picture taken with two friendly guards.

We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, and saw some lovely rooms,

The Chapel,

And some courtyard photos,

At the end of the tour we opted for afternoon tea in the tea room.

We then wandered back to meet our hop on hop off bus finding a William Wallace look alike  along the way.

The next morning we headed off out of Edinburgh, the countryside is just so stunning,(I know I use that word a lot, but it truly is!)

Brian was hunting for Plover's eggs, and he found them!.
We  decided to visit Rosslyn Chapel, which had a connection to "The Da Vinci Code" movie.
We arrived a little early and had a wander around the area first. This was taken from outside the boundary fence.

The outlook is beautiful. We also wandered the old cemetery next door while we waited for the chapel to open.

Finally the chapel opened and we went inside.
No photographs were allowed inside the chapel.

I was the luckiest person at the chapel!. I visited the ladies room and removed my bag(carrying money, passport ect)... and forgot to put it back on. I then continued the  look at the chapel and only realised that it was missing when we decided to have a cup of tea. A wonderful woman from the US had followed me into the ladies ,found my bag and handed it in immediately. I am so grateful to her.!
We headed  south, passing through more beautiful country, our driver Bill puts the GPS on ECO so, we get to do all the quieter back roads with glorious scenery.

We came across this beautiful chain bridge, over the River Tweed, At first we were concerned that our van may not have fitted through the posts that had been erected to stop larger vehicles passing over the bridge, but we just squeezed through.
This bridge is on the border between Scotland and England.

The view from the England side looking back at the bridge was  really pretty.

And so ends our  tour of Scotland, way too short. This is an amazing country that I know for sure I definately need to come back to. There is just so much more to see and do that we couldn't do in the time we had allowed..
My next post will be our return to England for the next leg of our journey.
I hope you follow along with us.
Take care
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.