Day 11– Off to Scotland!!!
We are starting the day off with a huge English breakfast at the hotel in York and then off to explore!! We are planning to stop at a ancient stone circle called the Druid’s Temple nearby. It’s looks amazing!! Next we will make a quick stop at the ancient Roman Hadrian’s wall. Hadrian’s wall was built by the Roman’s starting in 122AD and extends all the way across the country.
There are several Outlander filming sights we are planning see around Edinburgh once we arrive in Scotland. Doune Castle (Castle Leoch), Midhope Castle (Lallybroch), and Blackness Castle (Fort William in the TV series)to name a few. After this we are heading to the picturesque St. Andrew’s on the east coast of Scotland, just north of Edinburgh.
Now there are at least a 100 more places we would like to visit on this day, but we are staying the night at Kildrummy Castle!!! So, we are hoping to get there early enough to explore and enjoy it!!!
Day 12– The Castle Trail
The north-eastern portion of Scotland around Aberdeen has literally hundreds of castles in a hundred mile radius!!! Most of us on this trip have been to Scotland before. So, our plan for this day is to see as many as we can of the castles we missed last time and visit some of our favorite scotch distilleries. Benromach Distillery is definitely on the list!! We will also visit Culloden battlefield and the Clava Cairn stones, the original standing stones that the book series Outlander were written about.
We are spending night 12 in ANOTHER Castle!!! So we are heading north of Inverness a bit to Tulloch Castle for our dinner reservations and a good nights sleep in luxury!!!
Day 13– Eilean Donan Castle and the Loch Ness Monster!!!
We will start our day with a drive past Loch Ness hoping to spot the mysterious monster, then we are thinking of heading south to Fort William to ride on the Harry Potter Train otherwise known as The Jacobite!!! The Jacobite crossing the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct as seen in the Harry Potter movies. This dedicated train runs from Fort Williams to Mallaig and takes about an hour each way with a 2 hour stopover in Mallaig for lunch and a bit of shopping.
We will then head back to stay at The Farmhouse B&B right next to Eilean Donan Castle. We have been to Eilean Donan on our last trip, but this time we are definitely going on the inside tour!!!
Day 14– Isle of Skye
We would like to start the morning with some misty photo opps of Eilean Donan Castle before we cross the bridge over to the Isle of Skye. The Isle of Skye is seriously the most beautiful place in the world!!! We are hiking to the Fairy Pools, Visiting Old Man Storr, and Kilt Rock all in one day!!! There’s so many beautiful, picturesque coastal spots and quaint little towns to visit on the Isle of Skye we may never make it to our cliff-side B&B for the night!! On our last trip to Scotland we definitely didn’t plan for enough time on the Isle of Skye.
Day 15– Isle of Lewis and Harris
We need to be up bright and early on this day to catch the ferry over to the Isle of Harris. Once on the Island we will visit the Harris Tweed Shop and some of the amazing beaches dotted all around both islands. You can cross the bridge into the Isle of Lewis which is where we will be spending the night just a few minutes from the Callanish Standing Stones for the Summer Solstice!!!!! So needless to say we will be at the stones by sunset and then again at 4:30 in the morning for the sunrise!!!!
The Uig Lodge that we are staying the night at looks like something straight out of a Scottish fairytale. The beach is in the background and you can already feel the crisp air blowing just by looking at the photo!! I can’t wait!!!
Day 16– Our last day in Scotland
As I said, we are going to be up for dawn at the Callanish Standing Stones on the Summer Solstice!! I’ve read that it is quite magical! After sunrise we are heading straight to Stornoway to catch another ferry back to the mainland of Scotland. We have a 3 hour drive to Aberdeen to catch an afternoon flight back to Dublin for one more night of fun!!!!
We are hoping for a little more sightseeing on the way…..
Day 17– Back to the United States
We are booked on a 9:50 am flight on United back to Chicago to see our much missed families!!!
Please follow along and I’ll continue this story with all the tales of our adventures when we return!!!
