Danial-Evelyn: Highlander Castles and Nessy Day

We have a huge day today, so of course we slept in, but eventually began our drive through the beautiful Scottish scenery to the Stirling Castle.

Loch Lomond

We stopped to admire Loch Lomond and awed at the enormous mountains behind the wind rippled lake. There were virtually no other visitors so we stayed for about 5 minutes to breathe in the clean air. We wished we could have stayed longer. By the time we left there were 7 other cars pulling up. We seem to find all the good sights by luck.

Loch Lomond

Our drive continued on with the Loch peeping through trees. One day trip in this area is simply not long enough. Soon after the Loch we were excited to see Highlander cows grazing in the paddock. They looked so peaceful amongst the healthy green grass with their long coats. We pulled off the road to a short dirt driveway and thudded over a bump just off the path then got out and snapped some pictures. The car was stuck on a rock! (The things Ev will do to get a shot) Luckily her skillful driving got us back on the highway in no time.

Highlander Cows

The beautiful view of the Highlands

Stirling Castle

After 3 hours of driving we finally made it to Stirling Castle. It was fairly busy already with a couple of tourist buses already exploring the castle. We had a quick look around the outside grounds and out at the William Wallace Monument on the distant hill overlooking the town. We joined a tour group to view the inside grounds of the castle. We figured that since we had driven all this way it’s worth being escorted around through the small village properly.

William Wallace Monument on the mountain overlooking the town

The Stirling has had a long history of ownership changes between Scotland and England for ownership of the country. The castle is of high political gain as whoever owns Stirling Castle, owns Scotland. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. The first castle surrender occurrence to the English was in 1174 and many battles have taken place on the soil until 1357. The Queen of Scots is actually French, so although the Scottish don’t like to admit it, Scotland is actually owned by France, but fortunately this is not legal. Each time undertaking remodelling of the fortress structures. It is a beautiful castle which has been rebuilt and remodelled in various styles. We took a tour of the courts and saw the windows of the king and queen chambers then went up into a bedroom where Mary Queen of Scots have birth to her son King James IV which was very small.

We entered the huge Dining Room where large balls and parties were and are still held. There was also a tour in The Chapel Royal that had recent hand made tapestries of biblical stories hanging on the large walls. Each of the tapestries were made by ladies working in the castle and took a month to make. Dan went to the men’s haunted toilet and survived unscathed, but some staff had been known to run from the toilets screaming, refusing to come back to work after seeing a ghost. Upstairs from the toilets was a Military museum honouring the men and women who went to battle. A model scene of the Thin Red Line displayed the courage of the Scots in battle. The tour took almost an hour and a half which was longer than we expected, but it was worth taking the time.

Stirling Castle

Picture of the Royal parents with Mary Queen of the Scot's (right)...not the photographer

Dining Hall

Religious Tapestry symbolising Jesus, the Perfect Unicorn, trapped before His Crucifixion

Loch Ness

We drove through the township of Loch Ness and saw more Highlander cows grazing. They are so cool with their coat! After driving through the town we stopped at a gift shop to ask for directions to the Urquhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness. We were told it would be closing soon, but what does that mean in a place where speed limits are not really applicable. On the way we pulled up beside the banks of Loch Ness to observe the famous body of water. It was very peaceful with trees all around and white pebbles on the banks.

Mmmooooooooo

Loch Ness

What speed limit?! Who's driving!!!

Urquhart Castles

We made it to the Urquhart Castle with 10 minutes to spare before the last entrants were accepted at 5:15pm and walked through the castle remains next to the loch. It was very peaceful and green and we were lucky to view the fort remains at sunset with the Loch Ness water in the background. We aren’t really sure about the history of the place but knew it was one of the major Scottish strongholds back in the day and also an area with the most sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. Yeah we saw her, but we don’t want to make a big deal out of it, so what? We didn’t stay too long as they were closing.

Urquhart Castle Fort

Not really ready for our long drive home we strolled through the souvenir shop and found a magnet. The winding roads back along the river seemed to never end, but we passed an older guy with bags on his push bike riding from the town towards Urquhart Castle way for the 3^rd time. This guy was keen! The drive home was once again stunning. We took the direct route back to Edinburgh and arrived home around 9:30pm and grabbed dinner on the road.