A Wee Tale for You: North Berwick & Another Castle

Sorry it's been a while since I've written. It's taken me a bit to get back in the swing of things since going back to the states. But I think we're there now. And I'm on my 3rd week of working but that's another post for another day.

Last weekend we actually saw the sun here in Scotland. Since I've started working I rarely get to see the sun because I walk to work before the sun is up and it sets long before I leave to head home. So we took advantage of the "beautiful" weather and decided to see a castle. Our original plan was to go to the Edinburgh castle but our friends Kurt and Erin called us just as we were finishing getting ready to see if we wanted to go with them to Tantallon Castle in North Berwick.

Kurt & Erin

North Berwick is about a 30 minute train ride east of Edinburgh so it's easy to get to, inexpensive and makes for a great day trip. Our original plan was to climb the North Berwick Law which is a random hill in the middle of flat ground that you can see from Edinburgh. Unfortunately we didn't make it to N. Berwick until noonish and since it is an hour walk just to the castle (3 miles - or if you were paying attention a few blogs ago - a league) we decided to head to the castle so that we could see it before the sun went down.

To get to the castle we walked down the 2 lane highway that ran along the water. We passed a golf course and Lucas decided that all he wanted for Christmas was a round of golf of an oceanside, links course. Luckily golf is pretty cheap here in the winter so that's what Santa will be bringing him.

Also visible on our walk was Bass Rock. It's a gigantic volcanic plug in the middle of the Firth standing on it's own. You can see the lighthouse on it in the pictures below. I really want to go out there but apparently the "island" is privately owned so I'm not sure that's going to happen until I make some friends in high places.

As if the view along our walk wasn't nice enough, then we got to the castle. The castle was beautiful! It sits right on the edge of the water on a cliff. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Once you crossed this bridge and went through the entry way it opened up onto this beautiful lawn overlooking the firth. It was breathtaking.

The tide was really high and the water was rough. Every once in a while you would hear the waves crashing against the rocks and it sounded like thunder. It was fascinating to watch.