For our last day outside of Edinburgh we decided to make our way south to visit of few of the wonderful castles owned by Historic Scotland. Mom and Steve had already decided that they wanted to see Stirling Castle so I looked to see if I could find another castle that was on our way there. I had seen pictures of Castle Campbell and have to admit that it was on the top of my list of Historic Scotland sites to visit. Perfect excuse!
But before we could head out on our journey, we needed to fortify our stomachs and make sure we could sustain the journey. So we left our wee little cabin in the woods and headed to an inn in Aviemore for a true Scottish breakfast. This was actually my first Scottish breakfast as well because we don’t tend to go out for breakfast very often. A Scottish breakfast is similar to an English breakfast but there are a few more items on the menu. Ours came with sausage, bacon, eggs, fried toast, potato scone, grilled tomato, black pudding and sautéed potatoes and mushrooms. Sometimes it will also come with baked beans and haggis.
I’m not usually a big eggs/sausage type breakfast person but I’ll eat it on occasion. This was such an occasion and it was quite tasty. We all tried our black pudding – Luke liked it a lot, I liked it but Steve wasn’t too keen on it. Oh well.
It took us a couple hours to drive to Castle Campbell but it was a fun drive. We wandered off into some small towns in search of a filling station and drove through some very dramatic back roads to get to Dollar where the castle is located. The last couple of miles to the castle was a bit crazy. I’m not sure how to even describe the road except that it was one lane, bumpy, curvy and on the edge of a steep drop. (This is where I praise my husband’s driving skills because he’s AWESOME!) Luke dropped us off at the castle and then went to park the car in the teeny tiny lot about a quarter mile away.
The castle was did not disappoint. In and of itself, it wasn’t all that big but there were definitely details that were unique and very interesting. My favourite part however was the garden. With the castle behind you and beautiful views over Dollar Glen in front of you it made for a great place to sit and take it all in.
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| Lamps used to hang from these faces |
After we had thoroughly explored the castle, we hopped back in the car and headed the short distance to Stirling Castle, our last stop before heading back to the flat. Because we had already visited Stirling and Luke had his Linguistics exam coming up on the following Friday, Luke and Luther opted to stay in the car and study. That left me to give mom and Steve the castle tour. We took our time and saw most everything. It was neat to be able to show them what an intact castle would have looked like after visiting a couple of ruins. (You'll have to go to the link above to see pictures of Stirling.)
And then we headed home to rest up before trekking through Edinburgh for the next two days of their stay.
Love you & miss you!
Aubs, Luke & Luther
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