22: Off we go to Scotland

Picked up our teensy weenie little car - a Peugout 107 - from the station at York (only 18 miles on the clock), packed in our luggage, said our farewells to Pete, Mandy, Narelle (will see them in Paris in a few days) and Pheebs, and off we set northbound.  We took back roads where possible and actually went through some of the places we walked through - funny seeing the c2c path and the walkers when you are in a car!  

Stopped at a few little towns along the way, including Masham which has the Theakstons brewery.  Didn't do the tour as Joe not quite the fan of their beer as Pete is, but the town very cute.  They were setting up for the annual sheep show over the weekend - I would have liked to stop as it looked like fun, but we are still a bit too far south to stop for the night.  We also stopped at very nice little castle ruin, can't remember the name now - need to check the map!

Had trouble finding somewhere to stay - Barnard Castle and Staindrop were all booked out, but we found a room at a Days Inn at a service centre just off the M1 at Bowburn - not scenic or with any personality but clean and functional.

Off again on Saturday morning, with laundry on our minds - almost out of clean clothes!  Found a laundromat at Morpeth so we stopped and had breakfast and a bit of a walk around town while we waited.  From there we went to Berwick Upon Tweed - what a great bridge that town has! 
 

We crossed into Scotland and made our way around the coast and found our way to Haddington - had a quick drink there, then made our way to Coulstoun - Joe very excited about visiting the family home which has been in the Broun family for over 900 years!  What an amazing house, set in the middle of a 2000 acre property - elephant tusks lining the stairways and lots of stuffed things, but also some lovely antique furniture!

We had a great dinner with Ludovic, the Laird of the property, Cameron and Freddy - great hospitality.  Loved sleeping in the four poster bed in the Rose Room - could have done with a stool to help me reach the bed though!  If you are in Scotland and looking for somewhere to experience life in a period Scottish country home, then you should consider staying at Colstoun



Next morning we backtracked a bit to North Berwick to Tantallon Castle, a wonderful ruin on a cliff face overlooking the North Sea.

The Castle overlooks Bass Rock - no people there, only thousands of sea birds - the island is covered in them and their guano.  Apparently in the 1800's the young gannets were the principal produce of the area, with their flesh described as "excellent if skinned and cooked like a beef-steak" & gannet eggs were a delicacy which often graced Queen Victoria's breakfast table!  If you have the time, go to the Scottish Seabird Centre where you can view what's going on with the gannets & puffins through live webcams on the Island.

Back in the baby car and onto the A1 to by pass Edinburgh, over the impressive Forth Road Bridge (a bit eerie as there were grid things beside the lanes where you could see through to the water {a long way} below), and up the coast stopping at a few little fishing villages along the way.  Stopped at Pittenwheen for lunch, hoping to get fish and chips overlooking the harbour, but nothing open, so we walked up the hill into town and had lunch at a little cafe/chocolate shop.  Yummy soup, sandwich and hot chocolate.  From there we went to St Andrews and had a look at their castle - not that big, but impressive in where it was built right on the edge of the cliff.

By this stage Joey was nearly beside himself with excitement about being so close to that revered birthplace of golf - St Andrews Old Course.  They were setting up for the Royal Dunhill tournament and we were able to walk around wherever we liked - Joey VERY impressed by this.

Headed from St Andrews to Stirling - no accommodation booked so we checked Lonely Planet for a couple of recommendations and found a really nice place within walking distance of the castle - we'll visit there tomorrow.

We walked up to the castle to get there around opening time.  It's built on a giant hill in town, with great views and is well preserved (& not in ruins).  You can understand why they built it were they did and why it was so hard to attack - getting up that hill unseen would have been impossible. 

Monument of William Wallace at Stirling Castle, overlooking his memorial in the distance

Off we go again on our way to Edinburgh - had booked into the Haymarket Hotel a few nights ago, but had only a very sketchy idea of where it was and the suburb not marked on our map - yes very helpful!  I had been thinking this might be a nasty, driving around looking for a needle in a haystack experience...  But hey, the road from the airport to the city took us right to where we wanted to go, and there was the hotel right on the corner - amazing!!   Found out there was no free parking nearby so decided to take the baby car back early since everything we wanted to see was within easy walking distance and the bus to the airport was only a five minute walk away, so dropped it off and headed into the city. 

We did a bit of a walk I had found in Lonely Planet that took us through some of the old parts of Edinburgh - little back lanes and around the bottom of the castle.  As always I can fiind interesting stuff to photograph...

  

My apologies to vegetarian readers, but this looked delicious.