We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland on the 14th of August via train from Carlisle. We were really looking forward to this part of our trip based on a lot of cliches as well as the history.

Our list of things we wanted to see and do in Scotland included:

⁃ hear people playing bagpipes

⁃ See people wearing kilts

⁃ Visit castles

⁃ See Harry Potter filming locations and inspirations

⁃ Learn about the history of independence

– See highland cows

⁃ Try whisky

⁃ Try haggis

⁃ See prehistoric landscapes while hiking

After being here two weeks we have done all of this (except haggis) and so much more. Edinburgh was a fantastic place to start and had a wonderful atmosphere as we were there during the Fringe Festival. The city was jam packed with people visiting and performers of many different domains. We couldn’t choose a show to go to because there were just too many so we spent both nights out watching the street performers which were fantastic. We didn’t realise how big of a deal the Tattoo is so didn’t go because there weren’t any tickets left. If were are back in Edinburgh during Fringe again we would definitely preorganise this and go, it sounds amazing.

The atmosphere of Edinburgh is made even more magical with the amazing Edinburgh castle watching over the city. We paid the admission to look around which was absolutely worth it and it also included the Scottish War Museum. After visiting the castle we explored the streets seeing where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and even saw the cemetery in the city where some names of characters in the books were inspired by.

The old streets and buildings are beautiful in any light and time of day. We enjoyed walking up to Arthur’s Seat to get a panoramic view of the city to the coast. We also walked up Calton Hill to get a closer view of the city buildings from above in the afternoon.

After two awesome days in Edinburgh we picked up our rental car, a new Ford Fiesta and drive to Aberdeen where we stayed one night out of the city at the… Hilton. 🚨Flash packer alert 🚨. It was actually cheaper than anywhere we have stayed so far, shocking but great. Aberdeen is known as the silver city as all of the buildings are made out of granite which sparkle in the sunlight.

There’s not much to do in the city so the reason we went was to explore three castles in the area.

1. Dunnottar Castle on the peninsula

2. New Slains Castle which inspired Bram Stokers novel Dracula

3. Craigievar Castle, one of Walt Disney’s many inspirations

All three were incredible and very different. Our favourite was Slains castle as it was not managed by anyone and in complete ruin so we were free to explore the castle, at our own risk. It was a bit scary up the turret with no windows or bars 😬. The castles are all from different eras in amazing locations.

After visiting the castles we were planning on driving to Lochness to stay the night in a hostel. Disappointingly, this hostel cancelled on us at midday saying they were overbooked. We then had to find new accomodation for that night within our budget and luckily we found Hagrid’s House. A small glamping business right by the river, close to Lochness had us stay in our own unique cabin for only $10 more than the hostel dorm room we were planning on staying in. With a great little Italian restaurant down the road it made for a lovely evening. Everything happens for a reason!

The following morning we drove to Lochness where we spent a couple of hours exploring the town and the loch. From there we began our drive to Isle of Skye with a few stops along the way to see the beautiful scenery. By this point it had become puffer jacket weather. An awesome start to Scotland with the next post being about our time on Skye.