Best of Scotland in a Day

Arrived at King’s Cross Train Station to catch my train to Edinburgh. This time the First Class ticket was more than double the Standard (as opposed to the only $20 US difference that it was for my train trip the prior year). So I had a Standard Round Trip ticket. This meant that, instead of checking my large bag and having a small table to myself in the car, I needed to find someplace to stow my large bag fairly close to where I was sitting and share a four seat table with strangers. Back when Mom and I used to fly into Gatwick Airport in London, we took the train to Victoria Station with a Standard Round Trip ticket. But that was a 40 minute ride. London to Edinburgh was four hours.

The seats were assigned in advance and I managed to have a table to myself all the way to York (halfway). But then I gained a couple who sat across from me, did not speak English, and smooched and snuggled the entire two hours from York to Edinburgh. Good thing I had a good book.

Since the Balmoral was charging its usual high prices this time, I tried the Apex Waterloo Place. This Georgian hotel wasn’t far from the Balmoral (or the train station or the grocery store) and was right across the street from where most of the day trips picked up and dropped off. A convenient location. They also had fridges in the rooms, so I picked up a few things from the grocers.

Once I was settled in the room (which was at the back of the hotel, one floor down from the entrance floor – still about three floors up from the street on that side of the hotel), I walked around in the area before it was time for the Champagne Tea reservation I had booked online when I was still in Minneapolis.

Calton Hill was an interesting place, full of monuments and giving great views of the city. The steps up the hill were right next to the hotel. The monuments included The National Monument of Scotland, which was dedicated to the Scottish soldiers and sailors who died during the Napoleonic Wars. It looked like an unfinished Greek temple. Then there was the monument to Admiral Nelson, which looked like a giant inverted telescope. There was a Robert Burns Monument, a Political Martyrs Monument and a City Observatory.

The round, Grecian-looking monument shown in the photo I have included with this post is the Dugald Stewart Monument and is a memorial to the Scottish philosopher who was a professor at the University of Edinburgh. To the left of that monument in the photo, can be seen the Gothic-looking spire of the Waverly Monument (dedicated to Sir Walter Scott), the clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel, and Edinburgh Castle up on top of the hill near the center of the photo.

The next morning I crossed the street and picked up the small group day tour Best of Scotland in a Day. These were all places I had not been to before.

At the tour pickup place, I ran into two of the women who had been on the Heart of England & Wales tour with me. They had also taken the train up to Edinburgh after the other tour ended and were doing a different day trip than I was. It was one I had been on the previous year that I had really enjoyed. It was fun to actually run into someone I knew.

We started at Dunkeld with a visit to Dunkeld Cathedral. Begun in 1260, the Cathedral stood near the River Tay in a very scenic location. The original monastery on the site dated to the 6^th century AD. In 1689, the Battle of Dunkeld took place in the area around the cathedral between the Jacobite Highlanders who supported King James II & VII and those who supported William of Orange. William and his wife, Mary (daughter of James), had recently taken over the monarchy from James, when he was kicked off the throne, in what had been called “The Glorious Revolution”. William’s supporters prevailed.

Inside the cathedral were the banners that had been carried by the Jacobites. Also inside was the sarcophagus of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, nicknamed the “Wolf of Badenoch”. That nickname intrigued me, so I learned some more about him after taking his photo.

He was the 3^rd surviving son of King Robert II of Scotland and lived from 1343 to 1405. He had a petulant relationship with his uncle King David II of Scotland before his father became king. He was also said to have had a defiant relationship with the church. He was best known for his destruction of Elgin and the cathedral there.

He was also Justiciar of Scotia for a while, but apparently not a good one. He ended up losing a fair amount of the territories he held going into the job. The nickname, Wolf of Badenoch, was given to him due to his notorious cruelty and aggressively greedy streak. Apparently not the type of person with whom you would want to try to be friends. His father’s reputation as king suffered due to the actions of his son (and the fact that he seemed to back his son rather than attempt to curb him). The Wolf of Badenoch’s effigy is one of the very few from the Middle Ages that has survived in Scotland.

The towns of Dunkeld and Birnam have been incorporated together. The area is quite forested although the only tree that dates back to the time of the setting of Shakespeare’s Scottish play that mentioned Birnam Wood (Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him) is a single, massive oak tree. The wooded area is still called Birnam Wood however.

Not too far away was Blair Castle, the seat of the head of Clan Murray, the Duke of Atholl. This was the Scottish Castle that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited back in 1844 when the Queen began a lifelong love of Scotland. They even used the real Blair Castle when they did an episode on the visit in the “Victoria” miniseries. Shortly after her visit, the Queen gave the Duke the permission to create his own private army, the Atholl Highlanders. They remain the only legal private army in Europe.

I had a running joke with my mom that I wanted to introduce her to the 11^th Duke (who was single) so he would fall in love with her and we could all live in the castle. Unfortunately, he died before I could put that plan into motion.

Upon entering the castle, I took a couple photos of the entrance hall before being told that no photography was allowed except in the ballroom. Some of the shields and muskets in the entrance hall saw service at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

I put my camera away until we got to the ballroom. Those of you who may have seen Scotland episode of the “Victoria” miniseries definitely saw the ballroom. It was quite prominently featured as were the castle grounds.

The grounds and gardens of the castle were quite extensive. After lunch at the restaurant within the castle, I set off on a circular hike through the grounds and gardens. My first stop was at the ruins of St Bride’s Kirk. This contained the last resting place of John Graham of Claverhouse, who was nicknamed “Bonnie Dundee”.

“Bonnie Dundee” sounded like a much friendlier nickname than “Wolf of Badenoch”. It turned out that he earned his nickname at the time of his death. He was a leader of the 1689 Jacobite rising and died a hero at the Battle of Killiecrankie, which the Jacobites won just days before losing at the Battle of Dunkeld.

Bonnie Dundee was the commander of the Jacobites, who were in possession of Blair Castle at the time. If they had lost the battle, the castle would have been forfeit to the Crown of England. As it was, it was a pretty rousing victory. His breastplate and helmet were on display inside the castle.

After my hike through the gardens, I returned to the castle with a small amount of time left before we were to depart. So I took a seat on a shaded bench, listened to the sounds of the stream bubbling past and the bagpiper playing next to the castle.

Since Killiecrankie was not far from Blair Castle, that was our next visit for the day. Killiecrankie Gorge was quite a scenic place with the battlefield just beyond.

At Queen’s View, we got some really nice photos of what is considered to be one of the best views in Scotland. When Queen Victoria visited in 1866, she thought that it was named for her. It wasn’t. It was named for Isabella, the first wife of King Robert the Bruce, more than 500 years earlier. The lake is Loch Tummel.

Our last visit of the day involved a roughly 20 minute walk deep into the Caledonian Forest. At the end of the walk was a building. We entered and found a viewing platform for a magnificent waterfall called the Black Spout. It was quite dramatic.

Next time – the first day of the Scottish Castles Experience tour with eight castles in four days.

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