UK Trip - Day 10 - Scotland

This morning we got up early and went to see Hadrian's wall. Unfortunately, due to a 2km walk on the map turning into a 2.5 mile walk on the ground, see the wall was all we got to do. The bus we caught back to town drove along the wall route so we did get to see a lot of it.

Back in Newcastle, we checked out of our hotel and caught the train to Edinburgh. Once we arrived, the first thing we did was pick up our rental car and drive to Stirling. We stopped in at Stirling Castle and saw the Royal Court of the Stewarts (the James's and Mary, Queen of Scots) as well as a pub [19] with a massive dog.

Next we stopped at the Wallace monument, a large tower on the edge of town. They had a floor on Wallace (including his sword), a floor on famous Scots and the top floor was open, providing fantastic views in all directions. After almost getting blown off the top of the tower, we headed along the road to Castle Campbell.

The walk up to Castle Campbell was as nice as the castle itself, and it's a nice castle. You walk up along a stream that comes tumbling down the mountain. There are lots of waterfalls and mini-gorges. Once we got to the castle we had to talk our way in. We were late because Shannon can't see a church, castle or monument without learning every fact and examining every stone. This is not a problem in of itself, but she assumes that it will only take 30 minutes to complete the entire process. Frequently it takes large multiples of that. Any how, once we got in, the views over the valley (glen, Glen Campbell actually) was impressive.

After descending through Glen Campbell again we headed toward Aberdeen. For dinner we stopped at a pub [#20] by the side of the road. We tried black pudding for the first time and I really liked it. After dinner we bypassed Aberdeen and ended up in a small town to the north-west. All the hotels were booked so we ended up at a B&B "just out of town". I got directions from the guy at the hotel who recommended it. he said it was right on t'edge of town". Five miles out of town, we call the place, convinced we've missed it and find out we have ten more miles and two more turns to go. Once we arrived however, the place was fantastic.