Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

This afternoon, I visited MacDuff’s Castle near the village of East Wemyss on Scotland’s Fife Coast.

This sandstone ruin was built by the Wemyss family and dates from the 14th century.

Due to lack of use it progressively fell into disrepair and the upper parts were dismantled for safety reasons.

This castle is just one, but perhaps the best preserved example, of prominent castles on hilltop locations around the Firth of Forth area (near Edinburgh).

 

The castle is rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Sibbald.

Here is an image of the nearby coast line along which traverses the Fife Coastal Path.

A worthwhile visit. There is lots of history nearby in form of caves which have been used by man for about 5000 years.

This evening, I am focusing on Edinburgh’s Royal Palace, namely Holyroodhouse  at foot of the Royal Mile.

This official Royal residence has a long history dating back to the 12th century when an Augustinian abbey was founded on the site under the patronage of King David I.

The term Holyrood has two possible origins, viz:

1. King David’s alleged vision of a stag with a cross or ‘rood’ between its antlers.
2. A fragment of the True Cross wich had been brought to Scotland by David’s mother, Margaret.

The early Abbey had a guest house for important visitors out of which progressively evolved into the current Palace whilst the Abbey ultimately deteriorated into current ruinous state.

James IV (1488-1513) and V (1513-42) undertook considerable work on building and developing the Palace. James VI resided there until he moved to London in 1603 after which the importance of the building declined. The current building dates from the late 17th century consequent on a re-build prompted by the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. Other important personages and royalty connected with the Palace include James VII, Mary Queen of Scots, Charles Edward Stuart, Comte d’Artois (French), George IV and Queen Victoria.

Tours are available to the public and are undertaken at own pace by audio guide. Key aspects include the Quadrangle, Great Stair and State Apartments with latter incorporating a Great Gallery which features an extensive series of portraits of real and legendary kings of Scotland.

Not to be overlooked is the adjacent Abbey Church  and gardens.

 

 

I invariably include the Palace in my walking tours of Edinburgh.

 This evening I have complied a composite of the first two days of a recent photography tour of Scotland during winter. At end of day 1 the town where we stayed had no electricity and hence I was unable to collate and post images which in turn placed my blogging sequence in arrears. Tonight’s exercise is a ‘catch up’.

After collecting guest at Edinburgh Airport we drove north-west past Doune Castle (above) to Callander where we had a brief stop for photographs and refreshments. 

 Next we continued through Strathtyre, Crainlarich and on to Rannoch Moor passing through some interesting Trossachs scenery en-route.

 

 Rannoch Moor provided some wonderful photo opps.

 

 

 After Rannoch Moor, we cotinued north through Glencoe, one of Scotland’s most stunning scenic areas.

 On arriving at Corran on Loch Linnhe we took the ferry and then continued on the west side of the loch up to Glenfinnan and then our final destination of Mallaig where there was no elctricity due to the recent hurricane strength gales.

After a cold night with no hot water we caught the 8.40am ferry to Armadale, Skye which took us past the spectacular Knoydart Peninsula- and more photo opps.

 On arrival on Skye we stopped first at Knock Castle and then Isleornsay.

 

 Further on we stopped for pics of a small herd of Highland Cattle  before going on to Kyleakin and its ruined castle.

 

 Next, we travelled across the Skye Bridge to Kyle of Lochalsh and then a short distance to the famous Eilean Donan Castle- and more photographs.

 

 Next, we continued trough increasingly wintry Highland scenery via Glen Shiel, Invergarry and Loch Laggan.

 

 

 On arriving at Pitlochry, we called in briefly at Edradour Distillery, Scotland’s smallest such whisky producer but just missed the last tour of the day.

 

Finally we drove on south and then west, first to Aberfeldy and finally to our destination of Kenmore on the northern tip of Loch Tay.

Overall, a great 2 days during we benefited from a very fortunate combination of winter scenery and sunshine- ideal for photography.