Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

Ossian's Hall

As predicted, today proved extremely wet thus vindicating our decision to change the itinerary and visit St. Andrews yesterday. We progressed as follows:

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This morning, I am undertaking final preparations for upcoming tours of Scotland and Ireland. Still lots of last minute enquiries coming in including:

• A 3 day self-drive tour from Glasgow.
• A large family group tour of Scotland for mid November.
• A private tour from Edinburgh
• A past client who is seeking a tour guide in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Airedale Dog

The above image just took my fancy. It appears to be an Airedale dog which I noticed in Stirling last month.

My next tour group is now somewhere en-route from the States. I am looking forward to meeting them at Edinburgh tomorrow. Then we depart for a seven day Scotland tour including Isle of Skye. Should be good!

This morning, we departed our very comfortable lodgings at Ballifeary Guest House in Inverness in the Highlands and proceeded to drive south down the A9  to our first stop at Blair Castle in Perthshire.

Blair Castle

Blair castle is a very well presented visitor attraction comprising a grand house (as opposed to a military type castle) together with woodland walks,  a well maintained garden and various activities for children. Blair is the historic seat of the Duke of Atholl who actually resides in South Africa. The present Duke’s ancestor was granted the right to maintain a private army by Queen Victoria, a tradition which continues today as manifested in the ‘Atholl Highlanders’ which bears arms but is essentially a ceremonial unit and not part of the British Army. The castle is a repository for old furniture, paintings, weapons and the like. Outside, the gardens were at their resplendent best at this time of year.

Swans at Blair Castle

After departing Blair Castle we drove on a few miles to nearby Pitlochry, a popular country and tourist town with a wide array of shops which attracted our attention.

Next, we drove east to Glamis Castle in the county of Angus. This is something of  a fairy tale edifice for long associated with the late Queen Mother ( mother of the present Queen Elizabeth). By coincidence today was the anniversary of the late Queen Mother’s birthday, dating back over 100 years. This castle has much to offer the visitor including a resident ghost!  Outside there are many interesting trees, a small burial ground dedicated to the family’s pets, a herd of Highland Cattle and a very pleasant Italianate garden. We availed of some lunch in the excellent restaurant.

Glamis Castle

Highland Cattle at Glamis

Culross Palace

Our next and final destination was Culross (pronounced ” Cure-oss”) on the north shore of the River Forth, west of Dunfermline. This fascinating town dates back to the 16th century when considerable wealth was generated from coal mining and salt panning which in turn financed the construction of what now looks like a Disney-esque community of winding cobbled streets and cross-stepped gables centred on the ochre-coloured Culross Palace (1597) and the Town House (1626). Fortunately, light and weather conditions proved conducive to an extensive photo opportunity.

After Culross, we drove on, across the Forth Road Bridge, to Edinburgh and final destination of the Caledonian Hilton where this interesting,. Scottish Castles themed tour, came to an end at about 8.00pm. A long but very satisfying day concluding a  four day tour.

Culross House

Wendy at Culross

The tour commenced yesterday afternoon with a visit to Linlithgow Palace, a former Royal Palace of the Scottish Royal Family which was accidently destroyed by fire in the 17th century and never restored. This building has a pleasant situation on the edge of a loch (lake).

View from atop Linlithgow

At Linlithgow Palace

This morning, we departed our Edinburgh lodgings at 9.15am and drove to the car park at Palace of Holyroodhouse. We parked and then embarked on a walking tour of Edinburgh taking in the following:

• Palace of Holyroodhouse and adjacent ruined abbey.The former is an official Royal residence and offers a wealth of history, paintings, architecture, furniture and royal artifacts. The abbey dates from the 12th century and is an impressive ruin.

Abbey at Holyrood

• Scottish Parliament building. Being a Saturday, parliament was not in session but we were able to enter the interior and view the debating chamber.
• Burns monument.
• Calton Hill with two old observatories, National Monument, views of Firth of Forth and Edinburgh.
• Edinburgh Castle. This was extremely busy with visitors today and we had to endure a long queue to view the Crown Jewels.

Edinburgh Casle

• Light lunch at at the pub where the role model for Jekyll and Hyde lived.
• St. Giles Cathedral and Thistle Chapel.

Royal Mile

• Mercat Cross.
• Chessell’s Court.
• Hidden, replica 17th century garden.

Hidden Garden

We then connected with the car again and drove down to the village of Roslin to visit the famous 15th C Rosslyn Chapel and nearby Roslin Castle (ruins) both of which having connections with the Sinclair family.

Roslin Castle

This evening, my theme is the Isabella Fortuna, a restored fishing boat based in Wick, Northern Scotland A brief history of the vessel:

Built in Arbroath by James Weir in 1890 for the Smith family who worked the boat for commercial fishing purposes until 1976. continue reading…

This afternoon, my theme is the historic Abbey at foot of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

The adjacent Palace of Holyroodhouse has its origins in a guest house or royal chambers connected with the Abbey. This was the home of an Augustinian order founded by David I ( reigned 1124-53). There is a legend that founding of the abbey was inspired by King David’s vision of a stag with a cross or ‘rood’ between its antlers. The name ‘Holyrood’ may be derived from a fragment of the true cross brought to Scotland by David’s mother, St Margaret.

Abbey at Holroodhouse, Edinburgh

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This morning, I met my guests at the Scotsman Hotel in central Edinburgh from where we proceeded as follows:

Edinburgh

• Up Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. At this site there has been a record of  a stronghold since around AD600. The current castle is the product of various architectural styles developed during a complex history dating from the 1100s. We joined a tour led by a specialist Castle tour guide which proved very satisfactory. He provided a useful overview of the history and development of the caste right through to the present day. continue reading…

This morning, I met tour group at lodgings and drove into central Edinburgh. Here we embarked on a walking tour taking in:

Palace of Holyrood House. This is a Royal residence to this day. Group availed of the self-guided (audio guide) of this fascinating building which features royal history dating back to Mary Queen of Scots. The Palace (which mainly dates from the 17th century) evolved from a guest house attached to the adjacent 12th C abbey the ruins of which can also be explored.

Palace of Holyrood House

Calton Hill. This location benefits from a high elevation affording good views over Edinburgh city, Leith, Salisbury Crags and Firth of Forth. On this site can be found historic buildings including the National Monument, two early observatories and a telescope designed tower as a memorial to Lord Nelson. continue reading…

Today, I met my guests at 0930 at top of Royal Mile, Edinburgh. A very heavy police and army presence was evident.

Subsequently learned this was due to Prince Charles and Camilla’s scheduled attendance at a memorial service at the Scottish National Memorial which is located inside the Castle. continue reading…

This evening, my theme is the town of Haddington, which lies about 20 miles from Edinburgh.

Haddington is situated in the midst of the region known as East Lothian which is strong on agriculture.The town once held the biggest grain market in Scotland and today boasts many fine buildings including a working mill as evidence of its past.. Traders concluded deals by the goat shaped Mercat Cross. Criminals were hung from the Nungate Bridge.

The town has been engulfed by various catastrophes including:

• Repeated flooding by the River Tyne which reached a peak in 1948 flooding the town centre to a depth of one foot.
• Devastation caused by English armies which three times burned the town over a span of 200 years.

Famous People: The Protestant reformer, John Knox was born in Haddington and Robert Burns’ brother, Gilbert moved to Haddington from his native Ayrshire.

Overall, Haddington impresses and pleasant and prosperous town, although perhaps not somewhere to go for a vacation.

Elsewhere today:

• I have been busy arranging various tours including whisky themed and ancestry themed.
• Posted information to my separate GlasgowAncestry blog on Madden family history which seemed to involve reverse migration in that the deceased were born in the U.S. but died in Glasgow.

Weather here in Glasgow has been relatively dry and cool. It seems a good day is in prospect for tomorrow.