While it’s a toasty summer’s day here in Perth today, I’m so excited to share my gorgeous wintery experience of Scotland in December.
We drove from England’s Lake District to the old magical city of Edinburgh. We spent time with family, explored the Royal Mile, did the amazing Mary Kings Close tour, and Edinburgh Castle at night.
We spent a wonderful three nights in the city, before we hit the road and adventured up to the Scottish highlands, starting with Pitlochry.
We drove up to a quiet little town called Nairn set on the North Sea. There we stayed in a lovely two up two down cottage, and had delicious home cooked meals, instead of rowdy restaurants and pubs. It’s nice eating out, but I find it tiring doing it twice a day on holidays, so this little cottage was a delight.
It was lovely hearing the sea gulls in the morning too.
Doing the tour of the Battle of Colladon the first day was really interesting and eye-opening to the conditions of life and war in the 18th century.
It was the site of the last confrontation of the Jacobites against government forces to place Bonnie Prince Charlie on the English throne in 1745.
The battle was over within an hour though. The Jacobites lost miserably due to many unfortunate factors. The death toll on the day was 1500 Jacobites, and only 50 government men (plus a further 250 from wounds afterwards).
It was amazing standing in the place such history happened, seeing the topography, and being in the cold they would have experienced. Passing the mass graves was sombering too.
But what certainly lightened the mood was seeing these iconic fellows, munching away on some morning tea.
The weather didn’t stay favourable though, and we explored the highlands within the cosy comfort of our car a lot for the the remaining two days.
Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness
There was sleet and snow aplenty too.
Our final day driving through the highlands back to Edinburgh was magical.
The drive was a winter wonderland.
The Braes of Glenlivet
This was one of the ‘whiskey paths’ used by smugglers to avoid government regulations. Small illicit whiskey houses were set up in remote areas of the Braes, and the whiskey was smuggled south and east over the Ladder Hills here.
In the little town of Braemar, not far from Balmoral Castle, we walked up behind the cute church and did a half mile hike up the hill – a rather steep and icy ascent – to view some beautiful views beyond.
On our final leg of our Scottish adventure, we saw ski slopes, the whitest of white, ready to be opened for the season, and the most beautiful sunset amidst the mountains.
And it was from there, to Edinburgh and a very early flight in the morning, we said goodbye to Scotland.
