On the last week of May, the Man and I met up with my brother’s family for a bit of a whirlwind trip around Scotland.
As an Aside: These family getaways are definitely on my list of top 3 reasons why I love living in the UK. They basically combine some of my most favorite things in the world: family, close friends, seeing new places, pinching baby thighs, and yummy food. I always walk away from these trips feeling exceedingly blessed and a little bit sad that we all live so far from each other.
Because we hit quite a few places I’m going to break the blog up by location:
On the morning of our first full day in Scotland we took a mini tour around the city of Stirling, which is located about an hour north of Edinburgh. Although Stirling has a long history (Mary Queen of Scots was crowned in Stirling Castle), it is most famous for being the location for two important historical battles: the Battle of Stirling Bridge and the Battle of Bannockburn.
The Battle of Stirling Bridge has been made famous by the movie Braveheart. It was one of William Wallace’s greatest victories against the British during the first War of Scottish Independence. In the photo above you can see the William Wallace memorial (on top of the hill to the right).
The Battle of Bannockburn is one of the most famous in Scottish history. Robert the Bruce (who the people called Braveheart) led the Scottish to an important victory over the British here. This victory, along with several others, helped secure Robert the Bruce’s kingship later on. In the end, Robert the Bruce did bring independence to Scotland, though it would not last long.
See the rainbow? They were everywhere! We saw about 15 rainbows throughout the whole trip- kinda crazy!
And for those who like church history- John Knox regularly preached at the church in Stirling (though you can’t see it, this photo is taken right next to it)
After touring Stirling, we dropped into a little town to see the Highland Games.
We didn’t really understand everything that was going on, but it was still really fun to listen to the bagpipes and see how the locals do it!
Up!
Up!
And Away!
Next we drove over to Loch Lomond- Great Britain’s largest lake.
Wild goat!
Here’s the maps of day 1:
1. Edinburgh- Where we all flew in
2. Stirling
3. Loch Lomond
4. Our B&B for the night
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