Scotland: Day 7

We are now making it around the bend into our second week. There was some definite home sickness today – it will be good to be back in cities and a change of pace.

The owner of the Blarcreen house served a fabulously gluten free breakfast for me – even finding a loaf of bread that was definitely more attractive than most. We were on the road by 8:45 am, and back down the winding one way street (but no sheep this time!). Cell signal was rough – and even James’ offline Google maps had a hard time, so we made a few wrong turns, but ultimately ended up in Callander to do the Bracklinn Falls circuit hike. The hike starts off by numerous waterfalls and a very cool triangle bridge.

Similarly to the Glenfinnan Viaduct, it appears that most people stop at the falls and head back. We continued on up the circuit hike and were not quite expecting the strenuous upgrade climb we were about to take on! Nonetheless, the views at the top are once again stunning and it’s fairly quiet, given that most people stay on below.

Most websites say the hike will take two hours and we did it in a little over an hour. In fairness we were going at a fairly good clip. Afterwards, we hopped in the car to head to Doune Castle.

Doune Castle has definitely been my favorite tour. While it is not the most beautiful castle, it is the cheapest (privately owned!) and ticket price comes with an audio guide narrated by one of the creators of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Doune, this is the castle that was featured in pretty much every castle scene of Monty Python. Because of issues with filming at other castles in Scotland (the ones that are operated and managed by the country not privately), they had to make do. So Doune stood in for pretty much all the castles you see in the film. It’s also Winterferll from Game of Thrones and Castle Leoch from Outlander.

Following, we headed towards Edinburgh with a VERY short trip to the Kelpies for a photo opps (but since the clouds had come rolling in, the giant horse heads were about the same color as the sky). We reached the neighborhood of the Airbnb around 4:30 but proceeded to drive past it numerous times because it was listed as 13/6 and I thought it was number 6. In case you’re wondering, it was number 13 and apartment 6. There was no number 6 on the road which led me to be very confused! Regardless, we made it! And found a parking spot right outside. Now to not move the car for three days!

The flat is super cute. Definitely old, but we’re used to that in Boston. The hosts really have made it as comfortable as they possibly can. Once we were checked in, laundry went in immediately and we whisked away to the grocery store to pick up some staples. Back in the flat, we settled in watching the Simpsons but more importantly THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF. They have marathons of those here. It’s amazing.