Alas, we have (finally) reached the last leg of my Scottish journey. I know it has been a while, so let me refresh your memory. When I last wrote of my travels, I shared with you all my wonderful week in London. I do apologize for how long I’ve put off writing this post. Honestly, if I weren’t leaving on my next adventure in one week’s time, I probably would have put this off even longer.

I have decided to cover Linlithgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and the Isle of Skye all in this one post because I was in all four places over a period of ten days, so I shouldn’t ramble on too long 😉

Linlithgow (April 7th-8th)

Emma and I arrived at the train station in Linlithgow (a “suburb” of Edinburgh) where our dad’s cousin Juliet picked us up. We enjoyed a lovely evening at Juliet’s house with her husband Ron and his daughter Morgan. We had lots of good laughs, they are all incredibly funny and kind. Juliet told us a hilarious story about Ron. He always picks on Juliet for being a bad driver, but a few weeks before we arrived, Ron accidentally backed into their garage door, which now no longer closes, and Juliet will not let hime hear the end of it. We all got quite a good laugh out of that one 😛

The next morning Emma, Morgan and I played with Juliet and Ron’s 18 month old daughter Anna– she is absolutely adorable! After breakfast we went to a beautiful park out in the countryside to walk their lab Chino. The park is a conservation area with a fishing lake in the middle of a lush forest filled with beautiful old trees. On our walk Chino got quite muddy and as a result I got quite muddy too. We met a particularly nasty swan along the way. You may remember that I am not very fond of swans (to put it lightly). This swan ran hissing after tourists that were just trying to feed it some bread– what a jerk. I hissed back at the swan when it hissed at me, I think it was quite taken aback haha. On the path was saw some hairy coos (highland cows), they are so much cooler, and cuter, than regular cows!

After our walk, Juliet dropped Em and I off at Linlithgow Palace to tour around. Fun fact, Mary Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace, wow! History! This was probably my favourite palace/ castle that I toured on the whole trip and let me tell ya, I saw a lot of palaces and castles. It’s more of a ruin, none of the windows have glass anymore and the ceilings on the upper floors are long gone. I found it really interesting to walk around and try to imagine what the palace had once looked like. We climbed up to the top of one of the turrets, the view was absolutely breathtaking! We got a full view of the palace, loch and surrounding park from up their. Since the rooms no longer have roofs, we could see right down into them from the turret.

Juliet took us to Park Bistro for lunch. It’s actually the restaurant where she and Ron had their first date, I thought that was pretty cute. I was absolutely starving from all the walking around by this point. I ordered the vegetarian platter which came with vegetable pakoras, onion bhaji, green salad and fries.

We ate dinner at Juliet’s and played with Anna a bit more. Emma and I watched this hilarious British reality show called First Dates Hotel, look it up, the concept is pretty funny.

After dinner Emma and I took a train to Edinburgh and then hopped on a bus to Aberdeen.

Aberdeen (April 9th)

Em and I were both pretty tired from our travels over the past two days, so we opted to have a more “chill” day. We slept in nice and late, then walked down to a cafe/ health food shop called Food Story. It was incredibly sunny and warm, a rare occurrence in Scotland, so we quite enjoyed our walk. Aberdeen is a very charming city. For tourists there isn’t a whole heck of a lot to do in the city itself, but it is a lovely city for walking around.

Food Story is right up my alley. The downstairs of the building is a cafe that serves locally sourced very delicious food and the upstairs is a health food store and bakery. I bought some food to bring along with me on our trip to the Isle of Skye at the health food store, then Em and I enjoyed a fantastic lunch in the cafe portion of the building. I ordered a mix of three salads: a beet salad, an edamame salad, and a peanut sweet potato salad. We both got chai lattes, mine with almond milk, which was sipped while we ate and chatted. At Food Story they have a wonderful selection of gluten free and vegan desserts. Emma ordered a slice of almond coconut cake and I took a pineapple and chilli brownie to go. I love sweet and spicy food combinations, so that brownie was perfect for me!

We walked along the Main Street of Aberdeen and I bought a copy of a book called Sh*t Trump Says from a book store. Its a book filled with Trump quotes, it’s a good read.  Here is an excerpt from the book, please enjoy and keep in mind that this is one of the most powerful men in the world (face palm):

“Every time I speak to the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection. They cannot help the fact that they were born fucked up”

-Twitter post, September 28, 2014

Em and I went for dinner at a pub called the Bobbin, which is located right off the University of Aberdeen campus. I ordered the vegan Dahl. I was suffering from the worst heartburn of my life on this particular evening, so I didn’t have much of an appetite… We took the bus back to Em’s dorm because I had such bad chest pain. When we got back to the dorm, we watched a movie and called it a night.

Inverness (April 10th – 11th)

Emma and I took a train from Aberdeen to Inverness. We stayed at the Bazpackers Hostel in Inverness. It’s about a ten minute walk from the train station and is located right by the river. When we arrived, we checked in and dropped off our bags, then ventured out to find lunch. We ended up eating at a place called Number 27. I had the chickpea and sweet potato veggie burger. My heartburn was still pretty bad at this point, so I had a bit of trouble eating, but the food was really good.

Funnily enough, our roommate at the hostel was from Montreal, what a small world! She had already travelled to Skye and suggested some places that she thought we should see.

Em and I ate at the pub next two our hostel, the Castle Pub. I’m pretty sure all the servers at restaurants hated us because we always ordered water to drink and starters for our mains, we couldn’t help that we were on a budget! The weather was pretty nasty, so we didn’t walk around after dinner.

The next morning we had a pretty early start because we wanted to go and see Culloden Moor and Loch Ness all in one day. We took a bus to Culloden and walked around the moor for a while. There are red and blue flags all over the moor that show where the government and the Jacobite front line were at the Battle of Culloden, red flag for the government and blue for the Jacobites. The moor is extremely marshy, I can’t even imagine how difficult it would have been to cross in battle.

The sky was incredibly moody. It was completely overcast, but brilliantly sunny at the same time.; It was beautiful. The moor is also completely covered in heather, it wasn’t in bloom while I was there, but I can imagine how beautiful it must be when it is.

After we had toured the moor we took a bus back to Inverness and had lunch at a vegetarian cafe called Nourish. It was a very cute place and the food was wonderful. I had a gluten free pita with falafels and grilled veg and a fruity flapjack to go.

Emma booked us for a 3pm Jacobite boat tour on Loch Ness. We were supposed to take a bus to Loch Ness, but the busses weren’t running due to a bridge closure, so we ended up getting a cab. Our cab driver was named Brad (we called him rad Brad). He was great! He told us lots of interesting stuff about the area and was very personable.

On the boat tour we were told lots of information about the Loch and, of course, about Nessie. The tour stopped at Urquhart Castle. We had an hour to explore the ruined castle and its accompanying museum. The castle was home to the Grants in the 15 and 1600s. While the Grants lived at Urquhart Castle they were raided many times by the Jacobites, and the Grants were not Jacobite supporters. Finally, the Grants decided to abandon their castle, but they didn’t want the Jacobites to have it, so they literally blew up their own castle so that it couldn’t be used by the Jacobites.  I found this story quite interesting, personally.

The views from Urquhart are outstanding! The castle looks out over the entirety of Loch Ness. Although the castle is a ruin, there are still parts that are intact. The tower where the Grants once resided is still standing and the views from the top are spectacular.

We called rad Brad’s taxi to pick us up from  the Loch, seeing as the buses where still not running.

Em and I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Zizzi in Inverness. It had a very nice atmosphere and there were plenty of veg options (yay!). I ordered a rainbow salad and Em got pasta. We had another early night because we had to catch an early bus to Skye the next morning.

The Isle of Skye (April 12th – 15th)

The day that we travelled to Skye was absolutely exhausting! We got took a bus from Inverness to Portree and then took another bus to Uig. The first bus ride was just over three hours and the second one was around 30 minutes.

As we travelled, I watched the scenery change outside my window. The landscape just outside of Inverness kind of reminds me of the Canadian Shield. The road we were on wound through pine forests and at some points was lines by large rock faces. As we got closer to Portree, the landscape changed drastically. On their side of the road there were snow-capped mountains and winding rivers. Emma and I were completely awestruck. I can honestly say that I had never seen a more beautiful place in my life. Words and photographs just do not do it justice, take it from me, it’s a place you must see.

We had a 40 minute time gap between our two buses, so we had a bit of time to kill in Portree. I was starving at this point and there was not a whole heck of a lot for me to eat in Portree that’s for sure. There was a baker selling bread in the square by the bus stop and when Emma went to buy a loaf she discovered that he had a strictly spelt flour loaf up for sale. I bought this loaf and ended up eating the entire thing. In my defence, I was starving and the loaf smaller than a standard loaf of bread.

Our second bus dropped us off right in the “heart” of Uig. The “heart” of Uig consists of a pier, a hardware store and a pub… Uig is built around a bay, we got dropped of on one side of the bay and our hostel was on the other side.  We tried to find a bus or a cab that could take us to the hostel to no avail. Lucky for us, it was pleasantly warm and sunny out, so we eventually decided to walk. Now, this was no easy walk ok. The walk was almost exclusively uphill and we were both dragging suitcases behind us. To make matters worse, I was wearing a long sleeve, a polar fleece, a jacket, Blundstones, wool socks and a jacket and, as I mentioned before, it was quite warm that day. 45 minutes later when Emma and I reached The Cow Shed we were both drenched with sweat and gasping for air. Here is an illustration from my travel journal outlining our walk from “downtown” Uig to The Cow Shed: 

After checking in to our hostel, I headed straight for the shower, I was a sweaty mess. The Cow Shed and Uig are both incredibly beautiful. Uig reminds me of a town in Nova Scotia called Riverport, I guess that makes sense considering that Nova Scotia quite literally means “New Scotland”. I honestly could not believe how nice our hostel was. It was pretty well brand new and had an outstanding view. It looks out over the hills and the sea. We saw some beautiful sunsets while we were there.

The morning after our arrival, Emma and I walked to a nearby landmark called Fairy Glen. To get to the glen we had to walk a winding country road, which had spectacular views. There were tons of sheep all along the roadside . As we got closer to the glen, the sheep began to roam more freely, by that I mean they were literally all over the road.

Fairy Glen itself is an amazing sight. From the highest rock in the glen, called “Castle Ewan”, I could see for miles in every direction. Emma and I walked around for hours and got very close to some of the sheep. Our two goals for today were not to fall off a cliff and not to get rammed in the ass by an angry sheep. Luckily we were successful on both fronts.

After we returned from hiking around the glen, Em and I took a bus into Portree to pick up some groceries. Uig is so tiny that it doesn’t have a grocery store.  There is a general store there with with a few items, but we wanted a bit more variety. Also, the general store didn’t have a huge inventory of stock, so I felt pretty bad purchasing four of the five apples because who knew when they might get their next shipment in?

While we were in Portree we got a cup of tea at a cute cafe in town while we were waiting for our bus. The cafe had these super fun, brightly coloured and textured paper cups. I was a fan.

Day three in Skye was my favourite. We did a tour with Skye Bus which was fantastic! We had three guides with us: Murray, Emma, and Stuart. They were all very personable, funny, and told great stories! Murray was our main guide.

The tour departed from Portree at 9:30 am and we arrived back in the square at 7pm. It was a very full day. Were had a really interesting mix off people from all over on our tour. There was a couple from India, a couple from Malaysia, two girls from Japan, a med student from Alabama, a Russian geologist, and another Canadian (!). We all had a lot of fun. The med student from Alabama, Caroline, was hilarious! She was so fascinated by Canadian “hick” culture. We had some good laughs talking about out for a rip and such…

We stopped at six different land marks on the tour:

1. The Fairy Pools
2. Neist Point
3. The Quiraing
4. Fairy Glen
5. Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls
6. The Old Man of Storr

The fairy pools are freshwater pools and waterfalls which are spring fed by the runoff water of the surrounding Cuillin Mountains. The pools are crystal clear and a deep turquoise blue in colour. This place took my breath away! The trail from the parking lot to the pools took about 15-20 minutes to walk. We got to spend about an hour here to explore and take photos before we had to return to the bus.

After the fairy pools we stopped for a quick lunch break at Cafe Lephin. I had brought some food with me, but I did have a cup of tea and a vegan flapjack. I think the flapjack was apricot, it was delicious.

Our second stop was Neist Point. I had seen photos of this particular destination prior to our trip and was pretty stoked about visiting it. Their is a charming old lighthouse on the point and a long, very steep, winding path along the huge, dramatic cliffs. I had never seen anything quite like it.  There were sheep grazing all over the cliffs (typical Skye). There were also some adorable little lambs, which I managed to get some great photos of.  The lighthouse on the point no longer has a light keeper, its electric now. We wandered around the lighthouse and looked out over the beautiful blue sea. We were sure to give ourselves plenty of time to walk back to the bus because the walk back from the point was completely uphill (gag!).

Stop three was the Quiraing, another spectacular work of nature. From the top of the Quiraing I could see for miles! We were lucky enough to have a clear and warm day, so we could really appreciate the view.

Next was the Fairy Glen. Emma and I had been there just the day before and, as I mentioned above, we had spent hours there. So, while our fellow tour goers looked around, Emma and I stayed behind to chat with our tour guides. Stuart told us a Scottish folktale about the Glen and the piper who wanted to learn from the fairies. The Scotts are into folktales big time! Murray told many different tales at each stop on our tour.

Next we stopped at Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls. Kilt Rock is a massive rock face that juts out into the sea. The rock face resembles the pleats of a kilt, hence the name Kilt Rock. Mealt Falls is a waterfall that runs right down the cliffside and into the sea. This is one of the destinations where dinosaur footprints have been found on the Isle of Skye.

Our last tour stop was the Old Man of Storr. The Storr is a huge upright rock that sticks out of the mountain. The story goes that there once was a man and a woman that would climb up the mountain everyday and share their stories with each other. When the couple grew old they climbed up the mountain as they always did and decided that this would be their last climb, they were getting too old to hike the mountains every day. When they said that it would be their last climb a fairy jumped out of the mountain rock. This fairy had been listening to, and enjoying, the old man’s stories for years and wanted to continue to hear them, he was not pleased that the couple would not be coming back to tell more stories, so he turned the old man into stone that he would have to stay forever. That’s where the name comes from. As I said before, the Scots are very into their folktales.

After Storr we returned to Portree. We had long since missed the last bus to Uig and there wouldn’t be another one until the next day, so we had to cab back to Uig. The cab driver was really nice and gave us a good deal because we are young and broke lol.

We watched a brilliant sunset from our hostel that night, it had been a perfect day.

Since we had had a big sight seeing day the day before, Em and I decided to have a more chill day. We slept in and walked to Rha waterfall. It was nice and close and a lovely sight to see.

To celebrate our final night in Skye, Emma and I ate out at the Uig Hotel for dinner. I got a sesame tofu dish and Em ordered salmon. It was a very nice meal.

Aberdeen + Stonehaven (April 16th – 18th)

Our journey from Uig back to Aberdeen was a long one. We got on a bus in Uig which took us to Invergarry, from there we took another bus to Inverness and after that we took a train to Aberdeen.

Our first bus ride took about three hours. After the first hour I desperately needed to pee. There was nowhere to stop for another hour.. I got to the public washroom and almost died when I saw that you had to pay to get in (this is a very common thing in Britain). I had left my wallet on the bus, so I had to run back to the bus, grab my wallet and then run back to the barthroom. It was not a fun situation.

This bus quite literally dropped us off on the side of the road in Invergarry, like there wasn’t even a bus stop. We had two hours before our next bus was scheduled to arrive so we went into the local inn and had some food. Before we ate, we thought it best to scope out the bus stop. We met a very strange man from Cornwall at the bus stop. He was wearing a balaclava even though it was like 15 degrees out. We stayed at the Invergarry Hotel for the full two hours while we were waiting. I ordered a veggie burger and some French fries.

After we arrived in Inverness we had another two hour gap before we had to catch our train. We bought some food at Marks and Spencer to take on the train then sat in a Starbucks until it was time to get on the train.

By the time we arrived in Aberdeen we were both completely spent.

On my last full day in Scotland Emma and  I went out for lunch at Food Story. I ordered the Moroccan stew and a slice of gluten free and vegan carrot cake for dessert. Food Story is totally up my alley. If I were to own a business, I would want it to be something like that.

After lunch we took a train to Stonehaven. I was set on seeing the puffins because I mean, PUFFINS. There is a nature reserve on the coast where sea birds, such as puffins, typically nest. We took a bus from Stonehaven to the reserve, this one literally dropped us off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We had to walk a long country road to get to the coast. It was terribly windy and rain was blowing in our faces for the full extent of our walk.

Unfortunately, we were too early for puffin season, but the reserve was still a beautiful sight to see so I wasn’t complaining. The weather cleared up when we reached the coast and there was a spectacular rainbow stretching out over the ocean.

When we returned to the “bus stop” we found out that the next bus would not be coming for another hour. We tried calling a cab, but they were all busy. We ended up just waiting for the bus. We got a lot of weird looks from the passengers in the passing vehicles because we were sitting on the side of the road in the middle of the countryside. By the time the bus arrived I could not feel my hands at all and they were so white. The bus drove right by us and I 100% thought that it wasn’t going to stop, but he did, just 100 metres ahead of where we were standing.

Flight day. I had two flights to get home. I was on a connecting flight from Aberdeen to Reykjavik, then a commercial airline from there to Toronto. I don’t love flying in general and I really didn’t love the connecting flight. The plane was very small and there were maybe 20 people on the entire flight, that’s including the crew. I really didn’t like that the plane had propellors..

I had an hour layover in Iceland before boarding my flight home. The Reykjavik airport is one of the nicest airports that I have ever seen! In the women’s washroom each stall is a full bathroom with a sink and everything! I was blown away! The Icelandic people are all so attractive, I’m not joking, basically every Icelandic person I saw looked like a super model.

I swear that every flight landed at the same time in Toronto. The airport was so crowded, it was ridiculous. The baggage claim was so busy that the conveyer belts and the floors were completely covered in luggage. I walked by this guy that was complaining about the fact that he had been searching for his luggage for over an hour and I felt my stomach drop. I was so tired and hungry, I just wanted to get out of there! Lucky for me, I found my bag almost right away. 

My Grandparents picked me up and I ate at their house. I tried to stay up as late as I could to try to get on Canadian time. It was a weird day because I had breakfast at 10 am Scotland time, lunch at 3pm Iceland time (4pm in Scotland), and dinner at 8 pm Toronto time (1am Scotland time).

Well, that’s it folks! Thanks for following along on my journey 🙂 And now, since you’ve made it to the end, you can watch the video I made to document my time in the Highlands!

xx

Ashley

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