Scotland

So another place to visit is Abbotsford House, A-B-B-O-T-S-F-O-R-D House. This is where Mary Queen of Scots recited. It also is the home of Sir Walter Scott, and he was a lawyer, and in those days lawyers did not write novels. Marie Antoinette's clock is on the mantel in this home, and the swords are from the 1700s century. Very fascinating home, very fascinating castle to attend and check it out, and even there's a bathhouse where Marie Antoinette took her baths. That's very different. I wanted you to be able to see what it looks like. So can you imagine walking through that castle? It's not a house, it's a castle, and this is Sir Walter Scott, and then on the other side here is part of the castle. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous.

Castle Carlisle is where Bonnie Prince Charlie first came before he went to Scotland. It is about nine miles from the Scottish and English border. They have like huge kitchens and fireplaces and it's very interesting swords and armory and moats and it's a really cool castle to see.

Another place that is historically fascinating and one of the things you don't want to miss is Culloden or Culloden. And this is where the battle between the English and the Scots and the Scots had lost. Here is a marker for the battle. This is the marker that they have for the battle and this is like down at the bottom in the front. The Battle of Culloden was fought on this moor 16th of April, 1746. The graves of the gallant Highlanders who fought for Scotland and Prince Charlie are marked by the names of the clans. And so as you walk along the heather along the path it shows the battle, where the battle was fought, who the generals were. Here are the battle plans. These stones are the markers. This is a thatched roof house that they had there.

This is Dunnet Head. This is the highest part of Scotland and this is where you can take a boat from John O'Groats and go up north and basically get to the Scapa Flow, the Italian Chapel, and the Ring of Brogur. So these, all these are like really, really important to see. So this right here is the Scarabrae, right here, which is a village. It's underground. That's a really great place to visit. And then this is the, oh, the chapel, the Orkney Chapel, and this is all painted except for the wrought iron work right there. The Orkney Italian Chapel is a really great place to go see.

Denetar castle. It's right on this piece of land Surrounded by water here. You can kind of see the castle from the side And here you can see the castle right by the water. You can walk down to it. You can see the path and See this castle up close. We just kind of Took a picture moment. Here's another place to go saying this is the ring of Brokhar And it's very interesting to be able to go there. There's a lot of interesting facts here There's a large exact circle of standing stones. You have to read about it. You have to go see it It's amazing to be able to be there among these stones and to be able to hear about this history

This is one of my favorite places to visit when we first came in here. All these little shops are like all along the water. They're colorful. They're beautiful. It's called Tobermory. T-O-B-E-R-M-O-R-Y. It is Gaelic for Will of Mary and it's a fishing village on the island of Mole. I'm going to turn the page here so you can see some of the shops, churches, the Royal Mail, and oh my gosh, they have the best chocolate shop there is to die for. Here's some of the chocolate. The Chocolate Shop Tobermory. Handmade chocolate. And this Tobermory Castle. And this is on the island of Mole.

There's lots of places I went to in Scotland. Another place was the Gretna Green, and it's a blacksmith shop. And this is where the young couples would marry, and they were running away to get married. So people from all over the world would go there at Gretna Green, which is a blacksmith shop, and they would get married. So in fact, there was someone getting married the day that we were there. Also, it's really cool, they have glassblowing and a whole bunch of other shops there. So that is like a really fun place to go visit. Here's a picture of it. That's where the couple got married, but that's what it looks like.

One of my favourite places that I was able to visit are Dumscaith Castle over by Portray as well as Dumbierdbroch which is also on the Isle of the Sky which is a kind of Iron Age development and Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness.

The Isle of Iona, this is the post office and this is the postman. This is how they deliver their mail on the island and this is their little grocery store. That's it.

You've got to go to the Isle of Skye. The jewelry shop is amazing. They have like spinners, spinning wool while you're there, and just all kinds of things built out of stone, statues, just everything you can imagine. I was able to get a ring there that they made and mailed it to me, so it was fun to get mail from Scotland. And then these are some flowers that are on the Isle of Skye. So here's another place we went, the Cullen Brewery. If you're into whiskey and beer, this is the place to go. It was interesting to learn about it, but I definitely did not drink any of it.

So another fun thing to do in Scotland is to go to Loch Ness and you can have cruises and tours there. This is not really there, it's just in the magazine. So these are the boats that you can take and this was our guide who was a great Scotsman and this is how they check for the sound under the water to see if they can find Nessie and we took a picture of the water to see if we can see them and the York Art Castle was right there on the water. Great place to go visit.

Another place to visit is Armandale Clan Donald Center. There's Castle Garden Museum and it's just amazing to be able to go there and see that. Here's another page. It's just absolutely gorgeous. So that is basically Clan Donald Center Armandale Castle. If you like to golf, you gotta go to St. Andrews. You gotta see that golf course. It's pretty cool. And here is St. Andrews Museum and Rules Tower. Not much left and this is in St. Andrews. This is a sight to see to be able to see this history. Another fun castle to go see is the Glamis Castle. Here are some pictures of it. Great tour inside. It's huge and beautifully landscaped.

So Scotland was amazing. I want to share with you about Bobby Burns' home. You should go see it. This is my notes. So we went to the Museum of Bobby Burns and he was a Scottish gentleman. Bobby Burns had rheumatic fever and died at the age of 37 and they had nine children. He was famous for his poems and his music and he was the one that wrote the song Auld Lang Syne. So it's really great if you can go there because it's an amazing home and it's really great history. So another place in Scotland that's really great to go see it's called Jedbrough. J-E-D-B-R-O-U-G-H. And basically it's a woolen mill and it is very fascinating to see how they made wool and they have a great store. So you can get some kilts and some great things to take home.

Another fun place to visit is called the Hadrian Wall and it's what the Romans built to divide Scotland and England and it's about 63 miles long and I thought I'd show you a picture. This is the wall right here. This is another picture of what it looks like. It's very fascinating to go and see this wall. Let's see, here's another one. There's what the wall looks like. There's not much left on the wall, I mean left of the wall, but it's pretty rocky because it was built in the Roman days when they built walls. But it took 30 years to build this wall and was built by slaves. It was built in 200 AD. Can you imagine going to a wall that was built in that time period? It was 20 feet tall and 20 feet thick.

Scarabray, well here are some pictures of it that we took. So these were villages that were unearthed by the weather and now it's basically a tourist attraction to be able to see where people lived, how they had their their homes, their beds, where they cooked, where they walked, and it was very very fascinating. So Scarabray, that is a great place to go but you need to take a boat from John O'Groats to get up there.

Another place to see is the Dunrobin Castle and it absolutely looks just like this and the grounds look just like this. It is absolutely perfect. Inside the castle it looks just like this. Everything is pristine and saved. It's one of the greatest castles and the best castle I have ever seen. Another place that's great to visit is the Torosay Castle and Garden in the Isle of Mull. And I will turn a couple pages so you can see kind of like what there is to see there. Lots of vintage things, old-fashioned ceiling, gold inlay, staircase, tables. Oh my gosh, remember this couch was quite big.