Let's Travel Europe: On the Outlander trail

Monday 6th August

Off to Stirling Castle today. We'd read that there is not much parking so we were there nice and early before the castle opened and were parked almost at the front door. We joined a guided tour which helped put some of the history together, mostly looking at 1500 to 1650. This was an excellent tour but was then let down by the castle. They have extensively renovated the castle indoors, supposedly back to what it was, but it has taken away the feel of age. Just looking at the buildings from the outside though was pretty amazing.

Stirling Castle.

Great Hall

Royal Chapel

Set of seven Unicorn Tapestries - these are copies of a set of tapestries
in a museum in New York (owned by Rockefeller) and were made in 2011.
The originals have a similar story to the Bayeux tapestry -
lost and then found covering junk somewhere.
Eventually purchased by Rockefeller.

From there we visited Doune Castle which was the setting used for Castle Leoch in Outlander. This castle is partially a ruin and has also been used for other film sets including Monty Python and Game of Thrones. The tour had a very good audio guide which included information on how they did the film sets. We enjoyed this castle more than Stirling - it felt old.

Doune Castle was used as Castle Leoch - home of Clan Mackenzie.

Behind the fencing is the well - well water was used for every purpose
except for drinking as it wasn't clean. Instead of water,
everyone (including children) was given a daily beer allowance.
It was apparently very weak which led to it being called small beer
- an expression still used.

The kitchen - Mrs Fitt's kitchen in Outlander.

Today we had lunch at M&S cafe - like Coles cafeteria, or Myer cafe. We sometimes have trouble finding little cafes or bakeries in some of the villages in Scotland. Very different to France.

A brief visit to the location of the Battle of Bannockburn, followed by the laundry, shopping and washing the car and we headed for home. Time for a rest before dinner.

Tuesday 7th August

Today was a busy day, but in some ways more relaxing as we weren't amongst bus loads of tourists. We visited a few Outlander sites, the Falkirk Wheel, the Kelpies and the Antonine Wall.

Linlithgow Palace - we had a guided tour here given by two young girls
who do this as volunteers while they are on school holidays.
Pretty basic information but wonderful to see them
proud of their history and willing to share it. The palace was one of
the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland
during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Linlithgow Palace was used as the setting for Wentworth Prison in Outlander.

This palace had so many passages and stairways and nooks and crannies
it would have been easy to spend another hour just exploring.
The tour covered only areas that I guess had been properly identified
and had interest for visitors. The fountain normally flowed with water
except on very special occasions when it flowed with red wine.

I didn't get to see the sword dance at the highland games,
but this lady at the palace gave us a bit of a demo
- until she caught her foot and had to be helped away.
Note the guy with his back to us in the 'Jamie' tartan -
he was a tour guide with a small group doing an Outlander tour.

Blackness Castle - built in 15th century and this one did feel really old.
Inside the 'courtyard' was still the rough rocks that you had to
climb over and around. This was used in Outlander to represent Fort William.

Inside the walls of Blackness Castle.

The Dunmore Pineapple - built by the Earl of Dunmore in 1761,
like a summerhouse from where he could survey his estate.

The Falkirk Wheel - a rotating boat lift to take boats up or down
115ft between the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union Canal.

The Antonine Wall - built by the Romans around 142AD;
a turf wall on stone foundations linking the Firth of Clyde
and the Firth of Forth. This was the Romans northern most defences
until they fell back to Hadrians Wall.