And Mostly Scottish Castles

After Islay we’ve been driving and it seems mostly stopping at castles — ruined and not. And a few cathedrals.

These three are Doane Castle, most famously (for me) the location used by Monty Python in the Holy Grail film. Yes all of the castles were stood in by Doane. And the audio guide is narrated by Terry Jones (RIP)
View from our Lochside hotel in Arrochar; it’s all hazy because there was a big fire in the mountains behind us —“first in 20 years” — because it’s been very dry for Scotland. In fact we’ve had almost no rain in over a week
These are the more famous Stirling Castle, inside and out. I went there in 2018 but Luca had never seen it so we did a relatively quick run through. They (unusually) returned a few rooms and one building’s exterior to its original colors (see the golden building in one of the photos above). More details and photos can be found in my old blog from 2018. Of course, the castle hasn’t changed much!
The castle in St Andrews (two above) is all in ruins. But the views from there are nice (below)
And not that it came out well but this is the running beach from “Chariots of Fire” — we didn’t make it to the beach itself but took this from the castle. Hadn’t been to St Andrews before but it’s cute and quaint and not all about golf (thankfully)
The cathedral in St Andrews is also in ruins. Apparently due to Protestant reformers

And below are some photos of Edinburgh castle and the Glasgow cathedral. Running out of time so will just add and do another blog post later.

Great Hall
My favorite gun hole views
Views from Edinburgh castle
Glasgow’s cathedral — I visited in my 2018 visit and had more photos and comments in my old blog — but Luca had never seen it. It’s impressive. The only medieval Scottish cathedral to survive the reformation (it’s now a Protestant cathedral!)

Leave a comment