Day 15 - Edinburgh - 31 May

Visited Edinburgh Castle. There has been a castle on the top of the volcanic plug where the current castle stands for 3,000 years.

In 1314 the castle was completely destroyed except for St Margaret's Chapel that Cromwell ordered be saved.  In the 1500's the castle was rebuilt and the great hall built at that time still stands and is used today. 

The war memorial:

The Great Hall with the original 16th Century ceiling:

The Royal Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum with the best Piper on the trip!=:

St Margaret's Chapel was built in the 12th Century around 1130 and is the oldest building in Scotland. It is still used for weddings and baptisms.

 St Margaret's Chapel was really lovely inside:

 St Margaret's Chapel interior roof and leadlight window:

 THe Royal Mile.  I don't know how we took a photo without people!

Day 14 - Edinburgh - 30 May

Edinburgh's civic buildings and houses are beautiful sandstone. The old town has narrow streets and cobbles. The new town, established in the 1770's has wider, straight streets with lots of parks.

 Sir Walter Scott Monument:

Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh over 300 years old!

                                                 Betula Pendula "Tristis":

Mother Moor Hen feeding her baby:

Even the cafe is a stone building:

Day 13 - Edinburgh

Had a hearty breakfast at Oak Tree Inn and got to the start of the walk up Ben Lomond - one of the 284 Munros - hills that are over 3000 ft high in Scotland - by 9am. We were the only ones on it. Half way up Ben Lomond (974 m) track it poured and was freezing cold so we came back down after taking photos of snow on the peak! It must have fallen while we were on the way up the mountain. A woman with a 30 kg pack came up a little while after we turned around and others followed but we were pleased we had turned around. The weather was really changeable all day.  We did a short walk around the lake then onto Edinburgh to return the car. I guess that rates as bagging half a Munro!

The start:

At the beginning:

I didn't last long before I had to put all those layers back on:

It is snowing on the top of Ben Lomond!

 Ronnie at the high point we got to:

The highest point we got to - just over half way:

This is scotland after all:

Had an ice cream and just managed to scape into the half hour window every three hours that the road was opened because of roadworks.  

Arrived at Edinburgh to drop the car back and encountered a huge hail storm.  Caught the tram to Edinburgh to the Premier Inn, Lauriston Place where we had dinner.

It’s 20p to pee in England and again here in Scotland. Such a joy!

Day 12 - Ben Lomond

Short walk along Derwent Lake. 

Then up to Scotland to Dumbarton for lunch. Drove up to Rowardennan along Loch Lomond to see the start of the Ben Lomond walk. Really lovely area that we both prefer to the Lake District.  Only half an hour from Glasgow and it is superb. 

Ben Lomond - note the green grass at the top of the mountain:

 Our first Scottish Highland Cow:

Dinner at the Oak Trees Inn where we stayed in a cute cottage in Balmaha.

Day 11 - Lakes

Found the 5000 year old Castlerigg Standing Stones in a field with sheep. Not as impressive as Stonehenge (they say, we haven't seen Stonehenge yet) but you can touch these which is nice:

Forest walk to the Aira Force (waterfall).  

Views of Ullswater lake.

Then the Kirkstone Pass:

Lunch at Lake Windermere at Brambles Cafe. Then to Grasmere where it started raining heavily. Lots of Stone Cottages along the way, in fact, just about every building is stone, including the outhouses:

We had gone in the right direction this morning as the traffic the other way was very heavy. Lots of people around.  Back to Keswick for walk and photos around Derwent water. 

The public toilets at Derwent Water:

This seems to be the least touristy town and the nicest lake.  Dinner at Star of Siam Thai.  Stayed at Clarence House.

Day 10 - Lakes

Drove Whinlatter Forest Park over Whinlatter pass then Past the still active slate mine and over the Honnisters Mountain Pass: 

The Brits are a bit precious about their roads. We had many warnings about Honnister Pass and the roads around the Lakes. Yes they are narrow but nowhere near as steep as Kangaroo Valley and the steep part was about 500m long!

Anyway it is very pretty but freezing cold.  Buttermere was all parked out so we stopped further along in a 2 car pull out and went for a short walk at Fletcher’s Field along the lake. 

This is a self closing gate device that the National Trust use a lot:

Tried but failed to find Elvira standing stones. Stopped at a few viewpoints on the way back to Keswick. Did some washing at the Laundromat, always exciting.  Ronnie went to the computer shop to try and save the photos on the SD card I corrupted.

Day 9 - Lakes

Dublin to Edinburgh to the Lake District in England.

Caught the 6:30 flight from Dublin to Edinburgh.  I booked this flight because the next one was 12 noon and I wanted to make the most of the day.  I don’t think I remembered that it would be an international flight so require arrival at the airport 2 hours before the flight.  So…got up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus from the hotel to the airport in the dark, checked in and then went through security.  Shoes off this time.  Arrived in Edinburgh at 8:30 am and walked and walked and walked to the “hire car service centre”, found the Avis depot and picked up our Peugeot 2008.  Practically brand new. 

Plugged in our GPS brought from home and set off towards the Lake District in England.

Found Roslyn Chapel fairly easily but it was still closed so we searched around and found a secret walk around the outskirts of the chapel where we could secretly photograph the Chapel without paying 9GBP pp entry fee.

Stopped at Tescos in Peebles for some supplies and had lunch at “Greggs”.  Visited Leaderfoot Viewpoint to see the viaduct and then onto Scott’s view – mighty difficult to find but worth the effort.

Afternoon tea at Jedburgh to see the Abbey Ruins.  On to Hadrian’s wall and into the “Homestead” exhibition centre where the Roman Fort is.  Hundreds of people at each centre and hundreds of people walking the remains of the wall.

Then we headed to Clarence House B& B, Keswick where we are staying for 3 nights.

Walked around Keswick and it’s lovely dark green stone cottages and went to the George for dinner where they were happy to accept Scottish Pounds.  Very nice.

Day 8 - Dublin

Left Killarney to travel through Macroom then Lee Valley.

Visit Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone and walk the woodlands gardens.  Blarney Village for lunch. 

Ronnie kissing the stone:

Rock of Cashel - mediaeval monastery.

Kilkenny Castle and Riverside walks.

Dublin stayed at Premier Inn Sword, near the airport ready for an early flight to Edinburgh tomorrow morning.