Scotland Day 3
56k users I apologize, this post will be most unkind to you. This day was one of the most action packed days I have ever had. It started with eating breakfast at the B&B with eating a duck egg omlet and talking with a reporter from BBC radio. From there we had a driver scheduled to pick us up and take us around the area. Our first stop was the absolutly incredible Dunnottar Castle.
This place was so neat. As you can see it is a great ruined castle built on a rocky landmass that is just barely conected to the mainland. The ruined castle is still in decent condition, and it is open to be freely roamed around in. Which I did with wide-eyed wonder.
I probably could have spent all day there, but after close to two hours of exploring every nook and cranny we left. Our next stop was the town Banchory for a "wee bit" of shopping (whoop-te-doo) but Abigail found this bowl she really liked and is going to fill with rocks and sand from Stonehaven so that will be cool. We also ate lunch, and I had a prawn (read shrimp) and mayo sandwich which was really good. I found it interesting that the turkey sandwhich was actually more expensive. Shrimp is appereantly more common in the UK and therefor less expensive, which I had no complaints about. From the town we headed out towards Fraiser Caslte (and no the picture is not crooked, everyone we took looked this way, it is some weird effect the curve of the land has)
The castle was still in great condition, and was full of room after room with antique furniture from the late 17th to mid 18th century. It was alright, but after the awesomness that was Dunnottar, fancy mansion rooms didn't quite light my fire as much. From Fraiser castle we drove deeper into the Scotish countryside and stopped at a remote stone circle known as the Easter Aquhorthies. 
Scotland has more stone circles and standing stones than any place in the world (think stonehenge like, just none that big). No one knows what they are for. Most of the conjecture says it as to do with nature worship but those are just guesses, and personally reminds me of the black box theory (if you aren't in the know about what that is, ask me sometime). Sadly our tour was about to end with a visit to one more castle. 
Like Dunnottar, Tolquhon Castle is a ruined one that is still in decent shape. However, where Dunnottar was a true castle that served as a fortification as much as a stately home, Tolquhon was created to be a bit more mansion like, but it was still a ton of fun to roam around in. 
From there we had to go back to the train station to get a train to go back to Pitlochery, and after a dramatic run across a platform to catch our connecting train in Perth (and I had to do this carrying a suitcase full of Abigail's rocks) we made it back to Pitlochery and checked into our hostel. However, this does not end our day. I somehow convinced Abigail to make the hike outside of town and walk to a waterfall known as the Black Spout
This did however create a small problem when we walked back to town, because we discovered that while most pubs are open until midnight they stop serving food at 9 pm which is right when we made it back. Fortunatly, we found a resteraunt that must of still had their fryer on because they said the could make us fish and chips so that was happy. We went back to the Hostel and Abigail slept while I packed up all our stuff and finished the last few pages of Shatterpoint that I was not able to read on the plane.
This place was so neat. As you can see it is a great ruined castle built on a rocky landmass that is just barely conected to the mainland. The ruined castle is still in decent condition, and it is open to be freely roamed around in. Which I did with wide-eyed wonder.
I probably could have spent all day there, but after close to two hours of exploring every nook and cranny we left. Our next stop was the town Banchory for a "wee bit" of shopping (whoop-te-doo) but Abigail found this bowl she really liked and is going to fill with rocks and sand from Stonehaven so that will be cool. We also ate lunch, and I had a prawn (read shrimp) and mayo sandwich which was really good. I found it interesting that the turkey sandwhich was actually more expensive. Shrimp is appereantly more common in the UK and therefor less expensive, which I had no complaints about. From the town we headed out towards Fraiser Caslte (and no the picture is not crooked, everyone we took looked this way, it is some weird effect the curve of the land has)
The castle was still in great condition, and was full of room after room with antique furniture from the late 17th to mid 18th century. It was alright, but after the awesomness that was Dunnottar, fancy mansion rooms didn't quite light my fire as much. From Fraiser castle we drove deeper into the Scotish countryside and stopped at a remote stone circle known as the Easter Aquhorthies. Scotland has more stone circles and standing stones than any place in the world (think stonehenge like, just none that big). No one knows what they are for. Most of the conjecture says it as to do with nature worship but those are just guesses, and personally reminds me of the black box theory (if you aren't in the know about what that is, ask me sometime). Sadly our tour was about to end with a visit to one more castle. Like Dunnottar, Tolquhon Castle is a ruined one that is still in decent shape. However, where Dunnottar was a true castle that served as a fortification as much as a stately home, Tolquhon was created to be a bit more mansion like, but it was still a ton of fun to roam around in. From there we had to go back to the train station to get a train to go back to Pitlochery, and after a dramatic run across a platform to catch our connecting train in Perth (and I had to do this carrying a suitcase full of Abigail's rocks) we made it back to Pitlochery and checked into our hostel. However, this does not end our day. I somehow convinced Abigail to make the hike outside of town and walk to a waterfall known as the Black Spout
This did however create a small problem when we walked back to town, because we discovered that while most pubs are open until midnight they stop serving food at 9 pm which is right when we made it back. Fortunatly, we found a resteraunt that must of still had their fryer on because they said the could make us fish and chips so that was happy. We went back to the Hostel and Abigail slept while I packed up all our stuff and finished the last few pages of Shatterpoint that I was not able to read on the plane.
posted by SeanXor at 7:10 AM
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