Finally made it around the Airthrey Castle, which I knew was on campus but didn’t realize it was really only like a 3 minute walk. Then we went on the Stirling Ghost Tour walk around the old town and graveyard beneath Stirling Castle.
This morning we started on our weekend tour to the Isle of Skye; when we started off we were finally getting some of the classic Scottish rain, but it cleared up as we went north so we could see all the mountains and lochs lining the roads. I definitely don’t remember all the names of the mountains we stopped at, but I do know that on the way we drove through the Loch Lommond & Trossachs National Park, and Glenco, and saw the Three Sisters, Glenfinnan Viaduct (Harry Potter bridge), and Eileen Donan Castle. Oh, and I finally saw my Highland cows! We stayed at a hostel in Stromeferry; pretty janky – we could only have power on either the first or second floor and (spoiler alert) the second night the showers stopped working all together, but you get what you pay for and we were pretty much only there to sleep.
Walked along the Back Walk trails behind the Stirling Castle. All these areas have loads of small trails going all about, and I’ve found my favorite way of hiking around is to only have the vaguest general idea of where I might want to end up and just see where the random trail I pick takes me – there tends to be some cool statues along the way as well, and sometimes a Beheading Stone. At the bottom of the trail I landed in an open area where I have been told sometimes Highland cows hang out, but there were only sheep today, so the hunt continues. That spot was right next to the King’s Knot which is kind of just an interesting landscaping choice (I read the plaque but can’t remember the actual history behind it). Then for dinner, we walked over to Bridge of Allen again.
Went out to Doune Castle, where it seems that its Monty Python fame has now been overshadowed by Outlander. Continued up into Callander, at the edge of the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park where I hiked to Bracklinn Falls. I tried stopping by Samson’s Stone while I was there, but I took two different trails, and each time my GPS told me to turn there was only dense forest; even when I found an official park map there was only a dot surrounded by green and no trails so I’m not sure how to get there without a helicopter. It was a beautiful day to waste a couple hours in the forest though, I was led to believe it’d be raining pretty much everyday here but the weather’s been absolutely smashing all week.
Today I just took a casual stroll through Stirling Castle after class, as you do. For dinner we went into town to try some Scotland favorites: pizza crunch (deep fried pizza), fried haggis, and a fried Mars bar; pizza could have been really good if it had come with more dipping sauce on the side, but the others were really good.
Last day in Ireland spent driving from Cork back to Dublin to fly out in the morning. We stopped at Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny Castle, and drove along the Sally Gap in Wicklow.
Our good luck with the weather finally ran out and we couldn’t go out until the afternoon today, so we only made it to Blarney Castle. Ended up being a lot more there to explore though; I saw signs for “Jurassic Fern Park” and obviously had to wander around there for a good long while.
Drove from Galway down to Cork, stopping in Limerick for lunch and seeing King John’s Castle.
Kilkee Cliffs (quite windy but not too cold) & Cliffs of Moher (extremely windy and quite cold); we spent a lot of time at the underrated Kilkee Cliffs and then were lucky enough to get the handicap buggy to the top of the Cliffs of Moher. In between we stopped at Loophead Lighthouse, Doonagore Castle, and drove through Doolin.
Now the real fun can begin with seeing all the pretty places. We took the train back to Dublin to rent a car and drove to Galway, stopping in Trim and County Offaly to see the Trim Castle and Clonmacnoise Monastery (which we may or may not have snuck into after hours through an open gate).
