Stirling Castle/Doune Castle

The Great Scottish Adventure

Intro

Here begins the stories and photos of a grand 23 day adventure to Scotland…

Scotland had been on my bucket list for quite some time. With Scottish ancestry coursing through my veins, I planned to seek out some of my lineage here. As you will find, we planned the adventure around a castle theme. Visiting many ancient locations, some still lived in by royalty and others mere ruins of what once were fortresses.

Planning for this trip started at least 8 months prior, if not longer. We began with our main locations we wanted to visit and expanded from there. Then building a cohesive route that would link it all together.

And then there was the deep dive into my ancestry. I followed my Stewart linage back from my fathers side and my great grandmother, Eleanor Marjorie Stewart. This started with a genealogy book that a distant relative, Barbara Stewart, had put together called The Stewarts of Strath Gartney: A Family History. And from the information in her book, I then began extensively researching on the internet and genealogy websites to try and dig back as far as I could. The deeper I dug, the more fascinated I became! The information I found was intriguing and confusing, but all interconnected. My Stewart lineage led back to much Scottish royalty! Captivating stuff that I spent more hours on than I care to admit…

We decided on renting a campervan for our travels. A self contained mini home on wheels that would allow us the freedom to move around, park up, rest or sleep whenever or wherever we wanted. It had everything we needed: bed, refrigerator, stove/oven, dinette table and bathroom. 

Even though Scotland does allow you to park up and sleep overnight in suitable pull-offs, we chose to book campsites for every night. This provided a sense of security, knowing where we would end up at the end of the day. As well as providing amenities like electric hookups for the van to power the fridge, full bathrooms with proper showers, and laundry facilities.   

The photography I will present to you of this adventure are both a documentary of the castles we visited, and of course, the amazingly beautiful Scottish landscapes that we fell in love with!

I hope you enjoy the adventure. at least a fraction of what we did!

Day 1
Camper Van Pick Up/Witches Craig Camp

After a grueling 22 hours of air travel, we arrive at the Glasgow International Airport at 11:30am. We retrieved our checked bags and walked the 1/2 mile to Open Road Scotland to secure our campervan for the 3 week adventure ahead.

We were graciously greeted by Jerry who had all the paperwork ready. Then after a bit of mind numbing long winded training and stories from John, we were on our way trying to navigate on the wrong side of the road!

First stop was to gather supplies for the next several days. It was pretty stressful driving as everything seemed backwards. I navigated and Harmony did an awesome job driving on the left. The most challenging part were all the roundabouts.

After acquiring supplies we made our way to the Witches Craig campsite, near Stirling, for the night. We spent a good deal of time organizing all our gear and clothing into the camper in a way that made sense, although I believe it will evolve over time as we get used to this “van life” we’ll be living for the next several weeks…

Day 2
Stirling Castle/Doune Castle

We slept in 45 minutes past the alarm due to jet lag and exhaustion. No time for breakfast now, have to make it to the Castleview Park n Ride in time to catch the bus up to the Stirling Castle for our scheduled entry.

The castle was absolutely amazing, and I was grinning from ear to ear! It sits on top of a rocky crag overlooking the city and surrounding landscape. This was a common theme we would find out as it provided a very defensible location that was difficult to attack. It was huge and had so much to see and history to read about. We spent over two hours there before walking down off the hilltop fortress to Old Town Stirling. More detailed history and information of Stirling Castle can be found here.

Stirling… Great architecture! We stopped in to a bagpipe makers shop and was going to purchase a small flask with the Stewart tartan on it until we learned his internet was down and could only accept cash, which we had none of. Sorry, we have no cash!

Then onto a little café for some delicious mozzarella and avocado paninis, Yum!, while overlooking the street for some people watching.

After catching the bus back to the Park n Ride, it was time to make the short drive to Doune Castle. This turned into being easier said than done.

The turn onto the road to the castle was way too sharp for our campervan to make, and we had to drive quite a ways before finding a suitable turnaround. Then when we neared the castle parking area, we saw the sign stating “No parking for camper vans”! The parking attendant told us we would have to go back to the far end of the little town of Doune to a bigger parking lot. Ugh! Fortunately, we found a roadside spot in town. But then had to walk back a half mile or so to the castle.

Another cool castle with some history back to my Stewart ancestry. Doune Castle was the seat of Robert Stewart, the 1st Duke of Albany (1340-1420). And he was the son of King Robert Stewart II (1316-1390). According to my genealogy research, my 16th and 17th great-grandfathers! More info on Doune Castle can be found here.

After Doune, we made our way to Callander and our campsite for the next two nights. We fired up the oven and shared some Cottage Pie for dinner before a round of Yahtzee and then heading to bed for the night.

Some rain is forecasted for tomorrow. Looking forward to what the day will bring…