Exploring Scotland and NE England

I love traveling to the British Isles, especially Scotland. In late April/early May 2019 I went on another adventure to the UK. I left Boston and flew across the Pond to London and then up to Edinburgh, the vibrant capital city of Scotland, where I spent the 1st 3 nights of my weeklong trip.

I lived in Edinburgh almost 11 years ago while attaining my Masters in Osteoarcheology from the University of Edinburgh, so it was a sort of homecoming for me. I arrived on a Saturday afternoon and after checking into my hotel spent the next several hours roaming around my old haunts, including the Royal Mile, Princes Street Gardens and Arthur’s Seat.

I stayed at the hotel Ibis Styles in St. Andrews Square, a perfectly located spot to explore the city, right next to the bus and train stations, a variety of shops, and many tourist attractions, including the Royal Mile, Princes Street, Sir Walter Scott Monument, and more.

1st Day tour

While in Edinburgh, I took 2 day trips. My 1st day trip was down into northeast England to Alnwick Castle (pronounced Anick) and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. I used a small group tour company called Heart of Scotland, which I wasn’t familiar with, and definitely recommend them! We were on a 16-seater bus and there were people from the States, UK, Australia, Germany and Italy.

Our 1st stop was Alnwick Castle, a place used during filming for Harry Potter among other movies/shows. I love visiting castles and had an enjoyable couple hours exploring the grounds and keep.

We then drove to Lindisfarne, which is an island only accessible during low tide. I learned that Lindisfarne had connections with Iona, which I visited a few days later on my 4-day tour, and that monks from Iona were invited over to help spread Christianity in Northumbria (Northumberland) in 634 AD!

On the island, I saw the castle on a cliff top by the sea, the ruins of an abbey, and an old church that is still in use today.

The island is famous for the Lindisfarne Gospels and the mead the monks used to make.

2nd Day Tour

My 2nd day trip out of Edinburgh was also with Heart of Scotland. This time we went to Rosslyn Chapel and Hadrian’s Wall, with several stops in between.

First we went to Rosslyn Chapel and walked down a path behind it to see the ruins of Roslin Castle. Then we entered into the chapel of Da Vinci Code fame and saw the symbolic architecture, which we weren’t allowed to take pictures of, but it was well worth the visit!

We then made our way to Melrose Abbey, also with connections to Iona, and the supposed burial place of the heart of Robert the Bruce, a well-known Scottish freedom fighter in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

We continued south across the border into England to explore parts of the remains of the 73-mile long Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans to keep the Picti and Scots out of their Empire since they couldn’t conquer them! The part we stopped at had a Roman fort next to it as well.

We then stopped at Jedburgh Abbey before making our way back to Edinburgh.

4-day Rabbies Tour

I then said goodbye to Edinburgh and joined my 4-day tour to the Inner Hebridean isles of Mull, Iona and Staffa. Rabbies, another small group tour company, which I have used for 2 previous trips to Wales and Devon+Cornwall, ran the tour. I definitely recommend them! A perfect combination of scheduled and free time!

Our first day was mostly traveling, but we had plenty of interesting stops along our way from Edinburgh to Mull. We stopped at Loch Lubnaig (lubnik), drove through Glencoe with its majestic mountains and stopped for lunch at its visitor center (centre), where I had a delicious quiche with salmon and watercress.

We then took 2 short ferry rides to the island of Mull, our base for the next 3 nights. I stayed at a nice B+B on top of a hill overlooking the harbor in the capital of Tobermory, which means Well of Mary. The name of the bed and breakfast was Harbour View, and I had a decent-sized, clean room with an amazing view, and a good selection for breakfast every morning that helped keep me going during my explorations!

Our second day was definitely the highlight of my trip! We drove down to the southwestern part of the island and took a ferry over to Iona, the birthplace of Celtic Christianity in Scotland, founded by St. Columba back in the 500s AD who came from Ireland after political conflict drove him across the sea. We explored the ruins of the Nunnery and the well-preserved abbey, as well as the Heritage Center and museum, where there’s a copy of the Book of Kells, which is thought to have been made on Iona before ending up in Kells, Ireland after a Viking raid in the early 800s AD!

I, and 4 others from my tour, then took a 3-hour boat tour (luckily not like Gilligan’s Island;)) in the afternoon to the small island of Staffa, where we got to see puffins up close high on the cliff tops! We were blessed with a clear, sunshiny day and I even managed to get sunburned…didn’t think I needed sun block in Scotland! But it was definitely a worthwhile experience nevertheless!

Our 3rd day was a quieter day, where we spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the island of Mull, and had the rest of the day free to check out the shops in Tobermory. We went to some standing stones, an old church, and Calgary Bay, which was a nice cove to enjoy views of the ocean. We parked at an art gallery and cafe where there was a woodland walk to get to the beach full of wooden sculptures and pretty Scottish bluebells.

In the afternoon, I hung out with a nice Scottish couple that was on the tour with me and we had some lunch at a local pub and explored the shops along the harbor.

On our 4th day we said goodbye to Mull and headed back East to Edinburgh. The weather turned cooler and cloudier so we didn’t linger long on our stops. We did however see some more standing stones in Kilmartin Glen, had a brief stop at Inverary Castle in Argyll, and stopped at Loch Lomond, where I heard the sad story behind the song ‘Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond’, which tells of the fate of 2 brothers who were Jacobite soldiers when they were captured by the English and made to choose which one of them would be killed…

We also went through the pass called ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ back to the Lowlands and through Stirling (the Brooch of Scotland (strategic location, whoever controlled Stirling, controlled Scotland)) before returning to Edinburgh in the evening.

I was planning on hanging out overnight at the airport, but the Scottish couple, who happened to live in Edinburgh and run an airbnb, invited me to stay with them. A much more pleasant last night in Scotland for sure! I then made my way back to the airport early Saturday morning and flew back home, full of memories and with tons of pictures and stories to share! I love Scotland, and plan on going back for more Rabbies tours in the future!

* If you would like more information about the tour companies I used on this trip, click the links below to go to their websites:

https://www.heartofscotlandtours.co.uk/

https://www.rabbies.com/en