Scotland and Ireland

Julian · May 3, 2023

We are about to embark on a trip from Raleigh NC to London, then onto Glasgow. In Glasgow we'll see my aunt and cousin, then do a driving tour around Scotland ending up in Edinburgh.

From Edinburgh we fly to Dublin, where we'll do the Connoisseur Experience at Guinness and then drive around southern Ireland and see another cousin in Kilkenny, then back to Dublin and home.

These are the rough maps of what we'll do:

Scotland:

Ireland:

I'll post photos along the way in this thread....

Julian · May 4, 2023

Landed at Heathrow and had to take an obligatory photo with the partyingest horse in the world (have you ever seen a horse with a lamp shade on its head?). LOL

And also took a snap of an A380....not sure how often I'll spot one of these monsters! Look at the flight deck windowshield to get a good idea of it's size!!!

SDAnderson51 · May 4, 2023

I spent three years in Scotland. The people were fantastic and the countryside beautiful. The weather not so great, but then you can't have everything. I lived over on the coast in a small town called Leathermuir. It is about half way between Aberdeen and Dundee.

Julian · May 5, 2023

Stirling Castle, National Wallace Memorial and the old Stirling bridge (the reason for Stirling Castle....to hold the bridge)

Julian · May 6, 2023

Today we went to Doune Castle....remind any of you of anything:

If you said....Outlander, you'd be correct, but what I was going for was "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"!

The great hall inside the Castle:

Huntington Tower Castle:

The Falls of Bruar:

Muthill old church (1300s)

Lots of sheep and lambs:

Tons of great highland views....on my wife's phone as I was driving.

AmesJainchill · May 9, 2023

Great pics! My wife and I went to UK and Ireland back in May 2012 shortly after we were married in late 2011, and would love to go back again! Our itinerary at the time included London, Scotland and southern Ireland. Was a great trip and many beautiful locales!

-Flew to London Heathrow from DTW
-London/Stonehenge
-Flew to Edinborough
-Drove from Edinburgh to the Scottish highlands (Ballater was our hub up there, Balmoral, Dufftown - Balvenie Castle and Glenfiddich, Craigellachie/Aberlour/Easter Elchies and Macallan/Horseback riding at Glen Tanar Equestrian Centre)
-Flew from Edinburgh to Dublin (Guinness/Trinity and various CIE tour stops)
-Bus to various locales around southern Ireland (Kilkenny, Blarney Castle and Woollen Mills, Killarney, Kilrush, Cliffs of Moher (or Cliffs of Insanity if you're a Princess Bride fan), Shannon and Bunratty Castle
-Flew back to Kennedy from Shannon and then to DTW - note that we cleared US customs super fast in Shannon which saved us from the madhouse that is (or was) the Delta 3 terminal at Kennedy at the time

We enjoyed driving around in the Scottish highlands as it wasn't congested with traffic at all and allowed for a lot of flexibility in where we went and at what times. Our IE portion was by bus since we were trying to hit as many places as possible in the relatively short 10 days we had. Would love to go back and see additional locales in Northern Scotland (Inverness, Kirkwall/Scapa, Islay, etc.) and Northern Ireland (Giant's Causeway, etc.)

Very nostalgic seeing pics of your current trip. Thanks for sharing! We'll get back there some day hopefully soon and take our daughter with us (how is she already 8yo - my god time flies)!