If you are in Edinburgh it is impossible to miss the beautiful castle perched atop the hill of the Royal Mile. The Edinburgh Castle is immaculate and perfectly restored with exhibits showcasing centuries of Scottish history. But, if you take the road less travelled and do a little bit of digging, you will find that Edinburgh Castle is not the only royal fortress of Scotland’s imperial city. Tucked away behind the Palace of Holyrood and Arthur’s Seat sits a castle in the Edinburgh village of Craigmillar. From the city center, take buses 2, 14, or 30 toward Craigmillar or the Royal Infirmary and stumble upon the most well preserved medieval fortress in Scotland. Fields of grass surround the story book fortress and you will be amazed to see this hidden wonder seem to appear in the midst of the Scottish meadows.The castle is described as a ‘league distant from Edinburgh’…

I escaped Edinburgh on Sunday and decided to explore a famous old fishing village in the Kingdom of Fife. This town is famous for exactly three things: it is known as the home of golf, it has the oldest university in Scotland, and it was where a famous Prince fell in love with a commoner. If you guessed St. Andrews, then you’re right! Which of the clues gave it away for you, the sport, the education, or the love story? Well no matter what your answer, or even if you didn’t have a clue about any of them, St. Andrews is a bustling town of fairytale stone buildings and cobblestoned streets and no matter what your interests may be, it has a little taste of Scotland for everyone. The bus from Edinburgh to St. Andrews was easy—once we found the stop. It was hidden back on George Street which runs…

One of my favorite scenes from the movie “Made of Honor” is when Hannah and her Scottish fiancé, Colin, are sitting at the dinner table discussing baby names with Colin’s Aunt and Uncle. “Little Atholl,” suggests the aunt in her thick Scottish accent, mimicking stroking a baby in her arms. Now to Hannah, as to you or I, Atholl (which sounds exactly like that certain swear used used to reference a jerk) would not be a name we would name a child. But in Scotland, it was the Duke of Atholl who rebuilt the little village of Dunkeld after a 16- hour battle with the Jacobites and piped a water supply for the villagers. Today, a beautiful gothic fountain sits in the oldest part of Dunkeld called the Cross, where the mercat (or market) once stood. This fountain was built in 1866 to commemorate the 6th Duke of Atholl who…

Angus Graham picked us up at 8:00 a.m. sharp. The side of the black minivan read “Skye Island Tours” and standing at the driver’s side door was a man with a broad smile who greeted us with a friendly handshake and a warm hello in  a thick Scottish accent. We clambered in and buckled up for the journey to the Misty Isle. Gus was a weathered guide of Skye with humor and wit and years of great stories to tell. He had grown up on the Isle of Skye, but had left to join the army in London. He became a police officer (much to Mom’s sanity as he zigzagged along the narrow roads of Loch Ness from years of experience) and told us he had come back to Skye fifteen years ago. I told him I was a writer working on a blog during my time in Scotland and he says, “Well,…

It is day two of my Scottish adventure! I flew into Edinburgh airport from Dublin on Aer Lingus yesterday with my family and rented a minivan to drive right up through the beautiful Cairngorms National Park on the A9 road to Inverness. It had been 36 hours since we had all slept by that point, so I napped for the majority of the way in the backseat as we drove through. However, when we arrived in Inverness, all eyes were bright and eager to see the town known as the capital of the Highlands. We decided to first find the accommodation we would be staying at. As we are a family of four with three girls (much to my Dad’s patience and grey hairs) we need our space and decided that renting a cottage with three bedrooms and two full bathrooms through AirBnB was our best course of action. We…