SUTTON Travels: Scotland

Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts

28 August 2022

Jedburgh Scotland

Jedburgh Scotland is a border town on the Jed Water about 10 miles north of the border with England.

Jedburgh Abbey, pictured above, was founded by King David I in 1138. The Abbey is made of red sandstone and has been the site of many border battles over the centuries.

Mary Queen of Scots stayed in Jedburgh in 1566--the house is a museum.

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St Andrews Scotland

St Andrews is the world famous home of golf on the coast of Fife, Scotland.

Here's a view of the St Andrews Club House.

Nearby is the beach--the one used in the movie, Chariots of Fire.

No surprise, there's a castle here too.

And a Cathedral

Close to St Andrews Castle is the highly ranked University of St Andrews, which dates to 1413 and is Scotland's oldest university.

The university is where Prince William earned a Master of Arts degree. He switched from Art History to Geography. He also met Kate Middleton who studied art history. The couple married in 2011 and are known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Notes

The city of St Andrews is named after St Andrew the Apostle.

St Andrew, is the patron St of Scotland.

St Andrew's Day is celebrated 30 November. It is also known as the Feast of Saint Andrew and Andermas. It is also a national holiday.

Golf has been played at St Andrews Links for some 600 years. The links are known as the Old Lady, Grand Old Lady, and the Old Course. The 150th Open Championship was played at St Andrews in July 2022.

St Andrews Castle and Cathedral

Bishop Arnold began building the Cathedral in the 1100s. The Cathedral and the castle are ruins. The Catholic Cathedral was the centre of church power as the seat of the Bishops and Archbishops of St Andrews. The ruins indicate how impressive the building must have been before it was destroyed. The castle was the residence of the lead bishop of Scotland in the Middle Ages.

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Urquhart Castle & Loch Ness Scotland

Urquhart Castle was built on a rock by the famous lake, Loch Ness.

According to his biographer, St Columba may have been here about 580 because of a story about a monster at the loch. Columba had left his monastery on the Isle of Iona to visit the king of the Picts at the Inverness court of Bridei.

The castle is the site of historic conflicts. Edward I of England captured the castle in 1296. Robert the Bruce had control of the castle in 1306. The MacDonald clan from the Isle of Islay also attacked the castle after the death of Robert the Bruce.

Clan Grant had the task of restoration in the 1500s with instructions from King James IV.

Loch Ness is a large freshwater lake having a length of just over 22 miles but is only about a mile and 3/4 wide. It is of course the site known for the Loch Ness monster popularised by the 1933 photo.

Lakeside activities include boating and enjoying the lake trails on bikes, horses, or on foot.

Notes

Loch is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots, and Irish word for lake.

Loch Ness is near Inverness and can be reached by busses.

Check online for tickets to tour the castle.

There is a café at the castle

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26 August 2022

Culloden, Scotland

Culloden is in the county of Inverness and about 6 miles east of the city.

It on the moor that the Battle of Culloden (also called the Battle of Drumossie) took place 16 April 1746. Here the Jacobites were defeated by the larger force of British soldiers.

The Jacobites were supporters of Charles Edward's claim to the British throne.

Invergordon, Scotland

Invergordon is a small town in Eastern Scotland on the Cromarty Firth.

It is a deep water port used by cruise ships visiting the Scottish Highlands.

There is a train station nearby. A trip to Inverness takes about an hour.

Others might visit Dunrobin Castle.

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Inverness, Scotland

Inverness/ Nathan Sutton

Inverness is the cultural capital of the Scottish Highlands. The city is by the River Ness, which flows from the well known, Loch Ness.

Inverness Castle dates from the 1800s Earlier, a castle was the Royal Residence of King Malcolm III (Canmore).

Inverness Castle

The Columba Hotel is in the view below. St Columba visited Pictish King Brude in their capital of Inverness about 565.

Ness River, Inverness

Military Tattoo, Inverness

Close to Inverness is the site of the Battle of Culloden.

Dunrobin Castle, Scotland

Dunrobin Castle, Scotland / Geoff Sutton 2022

We arrived at the 700-year-old Dunrobin Castle via coach from Invergordon on a pleasant sunny August day. We decided to tour the castle first before walking about the gardens and visiting the small museum.

I didn't count the number of rooms on the tour but they were surely a fraction of the 189--Dunrobin is the largest castle in the Northern Highlands and one of the oldest houses where people have always lived.