There’s just something about Scotland. The moody weather, tartan colors, mountainous terrain, and oh, those accents. The second the train pulled into Edinburgh Waverly Station, I knew I was gonna fall for the place, hard.
It was on that very train that the car stewardess advised I’d better start out on the right foot and learn how to properly pronounce the Scottish capital. “Ayy-den-bruhhhh,” she counseled, the last few letters always hanging in the air like the heavy clouds that often dot the Scottish sky. I would practice saying it right every chance I got.
Funny, but it felt good to have something authentic in my pocket. I would whirlwind through Edinburgh and the Highlands over just a single weekend away from a nearly two week England trek, so it was important to experience it quick and real. Just hearing the right sounds roll off my tongue made me feel more in the fabric of the place.
There’s an undeniable romance and intrigue to Scotland that sticks with you and I can’t wait to linger in it a bit longer next time. After only two and a half days I collapsed on the return train to London, knowing I’d be back. For now, check out my favorite quick hits for a speed-round visit to Scotland’s capital and the surrounding Highlands.
Edinburgh An old and familiar soul; no other way to describe it.
I lucked out big time. In a place that’s sunny only 1/3 of the year and only 3 hours a day, somehow my entire visit to the old and delicious Scottish city was gloriously sunny! My favorite thing to do in a new city is to wander, on foot, and with the help of great weather, I wandered the streets from 7 in the morning until after 11 p.m., sometimes solo and sometimes with newfound friends from an impromptu tour group, including my Brazilian Caravel House hostel roommate.
Edinburgh is an incredibly navigable combination of 12th – 18th century palaces, houses and chapels seamlessly woven among more modern performance spaces, university buildings and museums. There’s nowhere you can’t get to on two legs and it makes for a very cozy and active place with tons to do, see and eat. These are a few of my favorite things
1.Edinburg Castle No visit complete without touring this hilltop gem and city namesake. This is said to be the city’s oldest building from ~1100 and also is the site where Mary Queen of Scots lived out her exile and had her child, the future king of the unified English and Scottish crowns James VI / James I of England. Trek up the High Street to see the crown jewels of Scotland and incredible views of the city as well as hear a daily cannon salute.
2. Holyroodhouse Palace
I’m truly a geek when it comes to architecture and I love seeing famous old homes of any size, so the U.K. is a dream, with thousands of castles, palaces and manor homes, including the active British palace Holyroodhouse, which the Queen of England visits each summer.
From a gorgeous courtyard to an ancient and decaying abbey with grave markers, the palace is adorned with intricate woodworking, moulding and art. The setting for royal weddings and home to Bonnie Prince Charlie and Oliver Cromwell over its life, on the one hand Holyroodhouse is just a very cozy and stately home. But a quick tour will confirm it was also the setting for murder – in 1566 Mary Queen of Scot’s advisor David Rizzio was stabbed over fifty times, with blood stains infamously still visible in the old wood floors. Yikes.
3. Arthur’s Seat
800 feet above Holyrood Park is the famed peak of Arthur’s Seat, a refreshing urban hike that yields a spectacular 360 degree vantage of Edinburgh. I love to hike wherever I go and this city trek is pretty, short and sweet and quite lovely at dusk. Just be sure to bring a headlamp or flashlight if you decide to go late, like I did. I ended up hiking it alone and in the dark after my Brazilian hostel-mate opted out after the first 10 vertical minutes.
Long story short, I wandered around looking for her in the dark, calling her name, our tour guide and her phone via What’s App. She said she would wait for me on the trail, but she wasn’t there when I descended and so I worried. Turns out, I’d worried for no reason – she was Face Time-ing with her boyfriend back in the room when I returned around mid-night. Was I a Good Samaritan or a sucker… maybe both. Oh well.
4. Mum’s and Glenkinchie
Serving heaping plates of classic Scottish yumminess in a retro café setting with punk and rock playing the background, Mum’s is a great Edinburgh find for traditional food and atmosphere. On Forrest Road, it’s an easy post-museum stop just up from the National Museum of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.
I just couldn’t pull the trigger on haggis, but a steak and veggie stew over dumplings and mashed potatoes worked out nicely, with treacle and date pudding for desert. When in Rome, I was convinced to wash down the stew with what else but some Scotch whiskey. She brought me the “lightest”, “sweetest” one for lightweights, a burnt gold colored Glenkinchie distilled nearby. Holy shit that was a burn going down.
5. St. Giles’ Cathedral
I would visit every church, mosque, cathedral, synagogue, temple and abbey in every city if I could. I find religious houses beautiful, inspiring and affirming, no matter their tradition. To encounter God and be challenged to personalize and practice faith is always something to cherish.
St. Giles’ is a small Gothic treasure, right in the middle of the Royal Mile tourist zone that connects Edinburgh Castle with Holyroodhouse Palace. All around it are alley ways and stairwell passages connecting a mysterious city and buried in its parking lot is John Knox, famous Scottish religious reformer.
Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle No, I didn’t see her.
Three hours north, a boat ride across the most famous lake in the world is definitely worth the time and the pounds sterling. Refreshing air and boat spray smacking you in the face as a Union Jack flag whips in the wind, now this is how to live, you’ll think.
I regret not having enough time to explore nearby Inverness, the main city of the Scottish Highlands. I did, however, get to climb the ruins of Urquhart Castle, built as early as the 13th century but upon fort rock that may date from the 5th century! It’s well worth the drive time to touch and stand on stone that old, overlooking Loch Ness, imagining what it would’ve been like to survey your surrounds as a Scottish lord.
Highlands, General Don’t take a bus, take my word for it.
I only had a day to see something of the Highlands, the northwest region of Scotland. Of course this was laughable, since Scotland itself is about 250 miles from north to south and the Highlands make up a huge chunk. So, I did what any dumb visitor would do: book a bus tour. Wrong.
As great as it was to see just a few of the region’s majestic and winding hills, the glorious greens of fields dotted with grand estates and sharp blue skies, there’s no going back on having seen them through the windshield of the kind of 40-person bus that high schoolers take to away games.
To add to my shame, the warm, rhythmic and too full of people ride lulled me to sleep more than once, further reducing my ability to take in the breathtaking surrounds. All this means is I have to come back and drive and hike the Highlands. Sorry, not sorry.