We have spent the last two nights in a stone croft cottage at Kirtomy, 3 miles west of Bettyhill. Tomorrow we travel to Ullapool as we begin our journey down the West Coast. After arriving on a fairly bleak evening, to a cold cottage after a long drive on single lane roads we were perhaps […]

We started off at dawn (8am) from Edinburgh to make our way to Bettyhill on the north coast of Scotland. After making it to Culloden just near Inverness we stopped to explore the visitor centre and museum, and to walk around the battlefield. Aside from the constant drizzle outside this was a great historical site […]

We had a beautiful last day in Edinburgh today. The weather was sunny and almost warm (by Scotland’s standards…we were still wearing our parkas). We caught the bus into town and went to Scotland’s records office where you can search for Scottish ancestry through their records. The staff were lovely and extremely helpful. Only one […]

We were up bright and early by Edinburgh standards and on the bus into town by just after 9am. We had organised to meet my aunt and uncle to go on the real Mary King’s Close tour which takes you into an underground warren of old streets and houses that had been built over in […]

Today we took a drive out of town. First stop the Falkirk Wheel. It wasn’t something that I had been desperate to see but Dad was very keen. After seeing how this giant feat of engineering changes the way boats move through canals and locks/lochs in the Forth Valley I was pretty darn impressed. Then […]

Today we bought a ticket for the hop on hop off buses and toured around the city. It was a fabulous way to get to the key sites really easily as well as get a really good feel for lots of other areas and their history. We spent the morning at the Castle with lots […]

It was a sunny autumn day as we set off into the city of Edinburgh. All being a bit wrecked from the long day of driving yesterday the plan was a quiet day with a bit of walking but not too much, lunch and a look around to get our bearings. We caught the bus […]

Today was a big driving day as we started out bright and early from Yorkshire and have finally landed in Edinburgh this evening. The weather was bleak on leaving Yorkshire and we headed for Hexham as a point for getting to Hadrian’s Wall. We were slowed down by some roadworks and stopped in Thirsk for […]

Today was the day for Whitby. We took the scenic route over the moors from Wold Newton, stopping at Goathland on the way. Goathland’s claim to fame is that it was the setting Heartbeat. We stopped at the tea rooms and had tea and a hot buttered tea cake which was scrumptious. Then it was […]

Today was all about tracing the family ancestors on my grandfather’s side. We tracked our way from Driffield to Nafferton, then Burton Agnes to Bridlington. In Driffield we wandered through the main street which was also market day. The people were friendly. We bought flowers, bananas, strawberries, cheese and homemade biscuits. We stopped for a […]