My newest dream is to visit and explore Scotland. It has been my lifelong dream to visit Ireland due to my family heritage but I’m discovering that my Crawford line is from Scotland. Plus, I blame Outlander. If you saw my bucket list last week you know it’s a dream of mine along with the rest of the British Isles. My friend Beth has been to Scotland several times and I asked her to join me on the blog to talk about her experiences traveling all over Scotland. I thought this would be a fun twist to my blog. This will be a four part series about Scotland and UK travel.
Enjoy!
When did your love for Scotland begin?
My Mom has a tremendous amount of Scottish descent and she has always instilled in us that Scottish pride. From a young age, we have had a love for Scotland, or as Mom called it, “our homeland.” My Mom is a Crawford and a Ferguson. When the Scottish people came to this area in the 1700s and 1800s they stayed tight with their clans and didn’t really leave their families. My Mom is close to 100% Scottish. Thankfully, my niece has done extensive ancestry research, which allowed us to know pretty much everything about our Scottish ancestors. She is a wealth of information about our heritage. There is an old Scottish love song written about my sixth great-grandmother, Annie Laurie. Mom has played it for us and explained it was our Grandmother for as long as I can remember. We are very proud of our heritage in this area. When I took my DNA test and found that I was genetically well over half Scottish it lit a fire inside me. Now I’m obsessed haha
How many times have you visited Scotland?
I visited three times.
Where do you fly into?
I have flown into Edinburgh. Also, I have flown into London and taken a train to Scotland.
What route do you usually take around Scotland?
The first two times I took tours into the highlands and traveled on my own by train to family grave sites from Edinburgh. Recently, we rented a camper van and drove from Edinburgh all the way through the Trossachs, deep into the highlands, then over to the Isle of Skye. Then back across Scotland to Edinburgh, stopping many places along the way. Basically all over the country!
What sites do you recommend?
The Trossachs National Park, Loch Lomond, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling, Stirling Castle, Callander, Pichtlochery, Fort William, Fort Augustus, Ben Nevis, Glen Nevis, Glencoe, Loch Ness, Loch Katrine, Inverness, Inverness Castle, Urquhart Castle, Doune Castle, Eilean Donan Castle, Dunvegan Castle, Culloden Battlefield, Luss, Midhope Castle, Cairngorms National Park. On the Isle of Skye I would recommend Kilt Rock, Fairy Pools, Fairy Glens, Glenbrittle beach, Old Man of Storr, Coral Beach, Portree- basically the whole island 🙂
What cities/towns and villages do you recommend visiting?
Edinburgh, Callander, Stirling, Fort William, Glencoe, Pichtlochery, Luss, Fort Augustus, Inverness and Portree
You said North Carolina is a lot like Scotland, how is it the same and how is it different?
The Appalachian Mountains have a little more elevation and more lush in certain areas and more populated than the Scottish Highlands. Depending on what area of Scotland you’re referencing, it can look very much the same. The mountains are shaped and colored similarly and have the fog roll in which it makes them look blue almost. The forests are similar in a lot of ways as well. The Scottish Highlands and the Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest mountains in the world. In all actuality it is the same mountain system, they were just separated for some reason. No wonder the Scottish people settled here, it looks so much like their home.
Hope you enjoyed this Q&A and got some great information from it. Stay tuned for a follow up post where Beth shares how to visit and travel around Scotland on a budget! If you are thinking about camping throughout Scotland, you are in luck! She will be sharing her experience with that as well!
Please feel free to share this post with your friends and family! Be sure and leave a comment below! Thank you for reading!
Beth and her husband, Steven Reinhold of Appalachian Adventure Company live in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina with their kitties. They love exploring and going on adventure trips namely to, Scotland. You can find them on Instagram: @bh2318 and @appalachian_adventure_company
[…] two weeks Beth has joined me on the blog for a travel series. If you missed the posts, check out the Scotland Q & A and traveling Europe on a budget. Beth and her husband Steven are joining me again on the blog. […]