Next on our journey, we headed to Northern Scotland for a day of
castles and coastlines. Our first stop was Dunrobin Castle, which is the long time home of the Dukes of Sutherland.
The interior was wonderful, It seemed like no rooms were square, no hallways straigh- it is what you imagine a castle to be like as a kid. I loved the library best, with a window nook looking out over the gardens to the sea and more than 10,000 books to read, it was place I could feel right at home (the lion and tiger pelts on the floor weren't really my thing though, with my luck I would trip and end up with my foot in the tiger's mouth).
You aren’t supposed to take pictures of the inside but since
I took these ones before I saw the sign, I decided I am keeping themJ
The grounds are also amazing, and we loved walking around
even if the weather coundn’t decide if it wanted to be cold, warm, windy or
sunny… how very Scottish.
There was also a museum on the grounds housing the family’s
collections of very rare… stuff. All kinds of stuff. Pictish stones, artifacts
from all over the world, and the best collection of taxidermy I have ever seen.
Elephant, giraffe, all sorts of African wildlife, sharks, LOTS of dear, Hundreds and hundreds of bird
and eggs. It was all amazing and extremely well preserved ( most items having
been collected pre- 1900), but it did make me realize that the upper class
might just be hoarders with enough room for their stuff J
We continued North and had a lovely drive up the coast
headed towards John O Groats. We stopped in Wick for fish and chips, which was
super fun. The lady who served us was such a gem. We got to talking and told
her we had started in Cornwall, to which she replied, “yoor’re completely oot
of yoou’re Heeds!”, haha.
The craziest thing about this trip is that we have had two full weeks of no rain. Not that it hasn't rained in the UK for two weeks (basically impossible), but some how we were either just ahead or just behind all of the storms. I actually got freckles on my nose in Scotland...Scotland! This is not the country people come to get a tan. But the spell finally broke on the day we got to John O' Groats, and we didn't mind one bit. The last time it had rained on us had been in Cornwall when we went to Land's End, so having some rain on the day we made it to John O' Groats was the perfect bookend to our journey.
John O' Groats was not the end of our trip but it did mark the end of our Journey from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland. The UK is not a large piece of land, quiet small compared to the U.S., but it is positively brimming with sights and history and nature. The journey we have made has been a wonderful one.
As we were leaving there was a rainbow right over the Scottish flag, it was picture perfect.
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