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We set out from our flat in Tübingen on a recent Saturday to hike to Lichtenstein Castle.

After taking a bus and a train to the nearby town of Reutlingen, we realized that the bus we needed to get to our hike was not running that day.

We spent a couple of hours wandering the new town, shopping at market stalls and finding lunch at a kebob shop, before we headed back to Tübingen without seeing the castle.

On Sunday, we began again in Tübingen.

Side note: The phrase: “To begin again in Tübingen” is repeated with ridiculous frequency among us, and for reasons I can’t explain, has become a silly private joke, which honestly wasn’t ever really funny, but we still laugh.

Anyway,

we began again on Sunday and this time when we reached Reutlingen, the bus to the forest came.

And what a bus! This cute, impeccably restored Mercedes vintage bus is the vehicle that carries you up into the Swabian Alps (Schwäbische Alb in German).

(Swabia is the area of Germany where we live. I just learned this by the way.)

We were the only passengers on the bus for most of the thirty minute ride. Also, the driver looked about 14 years old.

The bus dropped us in the middle of the forest at a place called Nebelhöhle, a remote parking lot from which a network of beautiful trails wind through the hills.

We followed a well-marked loop that led to Lichtenstein Castle.

It was a misty day and I kept losing the boys and my friend, Nicola in the fog when I stopped to take photos.

Beware of cliffs in the fog. Yikes.

We were damp with this mist, but it makes for beautiful, storybook walking.

I was grateful for my boots as we tromped up and down hills, through leaves and mud.

Near the castle we entered these walkways that were lined with endless piles of neatly stacked firewood.

The castle must use a lot of firewood.

Just before you get to the castle is this lovely restaurant and beer garden. We were all cold and damp, so we stopped in here for a hot drink before continuing up to the castle. They were very busy with Sunday lunch reservations, but they were super kind to let us occupy a table as long as we agreed to vacate it by the time the 1:30 diners arrived. I mention this because it’s the second or third time we have stopped in at a place where the tables were all reserved but someone let us come in and have a coffee or a quick treat. In general, we are finding the service folks at restaurants and coffee shops in Swabia to be super kind and helpful like that.

After we were all warm inside from hot tea, hot coffee and hot chocolate with piles of cream, we headed on up to Schloss Lichtenstein.

The castle is not really super huge, but it is gorgeous.

The bridge over the old moat and the ivy covered walls are pretty fairytale like.

It looks exactly like a castle is supposed to look if you have never before seen one. Turrets and rounded walls that have spots for sentries.

The biggest tower rises out of this rock on the cliff.

There are lots of places you could fall off a cliff, so I enjoyed being at this castle with children who aren’t teeny tiny. They ran around the grounds and posted themselves at various lookout points.

Simon’s favorite part was a machine in which you could insert a penny (and a euro) and have it flattened with an imprint of the castle onto the penny.

And this is an example of how you can never predict what your kids are going to enjoy when you take them on a hike to a magnificent old structure that is dangling on the edge of a cliff.

I loved all the details. The shields of armor, the little crosses and balls and points on top of the pointy towers.

The outbuildings that were maybe for servants or gardeners.

I loved how the castle looked slightly creepy in the fog.

And I loved walking around and exploring it with my friend.

And the flowers. I always love the flowers.

Back through the woods, we walked a different way to our remote vintage bus stop, but before it arrived, we had lunch in a cutie little hut in the forest.

Of course lunch was Ben’s favorite part of the day. (Always)

We had traditional Swabian dishes, these big noodle pockets filled with meat and vegetables and drenched in different sauces. Mine was a mushroom sauce. It was delish, as most things are after you have been walking in a damp forest all day.

Then we hopped on our cutie vintage bus to make the long trek back to Tübingen. It took longer to get home, as we had to change buses a couple more times.

When we got home, Taido told us that if we had driven to the castle from our flat it would have take a little over half an hour to get there. And this my friends, is the great adventure of not owning a car. Our Tübingen bus passes made all our travel to and from the castle free to us (on the weekends), so it is economical.

I said to the boys that I think the all-day, much slower journey of getting to the castle made us appreciate seeing it that much more. Even more so because it actually took us two attempts to get there.

The jury is still out on whether they agree with me.

PS. If you are in Germany and want to plan your own hike to Lichtenstein Castle, I highly recommend the site Rome2Rio for plotting journeys of any kind between places with which you are unfamiliar, which for me includes all of Germany! Here’s how our journey looked on Rome2Rio.

The post A Walk to Lichtenstein Castle, Germany (Schloss Lichtenstein, Deutschland) appeared first on Alison Chino.

Oh Scotland, Land of Castles.

Castles that are old estate homes.

And castle ruins by the sea.

Today I’m sharing a collection of photos of castles in Scotland.

Like Dunnottar in Stonehaven, there are a few castles we return to with friends again and again because of their proximity to Aberdeen.

Crathes Castle is probably the one we have been to most often. There’s a four mile walk in the woods, there are gorgeous gardens to explore and you can even enjoy the treetops via a ropes course.

Drum Castle is nearby Crathes and also has great walks and a superb playground for little ones.

There is also a small chapel (where you sometimes see a wedding!) and a grove of trees that are excellent for climbing!

We love Drum because you can get on top of the castle tower.

You can also enjoy the tower views from Castle Fraser, although sometimes they are covered in mist.

Fraser is another frequent favorite for walks and gardens and tea in the old castle kitchen.

The walk leading up to Castle Fraser is lined in trees and in the spring the daffodils turn the whole field yellow.

Craigievar Castle is a little further from Aberdeen but it’s a beautiful drive and is surrounded by pine forest that is worth a walk through.

Fyvie Castle is one of the most impressive estate homes and it’s not too far from Old Meldrum so it can be combined with a distillery tour at Glen Garioch.

I love Fyvie Castle in the springtime especially. Take in the daffodils and a nearby walk around a lake.

Of course Dunnottar is our favorite castle ruin, but we have a few others we love to go back to. Auchindoun Castle is near Dufftown so I usually combine a trip there with a visit to nearby Glenfiddich Distillery.

You park along the road and walk about a mile to Auchindoun, sometimes passing Highland Coos in the fields on the way.

And you can let the kids play at this nearly-always deserted ruin to their hearts content.

I’m pretty sure we’ve taken all our cousins to this castle now!

Right next to Glenfiddich is another castle ruin that is not always open, but if it is, Balvenie Castle is another fun one to roam. There are almost always Highland Coos next to this castle, so it’s worth a wander even if the castle is closed. A castle ruin, a distillery tour and seeing Highland Coos are three must-have experiences for tours in Scotland, so it’s nice to be able to check all three off the list here in Dufftown.

Another fun ruin near Aberdeen is Tolquhon Castle.

The walls and towers are almost all restored for climbing and exploring. It’s one of the best places for hide and seek in all of Aberdeenshire!

All our kids (and kid visitors) prefer the castle ruins to touring the estate homes because they are free to roam and touch whatever they like.

One more favorite ruin is New Slain’s Castle near Cruden Bay, which also happens to be my favorite coastal walk in Scotland. A collection of coastal walks near Aberdeen might be my next blog post.

Castle visits will forever remain in my memory as a huge part of our life in Aberdeen! I hope the kids will treasure all these tours of towers and turrets as well!

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Our first excursion out of Aberdeen after our overseas move to Scotland was to a castle just outside of Stonehaven.

We walked two miles down King Street from where we were staying as guests of a family who were back in the US at the time to Aberdeen’s city center to catch a bus.

When the bus stopped on a quiet road near the castle ruin on a cliff, we were the only ones to get off.

We walked the road in the general direction of the sea until it appeared in the distance…

Donnottar Castle.

Dunnottar is dramatically perched on top of a rock that seems to rise out of the sea.

Needless to say, we were impressed.

We spent a couple of hours touring and playing around the castle ruins before our tummies reminded us that we needed to find something to eat.

We walked the two mile road to Stonehaven, unaware of the gorgeous coastal path we could have taken by the sea.

Some folks got a little tired of walking.

An hour later, we had found fish and chips and a beach to eat them on.

And everyone was happy.

We got back on the bus to head home to Aberdeen, tired and full and grateful for a wonderful day out to an epic location.

Stonehaven.

Over the last three years I’ve made many more trips to Stonehaven, and I never tire of watching the wonder wash across peoples’ faces when they glimpse the castle on the rocks or the delight in their eyes as we walk along the coastal path.

Especially for Americans, there is nothing quite like walking around a grass clifftop through ruins that hold stories that are so very old.

For over 800 years, these stones have withstood wind and rain and occasionally some sun.

We usually get a little bit of everything on our walks to and from the castle.

This rainbow and the darker clouds below are all from the same day.

When I take visitors, we always walk around to the opposite cliff from the castle for photographs.

You have to backtrack a bit and walk over a bridge though a gully to get over there.

Here are a few of the photos from that spot that we’ve taken of sweet friends who’ve come to see us in Aberdeen!

Sarabeth and Elizabeth, June 2014

Pete and Whit, Campbell and Wilson, July 2014

Diane, September 2014 (This might be my favorite!)

Rhonda and Carol, May 2015

Bob and Anna, Grace, Emily and Phineas, July 2015

Kelly, August 2015

And my last trip to Dunnottar..Donna and Tanja, April 2016.

(I’m missing a few other trips in there from friends who were visiting Aberdeen in winter….probably due to bad weather!)

After we see the castle, we walk back to Stonehaven along the coast. The views as you come into the town capture the whole harbor and the beach to the far left where we often eat fish and chips.

For lunch we have fish and chips on the beach, or we go to the Marine Hotel for beers and salmon chowder (Cullen Skink) and other cozy foods if the weather has turned.

Stonehaven has been one of my very favorite day trips to make from Aberdeen and since it was our first outing in Scotland as a family, it will always hold a special place in our hearts!

I’m so grateful I have gotten to share it with so many others!

PS.

If you go…here are a few details I would have loved to know on my first trip there.

You can park in Stonehaven right on the harbor (or in a free lot near the harbor) and follow the signs from the harbor to the coastal path. It’s 1.5 miles one way to the castle. When you reach the castle, there are a lot of stairs descending to the beach and then some more stairs up into the castle, so wear your hiking boots or trail runners. It cost around 7GBP to enter the castle ruins. There is a bathroom inside the castle which I always need when I get there. And the fish and chip shop we love is the Carron. There’s no place to sit in, so we carry it across the street to the beach. But like I said, we also love the Marine Hotel right on the harbor for food and drinks.

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I knew I was in trouble by the tone of his voice, but I was buying time.

Um, no, actually, I don’t think so.

I answered meekly.

He came back with,

What are you doing, exactly?

Me: Well, we’re just walking down this road. (stating the obvious)

And, um we well, we were going to have a look at the castle.

Him: Excuse me, what did that sign say?

He said this while pointing back down the road towards a gate we had shimmied over. You could not actually see the gate from where we were standing though, because it was a mile and a half down the road. That’s how far we had been walking down a lane to have a gander at a castle.

Let me back up.

Before we met the self-appointed protector of the castle, who incidentally reminded me of Ricky Gervais in Night of the Museum, we had been walking.

Carol and Rhonda, my #SpeysideSistas, and I had set out from the small village of Tomintoul early that morning.

And even though we knew that Ballindalloch Castle was going to take us off course a bit, we were looking forward to making the detour for a couple of reasons.

Carol and Rhonda had yet to visit a proper Scottish castle on a grand old estate. We’d been to the castle ruin of Dunnottar the previous weekend, and it is gorgeous. But Ballindalloch is a castle that is still in tact, with furnishings and paintings and all the fixings. At least I think it is. I cannot say for certain since I have still never been inside of it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Secondly, we were looking forward to making it to Ballindalloch Castle because I had inquired ahead of time about their cafe hours and offerings. The castles around Scotland usually have tearooms that serve cakes and baked goods, also known as “fine pieces” in these parts. Ballindalloch even has one or two gluten free offerings in their cafe every day, a significant detail for one of our party.

So we had our sights set on reaching Ballindalloch Castle before closing time.

As we marched over hill and dale and came through several rainstorms, we were dreaming of a cuppa and a gluten free fine piece.

When we finally reached a sign for the castle that indicated that it was a mile further down the road (in the opposite direction from our night’s lodging), closing time was looming.

I remembered how many times I have taken someone to a castle just before closing time and been turned away because of forgetting an annoying little footnote at the bottom of many signs that reads:

“Last entry is one hour before closing.”

I warned the gals that we might not be able to tour the castle even if we arrived before the closing time. But we could still take pictures from the outside and have a piece of cake in the cafe.

So, on we walked.

Eventually, we came to the turn off of the main road for the castle.

Oops. Also, I forgot that often a castle’s driveway is about five miles long. So even though the sign read that the castle was just a mile away, well, that sign is for cars. And when you’re in a car, you don’t notice how long a driveway is like you do when you are on foot.

So we turned left onto the lane and pretty soon we came to a gate.

According to my watch, the castle was not yet actually closed. But apparently this place was a little hardcore on their “last entry” policy and had already closed the gate.

However, we were invested.

There was too much castle anticipation to turn around.

At this point, we just needed to see it.

So, we got ourselves around this little gate and headed on down the road.

The long road.

And like I said, we were about a mile and a half down this road before we were stopped by this guy:

Him: Excuse me, WHAT DID THAT SIGN SAY?

Me: What sign?

Him: THE SIGN ON THE GATE???

Me: Oh, that sign. Oh right. Um, I think it said that the castle was closed. (I’m really clever on the spot.)

Him: And what did it say underneath that?

Me: Ummmm…

Him: It said NO ACCESS. That gate is there for a reason. We have to be really careful about security.

Me: Security?

I should mention at this point that this man had stopped all three of us, but Carol and Rhonda had been slowly backing away from the conversation and were now standing a good ten feet away from me, not saying a word. In retrospect I am wondering if somehow they thought they could disassociate themselves from me if I were to be collected for castle trespassing.

Me: I’m sorry sir, we have been walking all day and we knew we were too late to actually tour the castle, but we were just hoping to… 

Him: (interrupting) We have to be really careful about security! People cannot just walk down this road. 

Me: (confused, picking up where I left off) …so we’re walking the Speyside Way this week and we are staying in the little town down the road tonight…

Him: (interrupting again) Where are you staying?

Me: (starting to dig in my backpack for my booking reference): Um, just a minute.

Him: Auch, it doesn’t matter. We just have to be really careful of security. (I swear he kept saying this over and over again.)

Me: Right, well, we are about to walk to the place where we are staying tonight and honestly, we were just hoping to have a quick look at the castle beforehand. 

Him: (eyes rolling) Well, if you just continue a little of the way down this road, I suppose you may have a quick look at the castle. But we have to be really careful about security, so if anyone stops you, you may tell them that I approved of it. Then you really need to be on your way. 

Me: Oh, thank you so much. We’ll go very quickly, I promise.

Then he got in his car and drove away. We managed to contain our fits of giggles until he was out of sight.

Then we continued down to the castle.

We were so nervous by this point that we were practically whispering as we walked around the castle.

We found a bench to sit down on and I pulled out a thermos of tea and some biscuits, making good on my promise that we would have tea at the castle.

Well, girls, Welcome to Scotland.

After a while, in spite of blue skies, it started to rain, so we pulled ourselves up and headed back up the lane.

We walked for several more miles and through a terrible hailstorm before we came to the end of our day.

Thank goodness that Helen met us at the door or we might not have gotten over our encounter with Mr. Gervais.

Our Speyside Way walk was made possible in part by the good folks at Macs Adventure, who should in no way be held responsible for my gate-crashing or for my ridiculous YouTube videos.

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Our summer went by really fast and we got to do so much that I have almost forgotten some of my favorite days.

Slow days in Scotland with friends and family.

Like this one, when we Sarabeth was in town and we went to Craigievar Castle, a place in Aberdeenshire that may have inspired the original Disney Princess Castle.

My kids were still in school at this point, so Sarabeth and I were exploring castles and gardens. Taido was along with us this day, and we walked these woods around the castle before it opened up for the day.

This was in June so everything was all in bloom.

Again, I just keep remembering that the forests and flowers are going to look this way again.

After a walk through the gardens and woods, we toured the castle of course.

The best bit is always the view from the top.

I’m so grateful that I got to share this walk with my sweet friend and her daughter. Having friends visit has been one of the greatest gifts of living overseas!

The post A Walk near Craigievar Castle {Scotland} (42/48) appeared first on Alison Chino.

See that little monkey in the tree? That would be Ben.

He is way above me on a ropes course that is about thirty minutes from Aberdeen at Crathes Castle called Go Ape. Have you heard of Go Ape? They have tree top adventures all over the UK that look super fun to me! We recently requested that they give us a couple of spots on their nearby course, being that we are an adventuresome family and all. And they kindly obliged.

This turned out to be perfect for a new set of Chino House Activities I like to call Everybody Doing What They Want.

Also known as: We Will Not Spend Every Minute Of Our Lives Together.

Of course, when we woke up for our day of adventure, we found that it was raining.

Do you know what they do at Crathes Castle when it’s raining?

The same thing they do when it’s not raining. People still go on ropes courses and visit the castle gardens in the rain.

This brings me to something I have noticed about the people in Scotland (and in Ireland and England as well). The rain does not stop them.

At home, way back when I lived in Arkansas, do you know what we did when it was raining? Nothing. We stayed inside. If we had a soccer game, it was cancelled. If we had planned to go hiking, we stayed home.

But here in Scotland, nothing stops for the rain.

While I find it a little bit annoying to be wet and cold, I have to say that I am enormously impressed with how everyone else endures it.

Since we are adapting to life here, we put on our wellies and coats and got on with our day. Undeterred by the rain.

It turned out that what Mary Polly wanted to do was to spend the day with some friends at the mall. So we dropped her in some puddles downtown and told her not to talk to boys.

The rest of us headed out to Crathes Castle, and in the October rain, the castle grounds happen to be the most beautiful shades of yellow and green you’ve ever seen.

There is a four mile trail around the castle in the woods that Cole was looking forward to doing alone. He took off from the parking lot and we didn’t see him for hours.

Simon and I played in front of the castle for a while, and then we went inside and he did the scavenger hunt they have for kids his age. You have to find a clue in each room of the castle and then you put all the clues together to answer a riddle. Once he’d answered it, he turned in his paper and got a little certificate saying how clever he is. He loved it.

After we finished the scavenger hunt, we put on our hoods and went to see how our monkeys were faring.

Taido and Ben were still high in the trees when we found them. There were trails below the ropes where we could walk right under them and watch. They had gone through most of zips and jumps but we caught them on their last couple. They were definitely having fun and did not seem to even notice that it they were wet.

We made a video of Ben doing a zipline and swing. So much fun! He was not the least bit bothered by having been rained on all afternoon.

There is something super satisfying about getting outside and enjoying the day even though the weather is not ideal. Somehow, it feels like you have conquered the day instead of letting it conquer you.

Of course, one of the best parts of getting wet is coming home and getting dry again. That evening, over warm bowls of soup, we all agreed that it had been a great day, and that we might spend many more days with everyone doing just what they prefer.

Thanks so much to the sweetest National Trust Host at Crathes Castle who helped us with our scavenger hunt and to the guys at Go Ape who love to play in the rain! Our session at Go Ape was complimentary, but all opinions are our own.

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Castle Fraser, Scotland

The September weather seems to be holding out for our weekend castle visits!

Castle Fraser is a mere 16 miles from Aberdeen, which is an easy afternoon outing for us.

The grounds and surrounding gardens are amazing!  Our boys spent as much time playing in them as they did touring the castle.

The castle tour is self-guided, so you can go at your own pace.  Mother and I kind of lagged behind Taido and the boys, but Ben kept coming back and finding us to point out his favorite parts.

There are lots of fun stories associated with Castle Fraser.  It is famed to be one of the most haunted castles in Scotland.  Our favorite history was perhaps that of Charles Mackenzie Fraser. Charles was an officer in the Duke of Wellington’s army during the Napoleonic wars, and returned from the war after being shot in the leg and head.  In the castle, you can view his wooden leg, his hat with the hole shot through it and both bullets that wounded him.  He lived and ruled the castle for a long time, making many changes before his death at the age of 79.

We loved that in this castle you can actually go out onto the tower roof.  It’s such a treat to be able to see the surrounding areas from so high up.  Magnificent!

We all said this was our favorite part of the tour!

We took loads of pictures and marveled at standing on top of towers that have been around since the late 1500s.

Gorgeous Day + Fields + Blue Skies = Magical!

Hello Incredible Castle Gardens!

You can tell that locals come and enjoy the gardens on days like these, as the benches and tables were occupied.  Also the castle tea room was almost full of visitors.

And who wouldn’t want to wander these gardens as often as possible?

The grass carpet beckons.

We were especially delighted to discover that on Saturdays, you can buy vegetables and flowers at a small garden market.  We bought three varieties of kale, which we enjoyed in salads and in vegetable dishes the rest of the weekend.

It was too much fun to have castle garden veggies for dinner!

Between the garden and the parking area at Castle Fraser, is hidden a precious children’s garden.

It is a woodland play area, perfect for stories about fairies and dragons.

I can imagine how a child would want to return again and again to this magical place.

There was  a tipi, a room made out of trees, lots of wooden sculptures and even a giant xylophone made of wood that you play with sticks.

Crathes Castle also had a woodland play area for children.  I think it’s wonderful how the area castles are also great fun for families.  There are special days for families at the castles, with activities on holidays.  There was a small sort of picture scavenger hunt at Castle Fraser the day we visited, and you could make a paper mache pumpkin if you wanted.

Still, it seems nothing will ever surpass the joys of a play sword for Simon.

And the castle does serve as a great backdrop for fighting.

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Visiting Crathes Castle

You could make an entire trip just out of visiting castles in Scotland.  There are soooo many!  I have already collected more brochures and flyers for castles than we can possibly see this year!

We stopped at Crathes Castle on our way home from a quick getaway last week.  The castle is only about 25 minutes outside of Aberdeen and with the surrounding grounds and walks, would make a perfectly lovely family day trip.

Dating from the 16th century, the castle lands were actually a gift to the Burnett family from King Robert the Bruce in 1323.  The ancient Horn Of Leys, a gift from the king, is still on display in the Great Hall.

The castle is beautifully furnished still (no pictures allowed inside), and you can tour it at your own pace.  We enjoyed a visit with a lady who works there who was a wealth of information and history about the castle.  And a storyteller to boot.  She was precious!  The castle was not busy while we were there (midweek), so I could have visited with her all day.

The views of the surrounding gardens and hills from inside the castle are just stunning!

We will most certainly return with the kids to picnic on the grounds.

You can also walk a series of trails that run into the surrounding countryside.  LOVE!

Details if you go:

If you plan to see loads of castles in Scotland, it’s best to join the National Trust of Scotland, which gives you free admittance to many at once and is reciprocal in England and Ireland.  Not all castles in Scotland are included, but it quickly becomes worth it to join for a year in order to see as many as you can, especially if you have as many in your party as we do!  Here’s a brochure that shows which castles are included.

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We celebrated getting through our first week of school here in Scotland with a trip to the village of Stonehaven to see the famous and very impressive Dunnottar Castle!

As soon as the castle comes into view, you cannot help but be in awe of its perch above The North Sea.

We wondered at those who built it long ago.  The surviving buildings date from the 15th and 16th centuries, but there has been a fortress there since the Middle Ages.

Dunnottar was the perfect first castle visit for our family, because you can wander at will throughout the ruins and let your imagination run riot.

It’s lovely to visit a place where you can let the kids explore and not worry if they are disturbing artifacts and such.

However, we did want to be certain they weren’t falling out of windows or off cliffs.  The drop below looked treacherous.

The dangerous drops are fairly well marked and there is lots of space on the grounds between the buildings to run and play.

The ruins are marked with explanations of what they once were, such as this chapel.

It was fun to see what the kids discovered on their own and then wanted to show us.  Ben took me to see these crests over this old fireplace.  I had completely missed this room on my own.

I loved all the different textures of the castle.  The shapes of the windows and the stones on the ground.

This walkway was made from the sea stones along the shore. So pretty!

As we left the castle, we heard bagpipes playing, which was super fun.  Mama took a video of them.

After exploring the castle, we walked to the seaside town of Stonehaven, which is about 2 miles from Dunnottar Castle.

Along the way we made a stop at the Stonehaven War Memorial, referred to from a distance by our boys as (of course) Weathertop.

The memorial commemorates the lives lost in Stonehaven during the First and Second World Wars.  The names of those who died during the First World War are inscribed in the central column, and those in the Second World War around the sides.

These words are carved inside the memorial on the top.

One by one

death challenged them

and one by one

they smiled in his grim visage

and refused to be dismayed

The view of the town of Stonehaven from the War Memorial shows how lovely the whole area is.

We found ourselves sort of wishing we had moved to this little village after a week of navigating the larger city of Aberdeen.

As we got closer to town, we began to smell the fish frying, and we realized how hungry we were.

We got several boxes of fish and chips to share by the sea.

It was a perfect late lunch and ending to our perfectly lovely day in Stonehaven!

There was not a bite left!  Though we did share a few chips with the seagulls.

Our verdict on Stonehaven:

Castle + Gorgeous Seaside Village + Fish ‘n Chips = Perfect Scottish Outing!

Of course, it didn’t hurt that the weather was perfect!  Blue skies all around.

However, I think a visit to the castle on a dreary day would be lovely as well.  Everyone is excited go back.

Next time, we might bring swords and pretend we’re William Wallace.  He took the castle back from the English in 1297 and burned them alive in the chapel.

Or we could pretend to be the ladies who hid the Scottish crown jewels and smuggled them to safety when Oliver Cromwell invaded in the 17th century.

Better still, we could imitate the almost 200 men and women who were held in the 18th century in a small vault of the castle for refusing to give up their beliefs.  Those who did not die in the castle or jump to their deaths were shipped off to the West Indies, many of them dying on the voyage.

Maybe Castle Times = Hard Living?

Details If You Go:

From Aberdeen, we took the X7 bus, which made the fewest stops along the way and stopped near the castle.  We caught the return bus in Stonehaven.  Buses leave hourly from both directions.

Fees for Dunnottar Castle: 6 pounds for adults, 2 for children.

Fish and Chips: We bought ours at The Carron, which is takeaway only, so we had a picnic by the sea. Yummers!

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