Stirling Castle, William Wallace and Edinburgh, Part I

We left Dollar and drove past the William Wallace memorial (it wasn't open yet) and then off to Stirling Castle.  It was a gray, drizzly day, but we motored on with out hooded rainjackets (boy, am I glad we brought these!).  We got to Stirling Castle just when a tour was going to start, so we quickly got tickets, ran inside and found this small group being led by a man in a kilt. 

We figured this must be it, so off we went.  We were pretty disappointed in the guide, he didn't really interact with us and didn't seem to have as much information as most.  About half way through, another, much larger group caught up to us and we realized that we had been following some private tour (which wasn't good) and missing out on the official tour.  So we switched and the official guy was much better.

I'm sure if we had been with the right tour, we would have gotten a better description of what this was.

As it is the "tour guide" just mentioned that this was the field where they jousted.

So while Stirling Castle was interesting, we didn't get the full story that we would have if we had a better guide.

Then it was off to the Wallace Memorial, and the 246 steps to the top, and that's after hiking up a steep hill to even get to the base of it.

When we did get to the tower, there was an actor performing.  Again we got there at the end of it, but he was fun to watch and talked about how William Wallace lost the support of many of the clans, which led to his downfall.

But the views from the top were spectacular.  If only it had been sunny as well.

Then it was off to Saint Andrews, the home of golf.  I didn't want to actually play any of the courses (I'm not that much of a masochist!) but I did want to look around.  The only course we managed to find was the old course, with this very small practice putting green.

But we did find yet another ruined abbey.  This one was really ruined.  I liked this area where about the only thing left standing was one ruined tower.

But clearly this part was built by the lowest bidder as well.

But at least the poor construction made for some artsy shots!

Then we headed off to our B&B in Dundee, but after being led astray by our GPS (OK, OK, it's probably because I put in the wrong address) we found out that it was really in Arbroath (which is just a few miles outside of Dundee).  So we found the B&B, and spent quite a bit of time talking to our host, Ron.  He was very knowledgeable about the history of the area and also about (cue Susan being excited) birds.  He has several bird feeders right outside the breakfast room, so Susan could watch all the birds while we ate.

One of the things he mentioned was the Declaration of Arbroath, which he said was the basis for the Declaration of Independence.  I'll let you read it and decide for yourself,  but for me ... NOT!  Oh well, national pride is a good thing.