📸 — Stirling, Scotland

On our way down from Isle of Skye, we stopped at the famous Fairy pools for a hike before making our way to Stirling.

Stirling is famous for being the castle that led Robert the Bruce to his victory against England. It sits on the the Forth river, so if you control the Stirling castle, you control the river. And if you control the river, you essentially control access to all of Scotland, making it a very important location in the Scottish independence wars.

When Robert the Bruce set out to take back Scotland, with only a small army he started capturing castles in the north of Scotland, but kept nothing. They destroyed every castle, and burnt everything that was valuable on their way. This was to ensure that when they would reach Stirling castle, the English could not navigate around Scotland by boat and attack them from the north.

If you are curious about Robert the Bruce, you can watch Netflix’s “Outlaw King” that came out while we were in Scotland. From what we learnt about Scottish history, it seemed fairly accurate. Also, you should know that Braveheart is pretty much 98% rubbish, historically speaking.

So here is our journey — what a road trip, what crazy weather, what a great time in Scotland.

See more on our website www.alittledetour.ca🌏✈️👫

Our 2nd last night with Theresa, we reached a special milestone. 400 days since we left Montreal! So we decided to take the night to celebrate and found some booze that even some pets can enjoy!

We need a new pandemic.

We also got some cardboard bag wine (classy?) for our hike. And spent the evening watching the new Netflix movie Outlaw King.

We got to the Fairy Pools and made it about 30 min into the hike when the clouds came in, and we had our first rainy hike.

Theresa hurt her back in the morning and headed back to the car, but Oli and I tried to hike to the end.

We made it to the end, and the clouds cleared so we could get back and dry off.

Then the 3 hour car ride went on to Glasgow. It’s so crazy to think how tiny the UK is compared to driving in Canada.

We got to Glencoe National Park and it was beautiful. There are so many hikes to do in the area that you would literally need to visit for months to do them all!

Great views.

Then as we made our way to Stirling, a double rainbow appeared. Man, we are so lucky.

Stirling Castle was the key to the kingdom of Scotland, dominating a vast volcanic rock above the river Forth at the meeting point between Lowlands and Highlands. It is pretty cool, you drive into the city and on a HUGE rock see this massive castle looking down at you.

Its origins are ancient and over the centuries it grew into a great royal residence and a powerful stronghold.

This tour guide was leading a group and continued to yell “BANG!, BANG BANG!” with no restraint. He caught our attention and said we could join him on his tour. He was super passionate about educating visitors and we learned a lot!

The king died before he could move into this wing of the castle, but the detail he planned in his castle was beautiful. Wooden carvings, amazing tapestry (in the hundreds!), and detailed stone buildings that were so grand and incredible to walk through.

See more on our website www.alittledetour.ca🌏✈️👫