Jim and Hamish's "Scotland 2008" Tour

[Hamish]

Saturday was the day we were to leave The Highlands and drive back from Pitlochry to Dumfries for our final night in Scotland. The route I had planned was virtually as straightforward as the road system would allow: the A9 skirting Perth and Stirling, the Motorways avoiding Glasgow, and then the M74 southwards in the general direction of Dumfries. Although no sightseeing had been planned, by the time we were approaching Stirling, we realised that we were ahead of time and decided to visit the castle there - which neither of us had done before. Unfortunately, we wasted time and increasingly expensive petrol by failing to see a small sign in the town that would have directed us up to the castle (we later discovered that it had been hit by a passing vehicle and could not be seen from the street!), so it was not long before we found ourselves emerging from the other side of Stirling! Undaunted, we drove back into the centre and eventually found our way to the castle esplanade and parked.



Stirling castle is interesting but, in our opinions, has the appearance and feeling of being not quite real or authentic. Whilst the exteriors of its buildings are imposing, especially from below the rock on which the castle stands, so much of it has been renovated or restored, particularly the interior of the Chapel Royal which looked as if it had been built within the past five years - everything was so new, there was absolutely no atmosphere of antiquity or of the history of the place. We both thought it like a film set. Such a shame. The views from the castle are quite spectacular, such as this one looking out to the Wallace Monument:



In spite of the misgivings, we are pleased we visited, but doubt that either of us will be rushing back.
From Stirling, we resumed the uneventful drive back to Dumfries, where Robertson, Emma, 'Taffie' and 'Riley' afforded us another Ferintosh welcome. Niall ('Niblox') had also just arrived hot-foot from Edinburgh in readiness for the Kilts Nicht planned for the evening.

To be continued.