Lawrie's Late OE: South East Scotland: Perthshire and Fife to Edinburgh

So close to Edinburgh, but with so much to see before we got there – this post covers our final few days south to the great city.

10.08.2014 - 15.08.2014

After two nights in a camp site to help Kate recover from a bug, we spent a night outside Culross. More on that later - but Culross was cute. Mostly owned by National Trust Scotland, it's a medieval town, cobbled streets and that - very cute!

We headed in on a 'google special' route, ending up around the back of the town. I was horrified about getting the van through the central town proper, bustling cobbles and wall edges and whatnot - but fortunately I was able to turn around. We arrived too late to visit the wee palace however - we looked at the remnants of the abbey and left.

Facing down to Culross - eeek!

Odd view for a medieval town!

The lane we took to get to our rural hillside layby.

After our night up the hill, we went to another camp site as Kate had taken a turn for the worse - we left too early! Our few days in ‘The Woods’ campsite in Fife were pretty relaxed. Kate chomped on her medicine and got better. The campsite was lovely with gorgeous views up the mountain valley. We played scrabble and planned and recorded our first podcast attempt. (A podcast is just a long sound file – this one not really fit for public consumption, but a fun experiment for us for the next tour!)

An ill Kate!

We spent the 13th there, which was the anniversary of my arrival in the United Kingdom. When I put that reminder in my calendar I suspected 2014 would be a great year – but I had no idea just how great it would turn out to be! The blog was nice to have a quick flick back through, to review the adventures I’ve had and the experiences I’ve enjoyed (and those I’ve suffered through). It’s been amazing! But I’ve still got a few months left – on with the trip!

Once Kate was feeling better we headed back to the Wallace Monument, overlooking Stirling. We had popped in there hoping to free-camp but found the carpark rather busy and unfit for purpose – we decided on a rutted rural turning area up a neighbouring 1st-gear one lane incline. Arriving back, I headed up and visited the prominent gothic monument. Built in 1860(ish), it was always going to be something of a tourist attraction – so I was a bit surprised the Victorians hadn’t thought to put in a second stairwell! A tiny stairwell of 250ish steps spirals up to the viewing platform, £9.50 later. A few squeezes with fatties up and down, but all in all-surprisingly easy. The views were stunning!

Wallace Monument

From the top.

Nearby was the Bannockburn Heritage centre. The Battle of Bannockburn was a great Scottish battle where the Scottish army under Robert the Bruce defeated the English despite overwhelming odds and won Scottish independence. The centre is new and well worth a visit. The staff told us nothing except we’d have to wait some hours for the next session. Curious, we booked on and came back later.

We were shepherded in to the ‘Battle Game’ along with 25 others – a mixture of young and old, English and Scottish. Arranging ourselves around a circular birds-eye miniature of the Stirling countryside, we were assigned as commanders of the English or Scottish armies. Fortunately Kate was assigned as the Edward, the King of England! (Or in this case, Edwina the Queen). I was one of her knights.

Queen Edwina at Bannockburn Heritage Centre

Taking turns, our talented battle master chap helped us make decisions and each of us commanded our regiments on the map to engage in battle. It was a lot of fun – everyone was being pretty wussy until the bloke before me charged his cavalry in to the Scottish infantry. I followed suit and it was all on.

The people watching was as fun as the game – some Scots assigned to the English army were trying to just wander their regiments off the board, or attack their own Queen – petty stuff and the battle master would have none of it. Eventually, with Queen Kate’s aggressive leadership we killed Robert the Bruce and some awkward cheering was had.

After our battle had played out, the casualty positioning over time was displayed, and then a quick rundown of how the real battle went down was projected on to the map. A really effective way to engage with the material – absolutely worth a look – a jewel in the crown of National Trust for Scotland – well done!

While we were waiting for our battle we headed south to Falkirk to check out the Falkirk wheel. The wheel is a modern engineering feat, connecting two canals 150ft apart in height. Before the wheel people would have to sail around and through untold lockgates. Now they can go through a tunnel and be on the other canal in minutes. The wheel spins around, and is so well balanced that it apparently takes very little power to turn it around. It’s a real cool piece of engineering, and photogenic too!

The Falkirk wheel

Mid-spin

View from the upper canal - tidy!

We spent the evening up in the hills at a lovely lookout, I assume the local make-out point. I wonder how many moves we’ve blocked with our free camping!

Lovely spot for the evening

British clouds!

In the morning we visited ‘The Pineapple’. We didn’t know much about this, aside from it being a Victorian building shaped like a pineapple. And that was exactly what it was. We ate some wild blackberries, Kate rolled down the hill in the orchard outside then we continued on our way.

The Pineapple.

Linlithgow was our next stop – and the stunning Linlithgow Palace. This was one of the Palaces of Scottish Royalty, and Mary Queen of Scots had some kid here. It lies in ruins now (albeit in pretty good shape) and inside the enormous central square an ornate fountain sits.

Linlithgow Palace - central square

Kids in period garb were conducting wee tours. We didn’t much fancy the idea of being shown around by kids and wandered about the palace ourselves. As terrible as it is, my favourite memory of our touring this historic site was a pigeon nestled beneath our feet along a boardwalk. Kate poked it and it made amusing noises, eventually trying to bite her. Good times.

The neighbouring St Michael's Church was also worth a look. We were welcomed warmly by a volunteer. Around the church were boards detailing all the community programmes they are involved in. There was a nice feel to this community-oriented gothic church, as historically relevant as the palace next door!

St Michael's Church

We visited some charity shops in Linlithgow, Kate buying a dress and me buying some earplugs (van life isn’t always paradise!) before heading on to another National Trust estate – the House of the Binns.

Driving up to the house past startled sheep, we arrived in the deserted carpark to learn the House of the Binns was not open. Rubbish.

As we sat planning our next move we noticed a lone sheep in the carpark baa-ing pathetically, while it’s mum-sheep baa-ed just as pathetically over the fence and cattle grate. Kate took it upon herself to reunite this tragic pair, and I enjoyed watching an attempt at solo cattle driving descend in to pleading with the sheep to ‘come here’. Eventually I came to help, and when some snooty old couple (probably the Binns) drove out the driveway, the human activity scared the young sheep sufficiently to navigate the cattle grate back to mum and a happy suckling was had, tail wag and all – pretty cute.

Kate's attempt at sheep herding

Forthing on we headed to the Forth Bridges – a huge car suspension bridge and an enormous red Victorian monstrosity of a rail bridge. To get a good view we drove close through the cute wee cobbled streets of Queensferry. I always get a little angsty driving our beast along medieval streets but it was fine. The place was packed with cruise ship people, and with no parking to be found anywhere, we parked illegally long enough to snap some pics and then headed on out.