Sunday and Monday!

Clearly the last leg of our trip has kept us far to busy driving around Scotland & it's borders to have a chance to update you with what we've been doing... so here's an update!

Sunday:
On Sunday, after leaving Carlisle, we left for Glasgow, but first, we made sure to visit Carlisle Castle, an important strategic point for the defense of the English border during the Civil war between Scotland and England.




From there, we moved up north through VERY narrow roads, and spent some time at Hadrian's wall, and a Roman fort that defended it. Hadrian's wall is a 75 mile long wall commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who wanted to defend the northern half of the Roman Empire using this wall around 200AD. It's a really old wall.



From Hadrian's wall, we got onto the Motorway, and decided, on impulse to go to a castle called Drumlanrig. The roads were also very narrow, but more importantly, were covered in...


Ya. Sheep.


So on our way to Drumlanrig (which was no where near as exciting as the following) we saw a sign for a lead mining museum and decided to check it out. It was pretty incredible. We got to go all the way into the mine and learn all about how things went back then. Pictured below are Katy making her way hesitantly down the tunnel and Fred, who was a wax model of a guy that would lower people down into very deep tunnels and bring them back up at the end of the day. You made sure Fred was your friend... (and don't think his name was actually Fred...)



This is Drumlanrig. We didn't get there in time to get inside, but it looked very fancy and the country side was beautiful. Opposite it was a 300 year old tree. It was pretty big.


We arrived safely in Glasgow after a fair portion more time on the motorway.


Monday:

After departing Glasgow, which had tons to do, but we decided to skip due to weather and time constraints, we headed on our most ambitious journey yet. We had decided the previous day to head up to the famed Loch Ness. It turned what would have been a 2.5 hour drive from Glasgow to Aberdeen into 6. Now ask me if it was worth it, and I would happily answer with the following...

These were the "Highlands of Scotland." There is a very good reason why they are called such.
Of course, we did manage to see the Loch Ness Monster along with the touristy horribleness that surrounds the lake. Nessie is pictured below.





We stopped at a very sacred place, and one which is etched well into both of our brains on the way to Aberdeen.


These are the Clava Cairns. They are burial sites, and they are prehistoric. They are thousands of years old, and have an aura of mystery and beauty about them that cannot be described with words or pictures.


From here, we arrived in Aberdeen (or Cults, to be exact), weary, but willing to have a delicious home cooked meal from my Aunt Katherine in Aberdeen.



Tuesday's summary will have to wait another day. It was quite a day, and was the perfect end to our trip. We'll tell you about it tomorrow.


CHEERS!