Edinburgh
While we've been to Edinburgh several times (my favorite), we thought we'd try and visit the other Scottish cities. So we got in a few very short visits to each: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Inverness, Aberdeen, and Dundee.
GLASGOW (Lanarkshire):
Arriving in Glasgow
Cool murals everywhere
Drygate Brewery
HUGE whisky selection at The Pot Still!
On the River Clyde
The Glasgow Necropolis (my early morning walk)
I thought Glasgow was pretty nice. I think if we'd had more time, we could have explored even more of the nicer neighborhoods. We were staying in the city centre, and a few of the streets looked like they could have been in New York City (they didn't scream ‘Scotland’ or even ‘UK’). Good food and beer though! And plenty of great architecture and murals. I think it's got a lot more going on in music and arts than most of the other cities. Happy we were able to find salad bar places for takeaway, unlike the other Scottish cities.
DUNFERMLINE - Fife (declared a city in 2022!):
Arriving in Dunfermline (a short train ride from Edinburgh)
Pittencrieff Park
Andrew Carnegie's birthplace (unfortunately the museum was closed)
Carnegie Hall!
Dunfermline was quite nice! It's very small for a city, but has some great architecture and a gorgeous huge park in the middle of the city. We thought seriously about moving there early on, but it's probably too small for us. Lots of big fancy homes and plenty of green spaces.
EDINBURGH (Lothian):
Here are a few pictures from our recent trip (on our way to Inverness), but you can see a lot more Edinburgh pictures here.
Gorgeous flowers and trees in bloom!
Circus Lane
I love Edinburgh…definitely my favorite of all the cities we've been to in Scotland. It won't ever get old for me. So much to see and do, both in the old town and new town. It is VERY hilly so you get plenty of exercise. The old town is right out of Harry Potter. Incredible architure, gorgeous parks, great food and pubs. And always a bagpipe player either on the Royal Mile or outside of Waverley train station :)
INVERNESS (Highlands):
Train ride to Inverness…yes, there was still snow on the tops of the mountains!
But we got some good food and drinks in 1st class….a 3 ½ hour train ride from Edinburgh.
Arriving in Inverness at 8 pm
Walking along the River Ness
A visit to the Botanical Gardens, stopping for a coffee, of course
A visit to the Uile-bheist brewery…nice day to sit outside in the beer garden.
A quick visit to Black Isle Brewery's pub in Inverness.
The oldest house in Inverness, built in 1593!
We had to visit Leakey's Bookshop!
Guess what? We found a book from Scott's old library in New Jersey, hahaha!
I really liked Inverness but it is small….and far…it's way up in the Highlands, and it was quite expensive! I can see why it's a good base to visit the Orkney Islands or Culloden, etc. Unfortunately we did not have the time. But one day I'll get up to all those northern isles.
ABERDEEN (Aberdeenshire) “The Granite City”:
Notice all the whisky barrels….there are A LOT of distilleries in the north, between Inverness and Aberdeen.
A lot of great architecture here…..and it's ALL GREY!
Seaton Park, on the northern side of the city, just past Old Aberdeen
Old Aberdeen, near the university
The Maritime Museum was near our hotel, and free! Worth a visit.
Footdee….the old fishing village
The waterfront here was nice.
We walked along the beach from Footdee and stopped for a coffee.
But where are the oil rigs?? (They are over 150 miles out so you can't see them)
Found a couple of good places for food!
This is Union Street, which is the main street in the city centre. Unfortunately this is what we saw when we walked out of our hotel and we were not initially impressed with Aberdeen. There is SO MUCH construction here and it's lined with fast food and vape shops. So we had to walk quite a ways to get to the other places you see above.
DUNDEE (Angus):
Not sure what's going on with that sticker…it wasn't a very welcoming sign!
The famous Lemmings!
Visited the RRS Discovery and museum….very cool!
The V&A museum. Not as cool as the Discovery, but it's an interesting building (and most of it is free).
Stopped for beer at Canvas, which serves beer from 71 Brewing, which is across the street.
A couple more pubs before we left Dundee…
Dundee has some super cool architecture and a nice walkway along the River Tay. Near the water, it's very green and clean. Yes, there are a few sketchy streets, especially early in the morning when nobody's around. But I think it's a pretty nice city overall. Plenty of good food and beer!
Hope you enjoyed the mini tour through Scotland's cities. I'm still due to post about our London trip from last August!!
Tanya