Adventures in Scotland - Day 8 On to Stirling

We had such a good nights sleep in our dark castle room and woke up ready for our next adventure. After breakfast we popped back in the car and headed east. We had been staying in the Argyll region and covered the last bit of the southern Highlands as we drove through Glen Lochy and south to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. We made it almost to Ayrshire, but we'll have to come back another time to visit my (maiden) namesake.



This is the park where the Scots go to vacation, and it's easy to see why. It's an hour from Glasgow, Stirling, and Edinburgh, so that's most of the population! 

We stopped for lunch on the loch and then headed through the middle of the park. My DH was so excited to drive through Dukes Pass, especially because he happened to be wearing a JMU shirt!


So many beautiful places to stop for a walk. I'm constantly amazed by how green everything is.


"Cow and Castle"

My highlight from today was finally seeing Heilan Coos that were close enough to the road so I could get pictures of them. Cutest cows ever - and you know how much I love cows!

Highland Humor 

We had planned on another long-ish hike to a waterfall but the weather started moving in, so we decided to try to make it to the National Wallace Monument (Battle of Sterling Bridge). We got there 10 minutes before they stopped selling tickets and had to power-hike up a steep hill to get there. We made it with a minute to spare and no breath left. Unfortunately the museum is spread out among 3 floors of the tower so we had to climb 260 stairs to get there.

William Wallace's 5 ft broadsword. It's almost as tall as I am!

The views at the top of the monument were amazing and well worth the steep hike and grueling stair climb.


It was very windy at the top!

They kicked us out when the museum closed so we headed into old town Stirling to our hotel.

Another exciting moment - more Heilan Coos! And the Stirling Castle too!

Isn't it weird that there is a field of cows right behind the castle? Only in Scotland...



After our brief (or not-so-brief) stop to photograph cows and castles, we had dinner and then explored some other parts of the old city.

Our hotel is centrally located and is a quick walk uphill to the castle and other historical buildings. This is the church where King James (son of Mary Queen of Scots) was crowned.

It's 8:30pm so everything is closed for touring, but it's still daylight so we wander around some more.

And we are rewarded with a rainbow over the old jail!

We strolled through the old kirkyard with stones dating back to 1572.

Beautiful view of the castle on the hill.

Statue of another Scottish hero, Rob Roy.

Eric got to watch more soccer games on TV tonight, so he is happy. Tomorrow is our last full day in Scotland before flying home on Wednesday. Tonight I'll be counting Highland coos instead of sheep...baby coos.

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