Scotland - Glamis Castle and Dunnotar Castle August 2018

Glamis Castle was the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, best known as the Queen Mother. If you're into the royal family, this would be a stop you'd want to make. They have the Queen Mother's bassinet and there is a painting of the main room with the Queen Mother and another relative playing cards as children, and all the furniture is still the same. They have great ghost stories there too, one about a lady in the chapel and one about the lord whose ghost is still playing cards behind a sealed-up wall.

Dunnotar Castle is a castle ruin located on a promontory overlooking the ocean on Scotland's east coast. We arrived in sunshine but in true Scottish fashion, a rainstorm broke loose. Since Dunnotar is a ruin there isn't much cover but we found a place to get out of the rain until the worst of it had passed. The reward though was the beautiful double rainbow over the castle. Dunnotar is a true fortress-castle, having seen many battles. In the 13th century, William Wallace (Braveheart) attacked and killed an entire garrison of English troops here with just a few men. In the year 900, Donald II, King of Scots, was killed here by Vikings after a vicious battle. Mary, Queen of Scots, visited in 1562. Everyone understood that to control Dunnotar was to control this entire stretch of coastline.

By the time we left the castle, the sun was out again and warmly shining down on us. We strolled a little way along the bluff behind the castle, just taking in the ocean views. We saw a bride and groom having photos taken at the castle and also down in the beach below- what a great setting for that.