The Best of the Scotland Highlands in 48 Hours – Part 2

If you haven’t read part 1 of this Scotland post, check it out here!

Castles and More Castles

Tantallon Castle

After burning some cals at Fast Castle, we continued to explore more of the highlands with a visit to Tantallon Castle. It was about a 35 minute drive from Fast Castle. Unfortunately, Tantallon Castle was closed for restorations when we visited so we couldn’t tour the inside, but the silver lining was we got free admission! Typically, admission tickets (~$9) must be purchased in advance to guarantee entry, so make sure to look this one up immediately once you land in Scotland. Tantallon Castle is a beautiful fortress of reddish-colored bricks set along the coast. I so wish we had been able to see the inside – next time! We enjoyed walking around the bright green highlands grass. looking at the costal views, and checking out the tons of birds who now call Tantallon Castle home.

We were famished after surviving all day til now on those piddly gas station cookies – which was our own fault, we were too focused on exploring as opposed to properly fueling – and luckily coastal restaurants to get a classic order of fish and chips were abound! We headed to the nearby town of North Berwick and checked out the Rocketeer Restaurant. I got the seafood chowder while Tyler got the fish and chips, and both were really great, although probably anything would’ve tasted good at that point, we were starving! Note that this place was poppin even at 3pm, so we were unable to get a proper table, but they have blankets you can set out on their small lawn abutting the sea for takeaway orderers to sit on. This cute little town has tons of restaurants though if you’re looking for a different type of cuisine, but know that street parking was quite the challenge.

Crichton Castle

Now that we were stuffed, we headed to our last castle stop of the day, and it was set in a peaceful, quiet setting. We drove about 45 minutes from Cantallon Castle to reach Crichton Castle, as we headed back towards Edinburgh and our final stop of the day (more on that later!). We couldn’t go inside because it was fenced off for restorations as well, but it was a more casual affair with free entrance (at least while it’s closed for restorations), which was nice. This site features a castle as well as a stable building, which is pictured below. We walked around the grounds, soaking in the sights of the green highland pastures filled with sheep all around us. We heard rumors that there’s a hiking trail that takes you quite close to the sheep pastures, but sadly we didn’t have time to seek this out.

Fluffy Scottish Highland Cows

Now the part you’ve all been waiting for, the fluffy Scottish cows! The locals call them highland coos, which is a fittingly cute name. This is the part I was most looking forward to once we decided to travel to Scotland, and I was determined to seek out these fluffy cows. However, due to our whirlwind, short trip, I knew we couldn’t make it to northern Scotland where most of the highland cows live. Luckily, we found Swanston Farm right out the outskirts of Edinburgh! The Swanston Farm has walking paths above their farm where you can find the fluffy coos – but note that there is no guarantee that you’ll see them. The highland coos have 300-some square acres to roam, so you need a little luck to spot these guys. There is no official “close” time set by Swanston; instead, they just ask that you take care to close the gate behind you once you enter the land where the cows can roam freely (a very easy favor to accomplish, given the potential reward!). We got there pretty late, around 7pm – thank goodness the sun set around 9:30pm! We started up the path from the main parking lot, as the map posted recommended. Soon, you’ll come across 1 Scottish cow in a small-ish fenced area who is reportedly always chillin there in the “high season” months. It is around this area when there is a fork in the walking path; take the path on the right instead of continuing straight, and the path will start to wind uphill. You’ll pass a couple of houses and what look to be like other people’s small farms before arriving at a gate with the instructions to “please close gate behind you to keep the cows enclosed.”

We continued up the mild incline, and slowly the path became more enclosed with this huge flowering yellow bushes – it was the perfect pop of color against the rolling green hills. We rounded a corner and were completely taken aback. There was not 1, but 3 Scottish highland cows right in front of us! In fact, this cheeky coo was standing right in the middle of the trail, with his adorably wonky horns and long bangs. Seriously, how do these Scottish cattle see?! We (mainly me, let’s be honest) were so excited to already have amazing luck spotting 3 fluffy cows straight away, but we saw even more ahead on the trail. This required somehow moving past our furry friend who was blocking the trail. We cautiously and quietly inched our way towards him, choosing to pass on the side furthers from the other two animals. One minute later and our little buddy didn’t flinch or move a muscle and we were safely in front of him, back on the trail.

We carried on and about 40 feet away were 4 more fluffy cows! It was truly excellent luck. They really just ignored us and kept munching on grass, just like the Swanston Farm website said they would. We quietly walked around amongst the cows and I kept snapping with my Sony A6300 camera.

We had to tear ourselves away from the fluffy cows since our hotel’s check-in ended at 10pm, so we started back down the trail and were so pleased to run into this unique black Scottish highland cow. His fur really popped against the yellow bushes and green hillsides. The perfect end to our highland cattle hike! We started booking it to our hotel for the evening, the Bridge of Cally Hotel in the town of Blairgowrie, north of Edinburgh. The last minute hotels available to book on Booking.com in the heart of Edinburgh were pricier than we wanted, so we opted to drive a bit further, enjoy the highlands scenery, and save some cash. The Bridge of Cally Hotel was very charming – the rooms were spacious and comfy, and you could tell there was a lot of history to the building (something I’m envious of, being from the US). We would totally recommend staying here if you’re in the area!

Linlithgow Palace

After a good night’s rest, we headed out for our final hour before our flight around 3pm from Edinburgh. We grabbed coffee (well, just me, Tyler doesn’t drink it) and quick breakfast sandwiches from a small, cute cafe about an hour away in the town of Linlithgow called the Granary. to Linlithgow Palace. Like a lot of the castles we visited, the tours were closed due to restoration efforts (just our luck!), but it was still a really impressive building to walk around. However, our favorite part was the unexpectedly pretty Linlithgow Loch (lake) directly behind the Linlithgow Palace. There is a great walking path around the lake, with plenty of benches to take in the view. The lake featured a ton of swans and their little cygnets following closely behind. It was a great way to spend our final time in Scotland!

And just like that, our time abroad came to a close. We had no problem getting on the Edinburgh to Boston flight; there were plenty of seats available. Getting from Boston to SLC was a little hairier, and we missed the direct flight, so we had to fly Boston to Detroit to SLC. Never a dull moment flying standby! We can’t wait to return to this beautiful country and explore more (I have my eyes set on Isle of Skye). Until next time!