Our last full day in the British Isle, is in Edinburgh, Scotland. We will finish "Our Heritage Tour" with a guided tour called, "The Best of Scotland". The two tours that we booked were hosted by the "Heart of Scotland Tours". There were pretty good with accommodations (the bus) and always had a very knowledgeable tour guide.
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Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the ancestral home of the Clan Murray, and was historically the seat of their chief, the Duke of Atholl, though the current (12th) Duke, Bruce Murray, lives in South Africa. The castle stands in Glen Garry, and commands a strategic position on the main route through the central Scottish Highlands.
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The architect of the Great Hall was a boat builder. That's why it looks like an upside down boat hull.
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Beautiful wide Pine floors
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Dunkeld Cathedral is a Church of Scotland place of worship which stands on the North bank of the River Tay in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Built in square-stone style of predominantly grey sandstone, the cathedral proper was begun in 1260 and completed in 1501. It stands on the site of the former Culdee Monastery of Dunkeld, stones from which can be seen as an irregular reddish streak in the eastern gable.
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Church Organ
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Ceiling Architecture
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Wooden Cross
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List of the founding members of the Dunkeld Cathedral
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Church Grounds
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Dunkeld Bridge
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Dunkeld Bridge
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Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, but more commonly known as the Wolf of Badenoch, lived from 1343 to 24 July 1394. He was the fourth illegitimate son of the future King Robert II of Scotland and of Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, but became legitimated in 1349 upon his parents' marriage: he was also the younger brother of the future Robert III.
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On our tour we visited Glasgow and was able to stop and take a look at the Forth Rail Bridge. We crossed on the car bridge and was able to see some of the new construction of the piers on a new bridge.
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On the right is the new pier under construction.
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Car Bridge
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Car Bridge
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Our next stop was the Hermitage Bridge. While it is technically a bridge it is set in a very beautiful forest. It did remind me a lot of some of the hiking paths and forest that we see in the forests of Washington State.
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The actual Hermitage Bridge
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Along the trail was a picturesque rock building to view the river below.
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Another beautiful stop was the Garry River. Again, it reminded me of the rivers and mountains in the Pacific Northwest. |
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Our last stop on "The Best of Scotland Tour" was the Queens View, another beautiful Pacific Northwest like setting. |
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Someone had carved a worm as part of the handrail, very creative.
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Goodbye to Scotland and the British Isles.
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