The Falkirk Wheel

 My stepfather Dean had sent me a link a long time ago about the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland.  It is one of the most outlandish feats of engineering I'd ever seen, and I vowed that if ever I were going to Scotland again, I would try to see it. 

 It turns out that it is just outside Edinburgh, and on our way from Edinburgh to Inverness, we made a point of stopping to see it.

Rotating 180 degrees in about 15 minutes, it basically lifts a boat from one body of water to a canal about 30 feet above it.  This replaces the 11 locks and half day originally needed to accomplish this change in elevation.

 It was fun to watch the canal and tour boats go into the wheel and rotate to the connecting canal above.









There are burger and ice cream stands set up at the visitors center, so we decided to have a quick food bite with some appropriately Scottish themed crisps (chips).

For all my fellow techno-geeks, this is a must stop on a UK tour.

Edinburgh - Rosslyn Chapel

My mother was the person who turned me onto Dan Brown, the author of The DiVinci Code. I ended up reading and enjoying all of his books. As soon as I knew that we were planning to go to Edinburgh, I knew we would have to make a trip out to Rosslyn Chapel, the location for the climax of the film, and the supposed last resting place of the Holy Grail.


It is a 500 year old church that has a lot of history and mystery. It was origninally built by William St Claire, a nobleman to be his family church. During the reformation, miraculously, it was somehow spared. Cromwell did use the building to house his horses.

Over the centuries it has had a lot of problems however. It has had a leaky roof, and since it is in Scotland, this is a big problem. It had deteriorated to the point that Algae was growing on the inside.

Another miracle came when Dan Brown wrote Rosslyn Chapel into his book, in that tourism to the chapel went from about 8,000 people a year to over 100,000. Surprisingly, unlike many churches that have been featured in his books, Rosslyn Chapel LOVES Dan Brown. The visitors inspired by his books have paid for the new roof, and a lot of the renovation that is now going on at the church. The hope is that these renovations will allow the Church to be here 500 years from now. Most likely, if things had continued as they were, I would have expected the loss of the church in another 100 years at most.

The main things of interest in the church are the Sculptures. And there are a lot of them. The small carvings would have been used as storytelling tools by the clergy. And they are a treasure.

Does Rosslyn Chapel contain Knights Templar Members in its underground vault. Is the Holy Grail hidden on the grounds. Who knows. . .

We both really enjoyed visiting the Church. It was a cloudy rainy day, and this added to the mystery surrounding Rosslyn Chapel.

There was a cute Country Inn not far from the church. We went there for dinner so that my mother could have a Sunday Roast or in this case a Scottish Stone Roast, where they bring you the raw meat and you cook it yourself over a super heated stone. It made for a lovely dinner and easy bus ride back into Edinburgh.







All was good until my mother discovered that she'd left her glasses at the Inn. Thankfully, we were able to grab a cab back out to the Inn to retrieve her glasses. An exciting end to our trip to Scottland.

Edinburgh - The Dark Side

Edinburgh has an interesting darkside. It has a history steeped in royal witch trials and murder.

It is not merely the home of world famous writers JK Rowling and Sir Walter Scott, but also Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. The basis for this story being truth. Deacon Brodie was an upstanding City Official by day, but brutal murderer by night.


On our last day in Edinburgh, my mother and I happened upon the location for the old city gallows. Here many people were hanged or burned at the stake. It was a rainy morning, and very moody.

In a morbid way, it was strangely intriguing.

Edinburgh - Ghost and Torture Tour

You may think me a terrible son, but I took my mother on a Haunted Torture Tour of Edinburgh. It met at Dusk outside this abandoned church.



Our guide, dressed all in black met us there, and then escorted us through some of the back streets, and then ultimately into the dark underground chambers below South Street.






We went into one room where she showed us some actual torture implements. It was actually very disturbing to think of what hideous ideas people can come up with for torturing another human being.



Deep below South Street, which was at one time a bridge, but now contains these "underground" chambers, our guide told us these very creepy historical ghost stories. This was where many homeless people were living and dying, and many ultimately were baked alive when the city above them burned.

She showed us a room that a Wicken Coven used until it was believed that very dangerous spirits occupied the room. The leader of the Coven built a rock circle to contain the dark spirits. I'm not sure if there really were spirits there, but as it was quite creepy, I wasn't about to step inside the circle to find out.

The tour ended at this cool creepy underground bar/nightclub where they gave us each a Whiskey Shot and a Shortbread "finger". My mother was a great sport, smiling through it all.

Scottish Delicacies

When I think of Scotland, I think of it's main exports to popular culture: Whiskey, Tartan, Shortbread, Harry Potter, and Haggis.

I planned on tackling all of these if possible.


Whiskey: Though my mother doesn't drink, she understood my interest in trying the official drink of Scotland.

We came across a small Whiskey shop that had it still in barrels. I tried two different whiskeys, and eventually settled on purchasing one. They filled the bottle directly from the barrel. I couldn't think of a better Whiskey to bring back as a souvenir and it was good Whiskey too.

We also visited the "Whiskey Experience", a disney-esque tourist attraction where you ride a magic whiskey barrel and learn how whiskey is made. They talk about the different whiskey-making regions in Scotland and how their various whiskeys differ.

The Whiskey Experience also houses the world's largest Whiskey Collection with over 3000 bottles of Whiskey.




It's impressive as it goes on for quite a few rooms and is very well presented.

Tartan is patterned cloth that the various Scotish Clans would use to identify themselves.




There are couple shops where you can actually see the cloth being made. My ancestors on the Scotish side come from the MacAllister Clan. Unfortunately, they don't make their pattern anymore (typical). However they did have the MacDonald Clan tartan, from which the MacAllister Clan originated.



I purchased 3 identical scarves in the MacDonald Clan tartan for my mother, my brother, and myself. This way, we might on occasion all wear our tartan and, though we are spread out all over the planet right now, think of each other.







We were able to tackle Shortbread Cookies and Harry Potter at the same time. We went to "The Elephant House" coffee shop, which is where according to legend, J K Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.






We ordered Lattes and an elephant shaped Shortbread cookie. We noticed several people writing in the back room no doubt seeking the same muse that inspired her.







It isn't hard to see some of the inspiration that went into the books in a place like this. The back room has a terrific view of Edinburgh Castle sitting on its granite perch. It's not hard to imagine that it is Hogwarts.

The whimsically shaped cookies helped too. . .

My mother had never had Haggis, so I knew we would have to find someplace for her to try it. We came across a Pub that advertised serving Haggis. We were starving, so I convinced my mother to give it a go.

They served it with the classic accompaniments, "Nips" (Swede turnips) and "Tatties" (mashed Potatoes). The presentation was beautiful as it was done in 3 tiers.







I also tried 3 of the local brews made in Edinburgh. They were all excellent.

I guess that actually made for 5 different Scottish Delicacies.

Walking around Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a great city to simply walk around. The weather was surprisingly great, and my mother and I walked all over the place.










We had a guidebook that took us on a couple walks. One was down "The Royal Mile" that runs from Edinburgh Castle down to Hollyrood Palace. It is a great midevil town that was essentially the mainstreet of the original walled city.



We walked over to see the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby. This is the famous dog that for a year after his owner passed away, the dog kept vigil over his grave. Having 2 dogs of my own, I understand a bit about this bond.







St Giles Cathedral stands about halfway down the Mile. It is a massive 12th Century Cathedral. Magnificent in its Granite Countenance.


Almost all of the buildings are built out of granite stone bricks. This does give the city its distinctive grey stone look.


At times, it looks almost as though the city is built right into the very rock hillside that it is built on. I'd say that the town has a fairly monotonous color to it, but this gives it a specific ruggedness that one often thinks of when imagining Scotland.

Edinburgh Castle

Before my mother had come, we planned to do a trip up to Scottland to check out the land of our ancestors. We ordered tickets on EasyJet to fly up to Edinburgh, which is an easy 1 hour flight from London. In hindsight, it ultimately would have probably been easier and cheaper to take the train up.





That being said, we got up very early in the morning to take the bus to Liverpool Station (which is quite atmospheric at that time), to take the Stansted Express train up to Stansted Airport.

Travel is a little involved here.

We arrived to a slightly overcast, windy, and cold day in Edinburgh. Luckily, it wasn't raining, as Scottland is quite known for being rainy a lot of the time.

We hopped on the shuttle from the airport to downtown Edinburgh, but got a little lost finding our hotel. Eventually, we found it. It wasn't anything super special, but it was inexpensive and comfortable for what we needed. Besides, it was right next door to the McEwen's Brewery!



We wandered from our hotel up to Edinburgh Castle, which dominates over the city perched imperiously on top of solid Granite Rock.







It is again a very different castle from the others I've had the chance to see. It reminded me most of Warrick Castle, but this is darker and colder looking.






It is a castle steeped in British History as it was the castle of Mary Queen of Scotts and where she gave birth to Prince James. Many battles over English/Scottish sovereignty were fought here and the castle changed hands several times.










We climbed the road all the way to the top passing through several gates and many cannon ports.

The views of Edinburgh from up there were spectacular. It was very cold and windy however, and we understood why the Kings and Queens preferred living in lower Hollyrood House over Edinburgh Castle.




The actual castle is not very big, but it is very old, and much of it has changed over the years as it went from being a castle for kings to being a jail for prisoners. We got to see the main hall, which was used as a military hospital at one point before being restored as a royal hall.