Summer Travel Series Part 5: Dunnottar Castle

This post is really self-indulgent. For two reasons.

First, I’m starting to drag my travel series out by the day. I can see the end coming, and I don’t want it to end. It was such an amazing trip, and not likely to happen again for awhile, so I’m enjoying reliving it through these posts!

And second, I’ve had one heck of a week. So this morning, I decided to take some time and do something enjoyable and stress-free.

Anyway, this is Dunnottar Castle in Scotland. It’s about 15 minutes away from where my in-laws live, and after seeing it, I couldn’t believe I’d been so close before and never gone.

So there we are. And that’s our best attempt at a family picture. Excellent.

It was a loooong set of stairs down and then up to get to the castle. I was pretty satisfied at seeing it from afar after the long day we’d had at a garden center and a long drive (I love the garden centers in the UK!), knowing the kids would be tried and it was nearing dinner time.

But in the end, we decided we were here and we should just do it. And i”m glad we did.

The castle has eleven buildings built between the 13th and 17th centuries.

I couldn’t help but wonder how on earth people that lived here didn’t die from freezing to death. It was cold enough as it was in July.

But the views were pretty spectacular.

See my family in that one?

My daughter thought the castle was great.

My son… not so impressed.

Being an American, I’m pretty easily impressed when it comes to historical buildings. And being a Floridian, I wasn’t completely prepared for the cold weather. (See socks with sandals.)

And I’m happy to report that no one fell off a cliff… as a worried mother, yes that was in the back of my head. Only bad thing? I didn’t get to see a puffin. I had high hopes, but we can’t have it all now, can we?

*****

Part 4: Inverness and the Highlands
Part 3: Germany
Part 2: Sterzing
Part 1: Venice
More on Dunnottar