Since we had been away from Linlithgow for what felt like ages, we headed back and spent another week with Mum.
We do like day trips, so we had some more of those, starting off with North Berwick. It is a seaside town by the Firth of Forth. Other than that there is a golf course right by the bay, I honestly can’t say very much about the town.
The main reason for us going there was so that we could get to the sea. Before heading down to the bay, though, we packed up a picnic and Mum suggested stopping by the Bostock bakery. She had heard from a friend that it is really good and they even have proper bread.
That was all we needed to persuade Mike, so we toddled in and bought an assortment of baked goods and bread. Amongst other things, we bought Caramel Salted Cookies and Cruffins, which are a combination of nut-filled croissants and muffins.
We then had a walk to the beach, where Mum had her first paddle of the year in the sea. I did join her for a bit, while Mike did the more normal thing and stayed on dry land.
Once we had arrived at a nice spot by the golf course of North Berwick we settled down and had our picnic. We discovered then just how amazing the food from Bostock bakery was! It was delicious! The cruffins were crusty and creamy, filled with nutty goodness and their muffins were just exactly the right amount of fluffy!
So, if you ever happen to pass through North Berwick, we would really recommend going by the Bostock bakery. But be quick, because of the popularity of the food they sell out early! https://www.bostockbakery.co.uk/
We had another similar outing to Aberlady, which was recommended to us by our friend Maria. When checking online I didn’t really find anything special about the place, but since it was just half an hour’s worth of driving we decided to go and have a look anyway.
After parking Atlas, we then went for a walk to the sea and stumbled over the nature reserve. There was a path which headed over a bridge and past another golf course (I swear they’re everywhere, here) out to the bay of Aberlady. We were greeted there by a gorgeous and thoroughly deserted beach where, of course, Mum and I went for another paddle, while Mike just shook his head at us. Too right, too, the water was freezing!
Still, it was a lovely walk and afterwards, we went to the very cosy Old Aberlady Inn and had a nice lunch.
Mike and I planned a trip around Scotland. We could never see everything we wanted to, but we decided to at least cross a couple of things off our bucket lists. This meant going through our usual routine, where each of us wrote down what we want to see, crossed off everything that was a) too expensive or b) not possible because of COVID and then we added all our stops onto Google maps to rearrange them in a reasonable and rational tour.
Because it is now autumn and therefore no longer tourist season, we also had to cross most things off that involved touristy boat trips. It was a shame, but at least we already had one boat trip (thank you again Aunt Gill and Uncle Doug!) and it was also worth leaving the title of ‘Tourist’ behind, now that the calendar had decided that we are no longer allowed.
It took a few days before we finally had our perfect map set up. Which was the exact point in time when my laptop decided to go wonky and delete all our progress.
That was alright, though, because Mum came to the rescue (the laptop’s rescue, not mine, as I was about to chuck it out the window) and suggested we go to the Bridge 49’, a café near Linlithgow, which is along the Union canal and by the 49th bridge of said canal.
It’s a lovely walk. It meant crossing the Avon Aqueduct, called so because the canal then runs through an aqueduct, which is built over the River Avon. On a good day (which we once again had) you could see Cockleroy, the viaduct and a good part to the horizon from there.
We had our lunch at the café, before heading back and giving the travel map another go.
And then we were off. Since we were on a deadline (I had to be back to Linlithgow within eight days for an appointment), we had an early start and left as soon as we were ready. I think we actually managed to be out by 8 a.m.
Our first destination: Loch Leven.
It is a loch in the heart of Scotland, which is most famous because of Lochleven Castle. The castle is built on one of the loch’s seven islands and can only be reached by boat. Though the building has over seven centuries’ worth of history, it is most renowned for the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567 and ‘68.
Mary had a very politically confusing life, even for a Queen. Partly that was because she became the Queen of Scotland at the age of six days. You’re bound to have a very complex life if you’re expected to hold up a country before you can hold up your own head.
Through marriage, she also ended up being Queen of France for a year, until her husband died and she also claimed her cousin Elizabeth’s throne of England as her own at one point. There was a lot of chaos following her second marriage to Lord Darnley, his untimely demise (which was an accident, I’m sure) and her third marriage, of which no one approved, much to her surprise.
The Protestant Scots Lords seemed to like that marriage least of all since they started a rebellion against her over it and she was eventually imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. There she suffered from probable poisoning, miscarried twins and was forced to abdicate in favour of her son (who was the child of her second husband), James VI.
It took a few tries, but she eventually broke out of Lochleven Castle and went to her cousin Elizabeth for help. Possibly not the best of ideas, since Elizabeth decided to lock her up in various castles in England for the rest of her life until she was beheaded for treason against Elizabeth nineteen odd years later.
Back in the 21st century, the weather forecast for the trip was rain, with more rain and a little rain on the side. Mike noted with fascination that he has never actually seen a weather app proclaim a whole week with a 100% chance of rain. These foreigners, I tell you. They’re so easy to impress with everyday things.
For my part, I was very excited about this, since there is the Loch Leven Heritage Trail as an easy 21 km long path around the Loch and we really had to test out our hiking gear to see if it was as waterproof as it was supposed to be.
As it turned out….no. Not really.
Unsurprisingly, the boats to Lochleven Castle only go over in summer and probably not at all during a pandemic and especially on a day where it would be wetter in the boat than in the loch. So we started straight out on our walk and were very happy because it seemed like our waterproof clothing was indeed waterproof.
That impression changed after about an hour or so, which was when our trousers decided that fighting Scottish weather is simply impossible and so let in every drop of water that got near them thereafter. My jacket meanwhile, after serving me well for the better part of ten years, decided that it was time to retire. The only parts that actually did stay dry were our feet, so I think our hiking boots were well worth the money.
We trudged on, anyway, until we reached a viewing hut with a roof (insert whooping of celebration here) and had a picnic. At that point, we decided that, no, we were not going to go on walking for another five hours. Instead, we headed back to the car, had another quick look at the loch and then spent the next few days trying to dry our gear.
We spent the next night parked in a beautiful area in Cairngorm before heading to our next destination, which was Stonehaven. For that, we took a slight detour out of Cairngorm for the day.
To be more exact, we actually spent the time at Dunnottar castle, or what’s left of it. I’d been there when I was a child and I remembered that the scenery and the building would be perfect for Mike, who of course loves nature and stone. Located on top of a cliff and right by the sea, Dunnottar castle is beautifully situated.
Just like Lochleven Castle, it was built in the fourteenth century, albeit at the other end of it. Also like Lochleven Castle, it was visited (though mostly more voluntarily) by Mary Queen of Scots. William Wallace also dropped by at some point.
Historically, it also has some amazing stories. Most famously, Cromwell’s army laid siege to the castle in 1651 to get their hands on the Scottish Crown Jewels. Their opponent in the castle was a small garrison, which managed to hold out against them for eight months. At the end of it, they smuggled the Crown Jewels out of Dunnottar and to a parish in a nearby village, thereby saving them from theft and destruction.
As it turned out, Mike is very familiar with Dunnottar Castle. He has only ever visited it virtually, though, in one of his computer games.
So we walked around hills outside of the castle, admired the view of the waves and walked down to the beach below Dunnottar. I ended up having a bit of a clumsy time, slipping on the mud on the way down to the beach, then tripping up Mike during my fall. We went down to the water to clean our (now very muddy) hands, which, in a moment of inattentiveness, resulted in my shins being made rather wet by the waves, which were getting larger by the minute.
At that point, I decided I should have probably stayed in the campervan and used the opportunity of my wet feet to at least get good pictures of the man-high waves that were coming at us.
Once we reached Atlas and had dried off a bit, we headed back into Cairngorms National Park, where we once again spent the night in a beautiful area.
And that’s us for now!