Welcome to our first Blog post! Scotland has always been on my A-list of places to visit. We TRIED to go in March of 2020. But a little thing called Covid got in the way, and worldwide travel ceased. Back then, we were both still working and we had only planned three week trip. Now as retirees, we could take more time and see everything (well almost everything) on our list! A month’s worth of travel photos is too much for one post, so this one focuses on Prehistoric Scotland and Outlander sites.
Prehistoric Scotland
Even before I fell in love with the Outlander novels, the prehistoric sites of Scotland were a must see for me. We only saw a fraction of the sites. These were some of the highlights.
Ring of Brodgar (UNESCO site) – Neolithic henge & stone circle, c. 2250 BC in the Orkeys
Standing Stones of Stennes (UNESCO site) – originally 12 stones, the surviving ones are thought to be the oldest henge on the British Isles, (based on radiocarbon dating to c. 3100 BC)
Skara Brae (UNESCO site) – Uncovered by a storm in 1850, Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement. It consisted of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams that provided support for the walls; the houses included stone hearths, beds, and cupboards. The site was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to 2500 BC and is located on the west coast of the main Orkney Island.
Jarlshof Shetland. Dating to 2500 BC to the 17th century. Similar to Skara Brae on Orkney, the Jarlshof settlement on Shetland is interesting because over the centuries, the people kept building in the same area. There is evidence of a Bronze Age smithy (c. 2500 BC), an Iron Age Broch(circular stone tower) (c 800 BC), a Pictish wheelhouse (c. 200 BC), a Viking Longhouse (c AD 800) and finally a Scottish laird built his manse on top of it all in the 17th century. The cool thing about the Jarlshof ruins, (unlike Skara Brae, which were off limits to visitors), folks are allowed to wander through the settlement.
Ness of Burgi On a small peninsula at the very south tip of Shetland, is the Ness of Burgi Fort, an iron age blockhouse built around 100BC. To reach it, a person must take a grass path about a mile and includes traversing rocks with a chain-aided Via Ferrata (photo makes it look worse than it was). The interesting thing was the sign at the fort that asked visitors to please document the conditions of the fort and send photos to Historic Scotland so they can keep “eyes” on any erosion, because the agency didn’t have employees physically monitor the sight. Kinda cool to be part of the preservation team!
Outlander Sites
Apologies to those that are unfamiliar with the Outlander novels written by Diana Gabaldon, but next to Tolkien’s, Lord of the Rings, they are my favorite books. If you don’t know what the books are about, the best description of the novels I found was from salon.com, “The smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science PH.D. with a background in scripting ‘Scrooge McDuck’ comics.” Anyway the story starts off in 1740’s Scotland with a time-traveling WWII nurse. The tv show that followed was filmed mostly in Scotland. We love going to filming locations as part of our travels, so visiting these sites was a no-brainer.
Falkland The charming village of Falkland, was the stand-in for 1940’s Inverness. There is an iconic scene in the first episode of season one, where Jaime’s ghost is looking at up at Claire (in a window) from the town square. I thought it would be cool to have Scott stand in the same place and do the same thing. But he kept looking the wrong way. I kept telling him. “Turn around!, No! look the other way, at the window!” As I was trying to pose him a local gentleman decided to help out, as he had probably seen this same scenario play out dozens of times by countless other wives and girlfriends. At that moment he shouted to Scott, “Dooz yur tuld!” We still laugh about it!
Midhope Castle Located west of Edinburgh, this castle was the stand-in for Jaime Fraser’s home, Lallybroch. Unfortunately, it is derelict on the inside, so outside shots only. In Outlander, Jamie’s father Brian, built Lallybroch in 1702. It actually dates to the 14th century, even though the stone says 1582.
Blackness Castle, just outside Edinburgh, was the stand-in for Fort Williams. Fort Williams was originally located on Loch Linnhe, but no longer exists. Jaime was a prisoner there, and where he was brutally flogged, (among other things).
Culloden Fields Folks in Scotland will say never was there a more brutal and decisive defeat than that of the Highland clans that fought against British troops on April 16, 1745. Approximately 2000 Scots lost their lives on the battlefield as opposed to 50 killed on the British side. More than the loss of life, the way of life was outlawed, including the banning of the wearing of kilts, or clan tartans.
Clava Cairns c. 2000 BC, east of Inverness, Bronze Age Fun Fact: If you are a fan of the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon, you’re probably wondering why I have no photos of Craig na Dun. That’s because it doesn’t exist. The fictional Craig na Dun Standing Stone Circle ( where Claire passed through the stones and back in time), is supposed to be located 5 miles outside of Inverness. Believe me, if it was there, I would have gone! The actual hill where they built the set is 30 miles west of Pitlochry. But the Clava Cairns have much of what the book and show version have, including a large standing stone, which Scott felt strangely compelled to touch!
Movie Quiz. This is Doune Castle. But in the movies and TV, was it:
A) Castle Leoch of Clan Mackenzie (Outlander)
B) Castle Anthrax (Monty Python & the Holy Grail)
C) Winterfell (Game of Thrones)
D) Swamp Castle (Monty Python & the Holy Grail)
E) All of the Above
All of the above! And if you ever go, it has the best darn audio guide we have ever listened to! Narrated mostly by Terry Jones, of Monty Python. It is the first time we have listened to an ENTIRE audio guide, with all the extra sections. If you are Monty Python fans, you will be laughing out loud. Unfortunately Terry Jones passed away in 2020. But the audio guide is so good, they don’t want to re-record, so they have filled in some bits with Sam Heughan (Jaime Fraser). Sam said that while they were filming Outlander, the members of that cast was doing it’s own improv on Holy Grail!
From left to right: John Cleese killed a half dozen wedding guest climbing up those stairs. The “guests” were visitors to the castle that day! The rampart where the French soldiers taunted King Arther and his knights, “I fart in your general direction”. Scott examining where the kitchen help sharpened the knives when Doune was actually a castle.
That’s it for now. We hope you enjoyed our first Scotland post. Please let us know what you think!