Berwick-upon-Tweed and more
After a long rainy drive in rental car number five, we are back in Scotland. The original itinerary for the ship included stops in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, so when we visited Scotland back in March, we avoided these areas. Unfortunately, due to the delays the ship’s itinerary will have to be modified and we were extremely disappointed to be missing Edinburgh. We’ve booked an Airbnb about an hour south of Edinburgh and plan to explore some of the areas we missed out on the first time.
We are staying in Galashiels and wanted to get our bearings, so we went for a nice long walk through Tweedbank and around the grounds of Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott. We didn’t pay the admission to enter the house, but you can walk the grounds for free and they are quite lovely. They also have an interactive sculpture trail called Witch Corner. We didn’t go in, but the notes on the gates were highly entertaining.
Afterwards, we walked back through town and visited Old Gala House, the historic home of the Lairds of Galashiels. It is now a museum and gallery that focuses on the town and its history.
In March we visited Stirling to see The National Wallace Monument, but we missed out on Stirling Castle. Perched high on a volcanic outcrop, this 12th century castle with great hall and regimental museum is incredibly well preserved. On the way back to the car we wandered through the old town at the base of the castle.
One of the things Mike was most excited about the first time we visited was the Falkirk Wheel. It’s an incredible feat of engineering that transports boats between the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals which are 35 meters apart…vertically. Unfortunately, when we visited in March, they were doing maintenance on the wheel, and it was not in operation. We decided to head back to see it in action and we even rode up and down in a narrow boat. It was a pretty incredible experience.
I was disappointed that we missed out on the Kelpies when we were in Falkirk the first time. The Kelpies are the largest equine sculptures in the world standing 100 feet tall and weighing more than 300 tonnes each. They represent the lineage of heavy horses in Scottish industry and were modeled after real-life Clydesdale horses Duke and Baron. The sculptures are so large we could actually see them when we were up in the Falkirk Wheel, but they are even more impressive up close.
Just down the road from where were staying we visited Melrose Abbey, the Trimontium Roman Fort Site and the Leaderfoot Viaduct. The abbey was undergoing restoration work but was still worth the visit.
The Roman Fort Site is no longer visible, but it was interesting to read about. The Romans built the fort over 2000 years ago.
Finally, the Leaderfoot Viaduct was a pretty impressive site. It was used to run freight trains until 1965. Due to poor conditions, it was meant to be demolished in 1981, but luckily it wasn’t and now Historic Scotland has control of it. There is also a beautiful old vehicle bridge across the river at the same site. It was in use until 1974 when a modern bridge was completed next to it.
The first time we came to Scotland we took the train from London to Edinburgh and then headed north in a rental car. The train passed through a few places with epic bridges, so we made the drive back to one of them. Technically it’s not in Scotland, but it was still worth the drive. Berwick-upon-Tweed is a walled city that sits on the River Tweed. It’s location on the border between England and Scotland meant that it changed hands several times over the years, but ultimately England prevailed in 1482. We had a fun afternoon wandering around and reading about the history of the walls and fortifications.
We finally made it to Edinburgh! Technically we were in Edinburgh when we first arrived in Scotland at Waverly Train Station, but we immediately left town for a pet sit. On the short walk from the train station to the rental car location we were in awe of the buildings around us and eager to return and explore more. Edinburgh did not disappoint. The architecture in the city is absolutely stunning. We spent 2 full days exploring. The first day we literally just walked around the old areas of the city. We wandered down the Royal Mile, explored Dean’s Village, visited St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral and stopped in at the Botanical Gardens.
We couldn’t get tickets for Edinburgh Castle until a couple of days later, so in between we made a trip to Costco and stopped to check out a few places along the way. We stopped to see the Great Polish Map of Scotland which was built by Polish geographers in the 1970s. It is a 40 x 50-meter concrete relief map. We also spent time wandering around Roslin Glen Country Park. The park is home to the Rosslyn Castle ruins, the Rosslyn Chapel and the ruins of the Roslin Gunpowder Factory, Scotland’s largest gunpowder mill. (Spelling of Rosslyn/Roslin is not a mistake...as per Google Maps).
On our second day in Edinburgh, we hiked to the top of Calton Hill to see the National Monument of Scotland, the Nelson Monument and the Dugald Stewart Monument. Of course, that wasn’t high enough for Mike, so we also hiked to Arthur’s Seat which offers panoramic views of the city.
We spent the afternoon at Edinburgh Castle. The 11th Century castle and barracks are home to the Crown Jewels of Scotland and the National War Museum. The castle sits on Castle Rock, a 350-million-year-old volcanic formation. Despite booking a timed slot in advance there were a ton of people there, but it was still worth the visit. I think our favourite part was the Prisons of War exhibit. They staged the vaults to recreate how they would have looked in 1781 when they were used to house pirates and prisoners of war.
They also host concerts just outside the walls of the castle, so there is a permanent stadium set up right outside. It’s a neat idea, but it does kind of take away from the historical views of the castle.

They also have an operational One O’Clock gun at the castle which is fired every day at 1pm except for Sunday. We didn’t get to see this, but while were at the top of Calton Hill just across from the castle there was a Royal Gun Salute in celebration of the birthday of HM The Queen Consort. The military actually brought in extra guns for the salute, so we did get to witness this from a pretty great vantage point. While at the castle we saw they had a map of all of the One O’Clock guns around the world and apparently Vancouver also has one in operation. We had no idea.