Och Scotland!

My brother, Kim, and I started our adventure in the town of Stirling and then headed to Dollar for two  nights. We spent one day exploring Dollar, its glen and castle. Because I had next to no 

experience driving on the left side of the road we didn't go too far the following day. We spent the

day in Kinross (about 30 minutes from Dollar where Loch Leven castle sits on a tiny island in the loch. This castle,

built around 1300, has ties to Mary Queen of Scots who visited the castle in 1565 and then was imprisoned there until her escape in 1568. 

There are two other homes/castles that look out across the loch but they are behind locked gates - I 

wish now I had climbed over one of them!

What's the worst that could happen?

Kinross Castle cemetery 

Root man

Loch Leven Castle - I have zoomed in; it's not really this close.

 This is the only photo I could get of the house called Kinross House.

My brother, however, was more determined than I and climbed on a bench to snap a

few photos. He said he'd share...

Inscribed into the bench are these words:

"The lairdie frae his muckle hoosie spies the watters whaur his fush wull rise.”

Which translates to - The Lord of  his large house sees the waters where

his fish will rise....

I think! 

This is a beautiful area with gently rolling hills and lots of trees.

In fact, Perthshire is well known for its very tall trees.

The sky changes constantly - it rained several times while we hiked many kms on the trails

surrounding Kinross House. But never for very long at a time.  Just enough to

make my camera lens wet :(

A new sky! 

We spent most of our day here putting a lot of kms on our hiking boots. 

We had an uneventful drive back to our BnB... thankfully. 

I was really glad that I had done a lot of reading about driving in Scotland 

as well as watching a lot of youtube videos. I gradually became more accustomed to the 

roads but struggled with the roundabouts which were pretty complex with up to

half a dozen different roads branching off the roundabouts. If my navigator wasn't quick enough telling me which exit I needed I had to go around twice! 

I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Once I realized that no one else was following the rules that I had

read about I did much better! 

The most challenging roads were the one lane roads with "passing places." 

(photo below)

If someone was coming toward you you would have to pull over into the nearest passing

place on the left side of the road OR the person coming toward you would pull over

into a passing place on their side. This would sometimes require you to back up

a ways til you could find a passing place. 

FUN!

The one pictured below is in very good shape - most single lane roads are crumbling into the ditches...so are the roads which are full of  HUGE potholes. I read a few news articles while I was

there which said the "Beasts from the East" (terrible winter storms last winter) followed by a very hot

spring and summer have turned the roads into a big mess. 

The other challenge is to make sure you don't go an inch too close to the left or right as there

is no verge on either side, just a sheer drop-off into the ditch. 

I'm very thankful that my rental car held together in one piece (I think) after

the terrible jolts it experienced in the many potholes I wasn't able to avoid.

I got used to the left side driving and the very narrow roads to the point where I didn't even

have to think about them anymore. 

But the first week was hell really and truly. My brother thought I did an

amazing job and looking back I'm glad I didn't give up as it did gradually become instinctive. 

As with everything there is a learning curve and I really came to enjoy exploring every little road, especially on the Isle of Skye which had a lot of roads which vehicles over a certain size were prohibited from using. We drove for ages without encountering

another vehicle.

One of the most frustrating things about driving there (as if that wasn't enough!) is there is nowhere to turn around! If you miss your turn you could go for miles and miles before finding a spot to turn around or you could try to make a thousand point turn and hope no one else comes along while you're executing it! 

By the way - the passing place shown below would be for the driver coming towards me as it's on the right not the left! Did you catch that?