Thursday, July 27, 2017

Scotland - Edinburgh Castle

Our first stop on our first full day in Scotland was Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-bur-ah) Castle.  We road the bus from our rented flat into the city centre and took a short walk from the north side of the castle up the hill to the castle itself.  How to describe this castle?  Amazing, beautiful, marvelous, etc.  We purchased the Explorer's Pass (more on this in an upcoming post) ahead of time so skipped the ticket line, which gets quite long at this castle.  Here are a few pictures we took that, although amazing, don't do justice to how cool this castle is!



Wow!  What a castle!  Inside there are signs all over the place describing the castle and the history behind it.  There are cannons, gun holes, cat walks, etc!  There's also a gift shop, cafe, and museum that you can tour as well.  Edinburgh Castle is not a quick pop in and pop out visit.  It's recommended you need a minimum of two hours to properly tour this castle, but I'd plan on three hours if I were you.  It's a big castle with much to explore and much history to read.  Below are a few more pictures we took from inside the castle walls.






















Once inside Edinburgh Castle, there is a place for you to rent headphones that explain the history of various parts of the castle.  They are a couple of pounds each to rent so we didn't rent them.  In hindsight we probably should have.  Headphones were free at other, smaller castles around Scotland and when we tried these out, they provided quality information.  The signs in Edinburgh Castle do a great job, but you'll get more from renting the headphones, so you may want to seriously consider dishing out a few pounds for them.

Edinburgh Castle is an absolute marvel and if you are ever in the area, definitely make time to visit it.  There is no way you'll be disappointed!  When finished, take a tour down the Royal Mile.  If you start at Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile is all downhill from here, making the walk quite easy.  Plus there is so much to do along the Royal Mile.  We did several of these, all of which are coming up in future posts.  :-)


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