Scotland

We flew from Dublin to Edinburgh, and immediately got out of town due to an impending holiday weekend. We headed to Stirling…

… to visit the castle there.

Most of the construction was done in the 14th - 15th centuries, but a part of the outer wall dates to the 12th century. Atop these windows are the symbols of a thistle (no, not a pineapple) which for centuries has been linked with Scotland, and the rose, signifying England -

Another symbol of Scottish royalty, adopted in the 15th century, was the unicorn -

The picture above was taken in the Great Hall. Those chairs (er, thrones) would have been for the king and queen, as they had the best seats in front of the largest fireplace.

This is a recreation of carved wooden heads adorning the ceiling in James V’s Palace in the 1540’s -

The town of Stirling had some fine stone buildings…

… but we couldn’t stay to explore much, as we had to continue on. As we drove on the highway, we caught a glimpse of our next destination -

The Kelpies is the largest equine sculpture in the world.

These are 30 meter high steel sculptures of Clydesdale heads…

… and I was just mesmerized by them.

For those of you who might not be, I’ll move on. ;)

We also visited the Falkirk Wheel.

This replaced a staircase of 11 locks between the Union Canal and Forth & Clyde Canal. It was completed in 2002.

It is a rotating boat lift that raises boats 79 feet in 4 minutes. Passing through the locks used to take an entire day.

This part of the Scottish countryside is as green as Ireland…

… but with more trees and bigger hills.

And nicely, we weren’t finished with bluebells…

… not by a long shot!