My first trip out of the country was to a place that I’ve only seen its mountains, glens, lochs, and historic cities in movies and shows, thanks to PBS as a kid and Britbox as an adult.
At the beginning of July, my girlfriend and I went on a trip of a lifetime to Scotland. I packed some suitcases and a checklist of things I wanted to do and see in the UK.
This checklist included five things:
1) Go to a pub
2) Visit a castle
3) Eat proper fish and chips
4) Try haggis
5) See a Scottish fox
Which of these did I manage to mark off while I was in Great Britain?
1) Go to a pub (✓)
Hells yeah! Absolutely! I drank Tennents (a popular Scottish lager) in several pubs.
I learned that pub is short for a public house. First popping up in the 17th Century, a pub is essentially an establishment opened to the public providing alcoholic beverages (beer and cider) for consumption on the premises. They serve as community focused social hubs for villages and towns, and I just really enjoyed their vibe.
There are many pubs all over Scotland. I googled how many pubs are in Scotland, and apparently, there are almost 1,200 pubs according to the Pubs Galore website. We found plenty in Edinburgh (especially in the Grass Market), Glasgow, and the communities that we visited on the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands.
Some of my favs included The White Hart Inn in Edinburgh and The Isle Inn in Portree.
2) Visit a castle (✓)
We didn’t visit a castle, we visited two castles: Edinburgh Castle and Eilean Donan Castle. And saw several more on our tours from a distance.
Neither pubs nor castles are on any sort of Scotland endangered list. There are over 2,000 castles and castle ruins in Scotland, according to the Juniper Tours website (junipertours.com).
A must-do activity in Edinburgh is touring the Edinburgh Castle, located at the top of the Royal Mile on an inactive volcano called Castle Rock. We went there as the last stop on a tour where we learned all about its long, rich military and royal history. The building, walls, and architecture that make up the castle are grand. The view from the fortress of New Town and the Firth of Forth, which is an estuary connected to the North Sea.
Jim, our Rabbies Highlands tour guide, told us that Eilean Donan is an island in Loch Duich and the construction of Eilean Donan Castle happened in the 13th Century. The Scots built a castle that included a three-story keep, a large wall that encircled most of the island, and was accessible by a stone bridge. The day we visited Eilean Donan was overcast. The grey sky above the loch and dark forest was a great backdrop that enhanced this sightseeing.
I recommend paying the money to go inside the castle if given the chance. And oh yeah! You might recognize Eilean Donan Castle from the first Highlander movie starring Christopher Lambert and the famous Scot, Sean Connery.
3) Eat proper fish and chips (✓)
“Nom nom!” We properly checked this one off.
Fish and chips is a dish consisting of battered and deep fried fish served with a side of thick cut fried potatoes called chips. The most common fish used for fish and chips are cod, haddock, and pollock. I believe that people commonly prepare fish and chips in Scotland with haddock. Can someone from Scotland confirm this? Thanks.
I had this fish dish (Ha!) three different times over the pond and ranked them from my favorite to least favorite below.
The Chippy (Portree): takeaway fish and chips that came wrapped in paper.
Bertie’s Proper Fish & Chips (Edinburgh): traditional battered haddock with twice cooked chips and tartar sauce.
Landy’s Fish and Chips (Edinburgh): traditional battered haddock with twice cooked chips and tartar sauce. I also got a side of chippy gravy, which was great on the chips.
4) Try haggis (✓)
Yep! I like haggis. We ate haggis as part of a stacked dish at Mharsanta Restaurant & Bar in Glasgow on a food tour.
Before this trip, I didn’t know much about haggis. I thought it was like our liver mush but with sheep.
Well, not quite. Britannica.com defines haggis as “the national dish of Scotland, a type of pudding composed of the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep (or other animal), minced and mixed with beef or mutton suet and oatmeal and seasoned with onion, cayenne pepper, and other spices. The mixture is packed into a sheep’s stomach and boiled.”
The stack dish consisted of neeps, haggis, and tatties served with a whisky cream sauce. Neeps are a type of turnip, and tatties are mashed potatoes.
I think you all should try it.
5) See a UK fox (ⓧ)
I read in several places on the internet that foxes are a common sight in the UK, but I sadly didn’t see one of the red guys. Dang it!
We didn’t see a lot of wildlife in general. We saw a few cats and squirrels. The red deer, shaggy highland cows, and sheep were very cool. Scotland has loads of pubs, castles, and sheep.
Going to Scotland was a dream destination. Being able to go to these places, experience these things, and partake in Scottish food was magical. I still can’t believe that I was there a month ago. Can I go back now, please?
The items on the list were fun to scratch off. Completing four of the five is superb. I’ll forever cherish them in my Scottish memories.
What items from my travel list would you put on your list, and what items would you have added? I would enjoy reading your comments.
I wanted to thank PBS for airing UK and Irish programs (Masterpiece Theatre, Masterpiece Mystery!, As Time Goes By, etc.) on the weekends, which first showed me how lovely and enchanting this part of the world is back in the nineties.
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