An' I'll Be in Scotland Before Ye
New to the site?
Learn about our other adventures from the UK Extravaganza 2011:
On our third day of sightseeing (catch up with our earlier adventures in Edinburgh, Roslin and Melrose), we went into the Trossachs, an area of woodlands east of Ben Lomond and Loch Lomond. On our original itinerary, we were going pony trekking and clay pigeon shooting on an estate about 2.5 hours from our hotel in Dunblane.
However, Landon went down to check his email in the business center and started talking to one of the hotel's employees, this super nice man named Ian. After hearing about the five-hour roundtrip we had planned, Ian suggested that we take a drive around the nearby Trossachs. I'd done a little research on our genealogy before the trip, and it turns out that my family is from the southern tip of Loch Lomond, which is in the Trossachs. I knew my grandparents would be happy to hear that we were switching up our plans to include a visit to the "home place" (which, let's face it, was only true about 400 years ago since we sort of jumped on that immigration-to-America thing as soon as it became a viable option).
And boy, I, for one, was really happy that Landon had that chance encounter with Ian because the Trossachs were GORGEOUS.
We first stopped in the tiny speck of a town called Kilamahog (yes, seriously):
There, we met Hamish, Heather and Honey, Highland cows (which are called "shaggy coos" by the locals).
Then, we passed the first of several beautiful lochs:
On the way to our next stop, we happened upon Rob Roy's grave in the town of Balquhidder.
We stopped for lunch at Killan, near the Falls of Dochart.
Landon and his traditional Scottish Breakfast
It was indeed wee.
After lunch, we headed to Tyndrum, and stopped for a quick photo shoot at Loch Dochart.
Traveler Natalie: Conquering rocks is all in a day's work
Then, we had a quick sing-a-long on the way to Loch Lomond. Our car was obviously the cool one to ride in.
Loch Lomond was huge!
I was super glad we agreed to switch from pony trekking to our Trossachs trek--it was probably one of my favorite days on the trip!
Fact: Scotland has some WEIRD street signs. Our favorites included the following:
WHAT?? Why are the cars not in their lane??
Because old people are obviously walking around in the forest.