Scotland is like coming home. My parents  were born ,  raised and married in Scotland before they immigrated to the United States in 1948. Having Scottish parents  gave me a great advantage, as   having grown up listening to a Scottish  accent I had little trouble understanding the locals with their strong brogues.

We flew from Dublin to Edinburgh where we picked up our next car, a standard drive this time. (I had to keep upping the ante when it came  to driving 🙂 From there we went to Cupar to spend some time with friends of my Mom’s whom she knew from when she did Scottish country dancing in Connecticut. They live in a 200 year old house that they have remodeled and it is gorgeous. Ken and Sandra were most gracious hosts and did a lovely job of showing us the sites of  Cupar and its surrounds. The area is full of quaint little harbors with their own fishing fleets.

We also visited St Andrew’s , the home of golf, and  where Prince William and Kate  met and  went to school.   St Andrew’s cathedral  (the remains) is there too. Its construction was started in the 1100’s. Johns Knox preached from the pulpit in 1559.

When it comes to renewable power the ingenuity of hundreds of years ago is incredible. This is the remains of a mill that was powered by the ocean waves.

Oh and I almost forgot to tell about the dancing. On Friday morning Sandra took us to her dancing group where we learned to do circle dancing. It was lots of fun dancing with a group of local women and being welcomed to the group. Of course for refreshments fresh brewed tea was served a long with shortbread, what a treat.

After two wonderful days in Cupar we drove to Thurso. Thurso is on the northern coast of mainland Scotland. The coast line is very rugged and beautiful.

We visited John O’Groats, the most northern point in main land Scotland.

After exploring northern main land Scotland we decided to drive to the Isle of Skye. We had traveled up the east coast and so it seemed best to cut across to the west coast (the map showed roads after all.) Well we found out what the “yellow” colored roads on the map mean that the roads are one lane  i.e one period , if a a car comes from the other direction someone has to find a way to pull over and let the other by,  and also full of curves and ups and downs (5 hours worth!!!). It was quite a driving experience, stick shift and all.  On the Isle of Skye we visited Dunvegan castle and heard the story of the fairy flag which still holds one more wish to help protect the Macleod clan whose family seat is at Dunvegan.

After the Isle of Skye we stopped at Fort William and then drove through the dramatic scenery of Glencoe where the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells occurred in 1692 . The area is deep  green in color with brooding clouds hanging on the mountain tops and the mountain sides are covered in roaring streams, an eerie scene.

On we drove to the Kilmarnock area which is on the west coast 20 miles south of Glasgow. This is family country. We stayed with my cousin and his wife who welcomed us with tea (and whiskey) . They took us sightseeing and shared family stories  and made us feel at home. We visited as many of the relatives as we could ( including a distant relative through my Dad’s side, Robert McCosh. His son got married the week after we left and he,Stefan and his new wife, Ashley were able to visit us at the boat  on their honeymoon earlier this week!)