In May of 2019, I travelled across Scotland with my wife and our five-month-old. This was my first international trip as a new father. I chose Scotland for our first international family trip because Scotland, in my opinion, is one big beautiful road trip that allowed us to go at our own pace with breathtaking nature between each highlight destination.
This was going to be my first time driving on the left-hand side of the road and working a manual transmission with my left-hand. I was a bit nervous to say the least. Luckily for me, I had just departed Ireland where we had spent some time with friends. My friend Conrad briefly taught me about the rules of driving on the left-hand side of the road. I received about three hours worth of practice before we flew out to Scotland the next morning to start our vacation across the countryside that would cover almost 700 miles in three days!
After picking up our SUV, we decided to spend our first night in Edinburgh before heading out on the road trip the next morning. Once we checked in to our hotel, we decided to go for a walk-about to take in our first impression of Scottish scenery, and we were not disappointed! I have been to many cities in many countries throughout Europe, but I’ve never seen such beautiful aging of the stone that the Scotch use (I’m guessing from local rock quarries) for their buildings throughout the city to maintain a its beautiful medieval character. We walked around taking in the sights before popping into a restaurant for a pint and a bite before heading back to our hotel.
The next morning, we headed out of Edinburgh and onto the first road trip destination, Fairmont St. Andrews. The modern version of golf was invented at St. Andrews in 1764. I did not know this before my trip, but the reason the game of golf is 18-holes is because it takes exactly 18 shots to finish off a fifth of Scottish Whiskey. I am not a golfer, but when I’m at the birthplace of a global sport, the least I could do was hit up the driving range (no pun intended). After going through a bucket of balls at the driving range, we headed into the Scottish Highlands.
The castle that we were staying in that night was located in malt whiskey country in a town named Nairn on the coast northeast of Inverness. On the way to Nairn, we drove through the heart of the Scottish Highlands through Cairngorms National Park. As you drive through Cairngorms, you see numerous castles and ruins from previous castles, more sheep and Highland cattle than you can count, and gorgeous rays of sunshine piercing through the fog clouds that move between the mountains. 
Upon arriving at our castle/hotel, we quickly checked in to our suite and then quickly hurried to a neighboring village that still had restaurants open. A lot of restaurants close at 9–10:00 p.m. in the smaller villages, and it was hard to keep track of dinner time because the sun wouldn’t set until close to 11:00 p.m. that time of year. If you are asking yourself why didn’t we just eat at the castle where we were staying, it was because the only chef on staff had a heart attack as we were being seated.
We found a quaint Scottish tavern a few miles away and had a wonderful lamb and beef traditional dinner from the local region as well as tasting of many delicious Scotch whiskies. The tavern staff and owner were wonderful hosts, but eventually we had to head to bed to get ready for another day road-tripping.
The next morning, we had a delicious breakfast at the castle that overlooked the North Sea before we headed to the Portree in the Isle of Skye.
On our way to Portree, we took in the sights of the city of Inverness and then the famous Loch Ness located just southwest. The Lochs throughout Scotland are all very pretty, but I don’t think any monsters reside there. 
The drive from Inverness to Portree is nothing short of majestic! In fact, the whole road trip through Scotland is absolutely stunning. Most of Scotland is untouched or unchanged. The major metropolises in Scotland are few and far between. The rest of the country is clean air, thriving farm life, and non-stop echoes of thousands of years of anthropological clues and preserved heritage sites. One of natural wonders that I most enjoyed seeing while driving were all these little lochs and/or small patches of snow that looked liked broken shards of mirror littered around the tops of the mountains that reflected the heavenly piercing light from the sun. It really reminds you of how petty we are in the grand scheme of nature.
Once we reached Portree, we only decided to stay for long enough for lunch. Portree gets very congested because it is the capital of the region of the Isle of Skye and a lot of tourist saturate the city. The hotel we were staying in that evening was located in a village on the coast called Mallaig.
Mallaig is a cute seaport village town located on the west coast overlooking the Small Isles of Scotland. Not only did I pick this town because it is removed from the typical crowded tourist town, but because it is located just down the road from the Jacobite Steam Train Station. The Jacobite Train is more commonly known as the Hogwart’s Express Train from the Harry Potter movies.
While we were in that region of the Scottish Highlands, we stopped off to pay respect our respects to the Scottish Marine Memorial honoring all the Scotsman that served and made the ultimate sacrifice in World War II.
The last stop that we had to make on our way back to Edinburgh was in Stirling at the Sir William Wallace Memorial. Sir William Wallace led the resistance against the English during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296–1328AD). You may commonly remember him as Mel Gibson’s character in the movie Braveheart. You can’t miss the 220-ft.-high monument that has been towering over Stirling since 1869. Once you reach to top of the medieval monument, you are rewarded with a breathtaking 360-degree view of the whole city. You can even see the famous bridge where the Scottish and English fought until the river was filled with blood and the Scots were victorious.
After leaving Stirling, we headed back to Edinburgh for our last night in Scotland. The last box that we had to check before we left Scotland was to see Edinburgh Castle. I raced through numerous roundabouts and violated an array of traffic and parking laws to try to get us to the castle before they closed at 6pm. I got us to the entrance at 5:30pm and was told last group admitted was at 5:20pm. So, please plan according for this so you are not caught off-guard as we were. Other than that, the entire road trip around Scotland was perfect. We spent the remainder of the evening wandering around and admiring the stunning architecture throughout Edinburgh.
If you are looking into taking a stunning, relaxing road trip through history in an English-speaking country with warm and inviting people, I can’t recommend Scotland enough! In the words of Sir William Wallace, “Every man dies; not every man really lives!”
Chums Around the World 