Scotland: Road Trip to The North

Back in October 2018, we went to Scotland to celebrate the love of my brother and his new wife. They had their wedding celebration in Gretna Green, Scotland. What a great opportunity to road trip Scotland! As previously mentioned, driving out of Edinburgh was interesting but driving up to The North was entirely different. Here we go!

Dunkeld

Our first stop after we departed Gretna Green was the town of Dunkeld. We drove in and were immediately smitten. We came for the famous smoked salmon and stayed the afternoon for all the history, outdoor hikes, and Ma & Pop shops. The River Tay is gorgeous and I was feeling river fresh the whole time. It was sunny our whole time in Scotland but brisk enough for a toque.

We stumbled on an arboretum – a park dedicated to unique trees that were very in vogue in the 19th century. There are arboretums all around Great Britain. Forest and Land Scotland is a great website to explore some of the hiking and history of the parks. While I was there, I noticed the deep love that the Scottish have for protecting nature and it has evolved over time.

In Dunkeld we found an amazing smoked salmon shop, a delightfully bright and cozy coffee shop and bakery, and a boisterous local deli.

There is also a Scottish-Canadian connection in Dunkeld. Former Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie was born near Dunkeld in 1822 and went to school there until he was 13 years old. He moved to Canada at 19. Many years later served as the second Prime Minster of Canada from 1873 to 1878.

We headed for the renowned Hermitage Park after we left Dunkeld. The Hermitage has some of the tallest Douglas Fir trees in Great Britain.

Pitlochry

Pitlochry is another charming town while also being more touristy. If I was to use a Canadian comparison – Pitlochry is like ‘a Banff’ and Dunkeld is like ‘a Jasper’. There is a cool hike with MAJOR old history called The Pass of Killiecrankie. It is a gorge where an epic battle was fought between the Red Coats and the Jacobites. There is a spot where a soldier jumped 18 feet across the river to escape the Jacobites. That sounds like a stunt right out of action movie!

We also had a quick stop to walk around the gardens Blair Atholl Castle.

Cairngorms

And then we continued on our epic drive to the north hoping to hit the Dalwhinnie Distillery. The landscape changed dramatically. I loved it!

The tour behind the scenes of the Dalwhinnie Distillery is excellent. Our tour guide was a local with deep roots in the community. She gave us a lot of context about the importance of the distillery as employment for community members and some of the consequences of earlier practices. There is a really strange relationship between the British government and the distillery operators that I noticed, especially regarding the special ‘closed-system’ alcohol box for testing.

The whiskey is quite soft and delicate – I really enjoyed it! As an aside, I also quite liked Scottish gin.

Our second last stop was the Highland Wildlife Park. We saw polar bears, a tiger, a lynx, and bison. The polar bears were the most exciting part and we saw one eat a fish. The park has a drive-through section and a walk-through section. It was really well done and reminded me of a special wildlife park we visited in the Yukon, Canada.

Inverness

I was struck by how pretty Inverness is when we drove in. The city is centered around the river so there is lots of nice walking downtown. We arrived the evening of Halloween – we were fully expecting to see some famous Scottish partying in the streets and we were not disappointed.

The Road Trip Map