Day 3 of our Scottish Adventure

We arose MUCH earlier today because we had a big day of exploring ahead of us.  Our hostess took us on a marvelous gallivant through the Scottish Highlands and along the North Sea coast.  We started with a dry run to the bus depot in Dundee to make sure we knew how to get there for our 8:50 a.m. departure tomorrow.  We found it in a jiff, so we're confident of a smooth takeoff  for Worcester.

Then it was on to the Scone Palace--Crowning site of Kings just outside Perth.  This was a lovely site, that offered some incredible history and lovely images.

The website offers a brief history, indicating that it was a gathering site of the ancient Picts, as well as the early Christians of Scotland.  The "Scone" was the stone where early Scots rulers from Robert the Bruce to Charles the II were crowned.  A controversy as to the whereabouts of the real stone of Scone continues to this day--as depicted in an 11 minute video looped for visitors.  There were similar references at the Edinburgh Castle.

The palace is still home to the 8th Earl of Mansfield and his family, and sports more porcelain figures than I've ever seen collected in one place.  There are so many china collections on display, our hostess bemoaned the use of  the display cabinets for such a purpose when they could have contained books (a shared passion of my husband, our hostess and me).  Still--they were lovely.  The paintings were also quite grand, as were the furnishings.  It's definitely worth a visit, although it's not on any of the historic site discount cards.  It cost me ten pounds, and my husband and our hostess paid nine pounds each as concessionaires. 

The grounds are lovely and the beautiful Highland Cattle graze at their leisure.

We also spied a beautiful white peacock, ss well as these "critters".

They had wonderful little shops, but I stuck by my resolve not to buy crap--even though there were some fantastic cross stitch kits that caught my eye.

From there it was off to the Highlands.  Before we got too far, we stopped for lunch near Braemar at a place called the Spittal of Glanshee.  It was just a wee stop by the side of the road,

 but we filled our gullets with warm grub and were ready to hit the road for some highland admiration.  It was drizzling--dour, as our hostess would say--but it was spectacular.

We headed eastward toward Balmoral, but we couldn't see it from the road.  Still the countryside was so very lovely.  The villages are charming, but by 3:30 we were in need of a spot of tea, which we enjoyed to our hearts content. 

Our way back to St. Andrews was along the eastern coastal road, taking us by some castle ruins our hostess admonished to put on our list for  the next time we visit.  I certainly hope we'll be able to return.  It was worth every penny spent!