British Isle Cruise--Day 16

August 10, 2015—Day 16, Edinburgh (South Queensferry), Scotland

We set our alarms, had breakfast, and quickly got ready for another long day ashore.  Many of the passengers would be heading toward nearby Edinburgh, but we had booked another private Outlander tour.  Our ship anchored off the coast of South Queensferry where the tender boats would dock, and we made our way down to the Symphony Dining Room to get tickets for the tender that would take us to shore. 

Getting off the tender, we were greeted on the pier by three men and one woman dressed in traditional kilts and playing bagpipes.  After taking a few photos, we walked down the rest of the pier to meet our tour guide.  Jim, from Discrete Scotland Tours, met us at Hawes Inn just across the street from Hawes Pier where the tender boat dropped us off.  He too was dressed in the traditional Scottish highland kilt. 

During the drive to Falkland, he explained that he was wearing the MacKenzie plaid as he was distantly related.  I told him that we had just visited Castle Leod yesterday, and he said that while he was in Inverness, he didn’t attend the Clan Gathering since he had been guiding a family on a 3-day holiday around Scotland.  (What a coincidence that we had seen the Clan Gathering for Clan MacKenzie yesterday, and our tour guide for today was a distant member of the MacKenzie clan!)

Our first stop was the town of Falkland, which was where the first part of the Outlander series was filmed.  The town itself is a picturesque village reminiscent of a small Scottish village from times past.  There was a beautiful old cathedral, an old palace, and of course, the square with the fountain and the bed and breakfast hotels shown in the TV series.  After taking lots of pictures, we followed Jim to a small park where he pointed out a bench with a plaque saying it was donated to the town by Johnny Cash.  It seems that Johnny Cash’s family originated from Falkland and he frequently visited and even gave small concerts or sang at a pub while he was there—a little bonus information about the town.  I was really coming to appreciate having a private guide for these excursions who could point out some of the things we would never have known to look for.

We then headed for our next stop—Doune Castle, which was used in the filming of the Outlander series as Castle Leoch.  (Yesterday, we saw Castle Leod, the actual home of Clan MacKenzie and which would have been portrayed as Castle Leoch in the books, and today, we saw the castle that was used in the filming of the series.  It does get a little bit confusing:  The author, Diana Gabaldon, wrote the books several years ago, and during her research she visited most of the places we saw yesterday, and described those places in her book; when the TV series was filmed, other places were used, so the book and the TV series don’t always agree on how a specific place actually looked.  Today we visited the places that were used in the TV series.)

Doune Castle is a very old castle which has been designated a historic site.  It is in fairly good condition with all the walls, ramparts, and turrets still intact.  The only modern convenience that has been added are handrails on the circular stone steps up the towers.  There is a large courtyard with a well (another modern addition is a grate that covers the well for safety reasons).  I could almost feel as though I had been transported back in time as I walked around Doune Castle, and it definitely gave me an appreciation of the modern conveniences we enjoy today as I imagined what life must have been like back when the castle was occupied.  I could also envision the furnishings and the characters from the TV series in the courtyard, the kitchen, and the great room. 

As we left Doune Castle, it started to rain.  We had expected rain all day, and were glad that it hadn’t rained during our visit at either Falkland or Doune Castle.

During the somewhat long drive to our next stop, Jim, told us more about the history of Scotland, and tied it all to what is portrayed in the Outlander books.  He said that he admired Diana for doing her research since he could only find a couple of things that weren’t quite accurate.  Apparently the horses described are not correct, since back in the 1700s, there were only the sturdy highland ponies, and not the horses that she describes; she describes the tartan plaids for the clans and apparently that actually didn’t come about until much later.  Clans back in the 1700s were identified by a brooch on the hat and not by the color of the tartan.  He said that he couldn’t believe that she didn’t know that since all her other research was so meticulously accurate.  I said that she may have consciously identified the clans by their tartans to make it easier for her readers to understand, instead of trying to educate them regarding the brooches.  After all, almost everyone who thinks about the clans of Scotland would have assumed they were identified by their tartans.  Jim also told us about the politics of the time of Outlander, and about the different factions; it wasn’t the English versus the Scots, but the government versus the Jacobites.  A lot of the Scottish people supported the government side and a few of the English supported the Jacobites.  (Laura, our guide from the day before also told us this when she told us about the battle of Culloden.)

Although it was lunch time, we weren’t hungry, so instead of stopping for lunch, we went directly to Blackness Castle.  Luckily, it had stopped raining by the time we got there.

Blackness Castle was depicted as Fort William in the TV series.  The castle sits along the channel (our ship was anchored just a few miles up).  The back of the castle overlooks the channel and is shaped like a large ship’s prow.  The idea was that when enemy ships entered the channel, they would see what looked like a very massive ship and would turn away thinking the channel was well guarded.  Blackness Castle is also an historic site and is intact.  The grounds themselves were rocky and uneven, but lights had been installed in several of the rooms.  My dad and I climbed the stairs to the ramparts and walked around.  We also saw the great room and could envision Clair there with several of the English officers.  In the TV series, this is where Clair is almost raped by Capt Jack Randall, but rescued by Jamie.  The rooms we walked through were the rooms that were filmed (although none of the furnishings from the show were there when we walked through them of course).

As that was the last place on our scheduled itinerary, we thought we would be heading back for the ship, but Jim said he had to make a quick stop first.  He pulled into a parking lot in a town somewhere between Blackness Castle and South Queensferry (where we would take the tender back to our ship) and asked us to wait in the car.  He came back a few minutes later, smiling and excited.  He said he had a surprise for us—someplace he wanted to show us.  He also said he didn’t tell us about it earlier since the place he was taking us to isn’t open to the public, and the owners of the property didn’t want word to get around, or it would become inundated with tourists.  But he had just received permission to take us to visit.  He said he wasn’t going to tell us where he was taking us, but wanted to see if we would recognize it when we saw it. 

Jim turned down a very narrow road that seemed to lead to nowhere.  After meandering down this long driveway, all of a sudden ahead was Lallybroch!  This was the Jamie’s home shown in the TV series where his sister, Jenny, lived with her husband Ian.  Here was the stone gate leading to the house; there were the steps that Jenny and Clair were sitting on waiting for there husbands.  Yesterday, we had seen a house that “most resembles Lallybroch; today, here it is in front of us, exactly as depicted in the TV series (of course it looks just like it since it was in fact filmed here).  Despite all the research I had done on Outlander sites, I knew nothing about this place, and it isn’t listed by any of the tour companies that conducted Outlander tours.  Jim had certainly surprised us, and he had exceeded all our expectations.

The house itself is uninhabitable, but the outside is in fairly good condition despite having been built sometime in the 1600s (16 something something is all we could make out of the date above the doorway).  We were the only ones there and we wandered around and took pictures.  My parents, especially my dad, were ecstatic.  I know my dad was a little disappointed in seeing the house yesterday that “was most like Lallybroch,” so seeing the real thing today when we didn’t expect it was wonderful!  

We finally left and headed for South Queensferry just a few miles down the road, thanking Jim all the way for everything he had shown us, and especially for his surprise stop at the site of the Lallybroch filming!  I also mentioned that he did an incredible job with the weather since he managed to get it to stop raining every time we stopped to visit someplace.  He grinned and said that he had put in a good word with the man upstairs who, lucky for us, wasn’t cross with him that day.  He also said he was glad he was able to get permission for us to visit as it’s not usually granted, but since this was a once in a lifetime trip for us and we were such ardent fans, he wanted to make it special (I got the impression that he had either called in a favor or he told a really good story).  He also gave me the written permit that allowed us to enter the grounds for my scrapbook.  What an incredible finish to a wonderful day!

Since we hadn’t stopped for lunch, we were back early and were soon on the tender and back on board the ship.  We headed straight for the buffet for a very late lunch, which of course meant that we would not be hungry for dinner.  I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with some folks, and reading, then met up with my parents for a late evening snack in the buffet, before heading back to our cabins to call it a day.  Tomorrow was a much needed sea day!