Our home base for the next week was an apartment in Bridge of Allan arranged through Untours. Our Untours orientation included a guided tour of the Dunblane Cathedral.
A fascinating visit, at least from an engineering point of view, was the Falkirk Wheel, The Falkirk wheel transports boats 80 vertical feet between canals which replaces a series of locks.
For anyone interested in the Outlander series on television, Scotland is where most of the scenes were shot, at least for the first part of the series. A number of local castles were used. We visited Duone Castle, which was one that was used.
Stirling is situated such that control of Stirling historically meant control of much of Scotland. Stirling Castle was key to that control. Although some has been updated, Stirling Castle is still an interesting, and very popular, place.
Day trips took us to St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Both cities have many attractions well worth visiting. Having visited Edinburgh on a previous trip, we did not redo many of the more popular sites there.
Near us were Drummond Castle and gardens and Loch Katrine. Drummond Castle is occupied but the formal gardens are open to tour. We learned that the gardens were used for some of the Outlander series shots! Loch Katrine is a serene setting with a hiking path and modern campground.
We had a glass paperweight from Cathness Glass so when we saw their sign iin Crieff we stopped. It was basically a gift shop but discovered the glass blowers at work in the back!
