Edinburgh, Scotland September 24 and 25, 2026

Last night we attended an optional excursion to see a show called The Spirit of Scotland and a dinner. We were greated by a bagpipe player when we arrived. How cool is that!

I really liked the meal with smoked salmon as a starter and then haddock pie, a fish stew with broiled mashed potatoes on top. 

The evening's entertainment began with the ceremony of the haggis and the reciting of a poem about haggis by Scottish poet Robert Burns.

We had a sample of haggis. It wasn't bad, kind of like sausage. Haggis is an old traditional Scottish food made with leftover bits of sheep parts, oatmeal, and seasonings which are cooked in a sheep's stomach.

There were two singers, four dancers, an accordion player and the bagpipe player. All of them were very talented.

This little girl was adorable!

They performed traditional Scottish music, as well as some modern songs. At the end, everyone sang Auld Lang Syne, the second most sung English song after Happy Birthday.  I didn't know it was of Scottish origin. 

On the way home, our tour guide had us singing karaoke on the bus. It was a great evening of fun!!

This morning we visited Rosslyn Chapel outside of Edinburgh in the city of Roslin. This 600 year old chapel was finished in 1446 for an Earl named William St. Clair. He was very wealthy, owning a nearby castle, and wanted a chapel for his family.

Master stone masons were hired and it took 40 years to finish the current chapel. There were plans to add much more to it, but the Earl died, and the rest was never completed. The stone carving is incredible. 

Burial memorial of the 4th Earl

If you look closely or zoom in on any of the above pictures, you can see the amazing details of the many carvings. 

Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed inside. I did manage to sneak one of the ceiling and main stained glass windows. The ceiling is incredible!! The current windows were installed in the 1800s. Prior to that it was just glass. The remaining pictures are from the internet.

There are many legends surrounding the chapel. One is regarding the two main columns in the front.  One is much more impressive than the other. The left one was supposedly carved by the master mason. Upon completion, the Earl was not happy, so the master mason took a trip to see if he could find inspiration elsewhere. In the meantime, his apprentice carved the column on the right based on a dream he had. When the master returned, he was so jealous, he killed the apprentice.  Take a look and see which one you like better.

Master

Apprentice 

There is a crypt below the chapel where the last clue in the DaVinci Code movie was filmed. There are legends that the Holy Grail may have been here at some point. Who knows!

The castle ruins are just down a hill from the chapel. The 7th Earl of Rosslyn still has a home here. It's around 500 years old.

The original castle was built around 1304. Some of the ruins are just next door to the current house.

On the way back we passed the National Records building. Even their government buildings look like palaces. It's where all birth, marriage and death records are recorded.  They refer to it as the hatch, match and dispatch building. 😀

We also passed this school which was supposedly the inspiration for Hogwarts. Tough to get a picture from the bus.

So, our time in Edinburgh has come to an end. It's truly an amazing and magical city. I would encourage you to visit if you ever get the chance!

Edinburgh, Scotland September 24, 2026

We left Newcastle, England this morning. Our first stop was Hadrian's Wall built in AD 122 by Emporer Hadrian. It stood 16 feet tall and stretched 73 miles across northern England. 

It was built as fortification of the Roman Empire's northern border with a mix of forts and turrets along it, and a 3 foot deep ditch along the front. It took six years to build. I'm always amazed at what the Romans accomplished!!

Much of the wall is gone as people over time took the stones to reuse. In 2008, the remaining portions were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's incredible that any of it is still left after 2000 years.

An artist's impression of the wall

There was an eight foot tall holly hedge we walked through to see the wall. I had no idea holly could grow that big!

As we continued north to Scotland, we drove through some beautiful scenery with many sheep.

Just before the Scotland border we drove through part of Northumberland National Park. It is a wild and remote area, sparsely populated, with much moorland.

We had a brief stop to take photos at the Scottish border. Scotland has 6000 miles of shoreline and 900 islands. 

We stopped for a bathroom break in the small town of Jedburgh where there are the ruins of a 900 year old abbey. 

We arrived in Edinburgh around noon and were dropped off in New Town for 1.5 hours on our own. New town is 250 years old 🤣
It was built because the original town was growing and needed more housing, etc. 

We started off walking over to St. Andrew's Square. We passed a monument to Sir Walter Scott on the way, and I met Paddington Bear in the square.

Across the Square is the Royal Bank of Scotland. What an amazing building to house a bank!! It was built in 1772 on land owned by Sir Lawrence Dundas, a member of Parliament and governor of the Royal Bank of Scotland, as his home. It became a bank in 1825.

A bank employee in a kilt

We stopped at Abbotsford Bar for a pint. It's over a hundred years old and looked exactly as I envisioned an old pub should look like.

We drove by Charlotte's Square, era 1820, an area that the show Bridgerton is modeled after. The individual townhomes homes in this building run over 10 million pounds, but they do get a private garden in the square included. 

Number 6 is where the prime minister lives. The lamps are original, and used to be lit with whale oil

House Robert Louis Stevenson grew up in, author of Treasure Island and Mr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde

Building where Jamie Fraser in Outlander had his print shop, season 3

St. Giles Cathedral 

Local students like to put traffic cones on statues 

Edinburgh is built on lava rock from an extinct volcano. The entire city is hilly and even on different levels. At the highest point sits Edinburgh castle.  The current castle dates back to the 14th and 15th century. 

View of the river from castle grounds 

In the late 1200s Scotland fought a war of independence with England.  William Wallace of Braveheart fame was one of the leaders. When the Scots took this castle back from the British, they destroyed everything except the chapel. It still stands today and is 900 years old.

Original chapel

William Wallace statue at entrance 

I didn't get any pictures, but there are many Harry Potter references in the city. J.K. Rowling wrote several of the books here, and some of the places in the books are inspired by Edinburgh locations. 

Today was a very busy day with so much to see. Edinburgh is a fascinating city, blending the old with the modern world.  In Old Town,  we saw buildings as old as 500 years. Yet the city thrives. Really a remarkable place to visit!! 

The day was still not over. We attended a wonderful Scottish show and dinner. More about that in tomorrow's post. We have another day here tomorrow. 

Here's our route for today.