Scotland Castle Advice

Hi, Joe,

Since you're going to be in Edinburgh anyway, Edinburgh Castle is almost obligatory. Outside of that, Stirling, Blair, and maybe Dunvegan. Doune seems to be a favorite with a lot of people, and it's close to Stirling.

Cawdor, Urquhart, Eilean Donan, and Armadale are worth a miss. Balmoral is definitely worth a miss. As you only have ten days, don't spend them visiting as many castles as you can fit in. There's just so much more to see.

The greatest concentration of castles is in the Northeast. Cragievar, Crathes, Huntly, Fraser, and Fyvie are all within relatively easy driving distance of one another, and Dunnottar is not to be missed if you're up that way. I realize that that takes you out of a more direct route from Edinburgh to Skye, but if you're really set on visiting a lot of castles, you could pack as many as four or five into a single day. However, after that day, you'd never want to see another castle! :)

Best wishes for your holiday!

Mike (Auchterless)

Great info. Thanks again Mike. Do you live in Scotland?
Joe

Are you wanting to possibly just see some, from a distance, or actually walk the grounds? Stopping at Eileen Donan, in steady rain, we couldn't find a parking spot in August 3 years ago. We clearly had arrived the same time as a lot of other cars and tour buses, and decided to drive to the far side of the lake, snap a couple more photos, and head on to Skye. The rain was a factor in deciding to not stick around and wait for a soggy parking spot to open up, but then it was mostly the crowds.

Several days later, having visited Skye and driving back towards Edinburgh, we did enjoy a much less crowded (and drier, as it turned out) visit to Doune Castle, well worth the stop.

Thank you Cyn. We would like to walk the grounds. Can you actually get inside many of them?
Joe

Hi, Joe,

I really wish that I lived in Scotland, but unfortunately, I don't. :( However, I've visited Scotland 25 times in the last 40 years, on holidays of two to five weeks, so I know it pretty well.

As that Johnny Cash song goes, "I've Been Everywhere..." I should seriously consider updating that song with some of the Scottish place names, unless someone has already beaten me to it. It would really be fun to use just the Gaelic place names. :)

Slainte!

Mike (Auchterless)

Plan to pay for admission if you're walking the grounds of intact castles that allow public visits. Sites of some castle ruins might or might not charge for you to explore. Guidebook or online info should provide details.

A defensive structure that's not a "castle," but still a historic fortification, is a Broch, a fortified tower that looks a bit like a nuclear cooling tower. If you're driving, and if you might be taking the tiny Kylerhea-toGlenelg ferry from Skye back to the mainland, there are a couple of fascinating, free brochs just south of Glenelg. That's a lot if "ifs," of course.

Balmoral Castle is very restricted in terms of what you can see inside and you cannot really walk around the grounds without buying a ticket. Most of what is open to the public is outside anyway and can be miserable on a wet day. You will only see the top of the castle tower from the A93 if you look in the right place as you drive by because for reasons of privacy and security the castle is screened from the road by trees.

Braemar Castle is nearby and not on your list and worth a paying visit if you have the time and inclination. If you don't you can see it from the outside take a few pictures and continue with your journey

www.braemarcastle.co.uk

I'm not a fan of Eilean Donan and when I was there in August 2014 found the entire experience underwhelming and at times quite unpleasant. The castle is a rebuild, so not authentic if that is what you are looking for. I knew this and was not worried about it, but the number of people visiting made it an unpleasant experience. The castle staff left something to be desired too. Take photographs from outside and leave it at that. I might have enjoyed my visit more had I gone at another time of year, but school holidays dictated I went in August. To be honest if I were to be in the area again I would drive by no matter what time of year it was.

You probably won't see anything of Urquhart Castle from nearby because of landscaping and again if you want to just walk in the grounds you cannot do so without buying a ticket. I visited in November 2016 so the car park was empty and the visitor experience very pleasant because there were few tourists around. The castle guide was very good at his job and imparted a lot of information in an interesting talk. You don't have to take the guide tour, although we did. The castle is in ruins, but none the less interesting for that. The car park gets very full at peak times, but I would imagine that the visitor experience once there is good because there is a lot of land to walk around and with the castle in ruins, you are not negotiating too many stairways and confined spaces with hordes of others.

It's possible to take a Loch Ness cruise from Inverness which combines an hour at Urquhart Castle. So this might be an option for you.

www.jacobite.co.uk

It's been a long time since I visited Cawdor Castle but I did enjoy the experience very much. Lots to see and a proper castle feel about it. My experience at Blair Castle in 2015 was much the same and the castle has a lot to offer visitors.

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/craigmillar-castle/
you could also visit Craigmillar Castle whilst in Edinburgh.about a 20-25 minute bus ride from the city center it is a great place and has been used in many films and tv programmes over the years most recently the Outlander series. I actually pass it on my way to and from work every day.

I visited several castles, and enjoyed them all, but for different reasons. If I were to rank them in order of preference I would say Edinburgh, Stirling, Glamis and Blair castles were my favourites. I did stop at Cawdor and Eilean Donan, also, but not the others on your list. I stopped at Eilean Donan on my drive down from Skye, and made sure I was there before 9am so I could grab a few photos before the tour buses showed up, and they were pulling in as I was rushing around to accomplish that. The castle itself is small, and gets cramped with all the tours so is not as enjoyable as some others, but I still found it interesting for what it is. The grounds at Cawdor are quite nice. My cousin's daughter once worked at Balmoral and based on stories she told I skipped that one. Urquhart was one that the people who did my driving itinerary advised to skip also, stating it was mostly a ruin.

I wasn’t impressed with Dunvegan nor Dumbarton castles. A short bus ride, then short walk, outside of Edinburgh is Craigmiller castle. I enjoyed it. Urquart is really a ruin and we saw it only because we were driving along the loch. Eileen Donan was nice from the outside, but was closed when we drove by. We enjoyed Stirling and Edinburgh castles too. Haven’t been to the others. You may not be going that far north, but we enjoyed Dunnotar castle mostly for its great location. While my wife and I enjoy castles, we try to limit the number we see on any trip to 4 or 5. Any more than that and they begin to look the same or you don’t appreciate them.

I loved Duone Castle. If you don't watch Outlander, see if you can find the second episode of the first season to see what Duone looked like. Love walking through it. If you're a Monty Python fan, Monty Python and the Holy Grail also used Duone.

It's empty now, but walking through it as it was gave me goose bumps. It was one of my favorite things in Scotland (along with Rosslyn Chapel). I wanted to spend a more time there than we had.

Blair would be at the top of my list of the castles you listed and I would add Glamis. The grounds of Balmoral were beautiful but I remember we saw only one room of the castle.

Skip Dunvegan unless you enjoy paying to look at someone else's ancestral portraits.

Here are the National Trust for Scotland Castles that are furnished and open for tour : Brodick, Brodie, Fraser, Craigievar, Crathes, Culzean, Drum, Falkland and Fyvie. If you are over 60 you can buy a yearly membership with admissions and parking for 2 for 72 pounds; this seems to be a better deal than the Explorer Pass which is about the same for 5 days. On the National Trust for Scotland website you see can the many others types of properties including Enviromental Scotland, etc. that are included.

If you are looking for lesser known castles, consider Castle Campbell near Dollar, Scotland. There's a long uphill hike through a scenic glen: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/castle-campbell/

You can also drive to Castle Campbell, but the road to the upper car park is a nightmare, as is the car park itself!

Castles are cool, and I agree with those who say maybe limit the number you see. I can only speak to Edinburgh Castle, which I enjoyed very much. Nice views of Edinburgh, especially on the day we were there. I also loved Stirling Castle-there's quite a lot to see, there are several buildings to explore, and they have a decent cafe for lunch or tea. Stirling also meant a lot to me because I'm very interested in the history of Mary Queen of Scots and her son James. I liked Urquhart a lot, too. Yes, it's ruins, but they have good signage so you know what you're looking at and also sometimes some living history folks to tell you about it. We took the ferry on Loch Ness to get there. I saw all of these on the Rick Steves' Scotland tour.

One of the things we really enjoyed this past September was using our Explorer Pass. We might set out to see one castle, and then popped into smaller sites we never would have known about because it was "free." That's how we visited Inchmahome Priory, which is only 30 minutes from Doune Castle.

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/explorer-passes/

Scotland is gorgeous, and we had a wonderful time. I also second Blair Castle. I don't know why it isn't mentioned more. It's accessible, comfortable, and if you like antlers, has plenty of them.

In reply to "Skip Dunvegan unless you enjoy paying to look at someone else's ancestral portraits" -- actually, yes! I loved seeing the series of ancestral portraits one generation after another, as well as the fairy flag, Flora McDonald memorabilia and other relics at Dunvegan! My only regret was that it was raining so hard we didn't spend any time in the gardens for fear of slipping on the wet cobbles.

We greatly enjoyed Urquhart Castle as we arrived just before one of the free walking tours. The guide made everything come to life even though we were hiking through a ruin. One of Urquhart's highlights is a very humorous signboard about the raid by the McDonald clan -- I won't give it away, you have to see it.

At Cawdor Castle we loved observing the herd of hairy coos with their calves.

To me, every castle is different. Whether you want to spend your Scotland trip chasing castles, and if so which ones, simply depends what your tastes and interests are.

I think some of it comes down to what you are looking for in the castles and whether you want to see something that's currently lived in or see what things were like in older times. We hit all of the ones on your list except for Balmoral (b/c the Queen was in residence), and they are in varying degrees of condition. I really wouldn't bother with Armadale because there's so little left of it -- and it was more of a big house than a castle, but there is a local museum on the grounds that we was interesting to see to get the history of the area (unless you've had enough by that point). If you're already looking at Inverness, you might want to consider Dunrobin that's further up the coast. It's in good shape, has French-style gardens, and they have a falcon show twice a day (we were pleasantly surprised by the latter). If you're in Edinburgh, you might like the Holyroodhouse, which isn't as crowded as Edinburgh Castle (either have the Explorer Pass or get a reservation in advance).

Updated/currently lived in/renovated at some point: Blair, Cawdor, Eilean, Dunvegan
Peak in 1500s but structures are still in good shape: Edinburgh, Stirling
Ruins/only part of the former castle/grounds are visible: Urquhart, Armadale

I would add Linlithgow Castle about 1/2 hour south of Stirling between Stirling and Edinburgh. It's historically very important and is a beautiful ruin...much of the lower floors are intact and even in the parts where the roof is gone it's fairly spectacular. It's set next to a pretty loch and the town is a nice place to have lunch.