TR Scotland in October

What a fun time you had! It sounds like you've been enough that you saw exactly what you wanted to see!

Interesting about your ancestors getting sold and shipped. Were they actually slaves or bound/indentured men/women who would serve a sentence and then be freed? Where did they wind up when they got to the US? IF these are too personal, I'll understand. Just interesting!

Thanks for taking the time to post, especially about the weather, lol!!

Hi Pam
Actually our ancestors were sold as indentured servants for a term of 7 years. They were shipped to New England. Lots of great information about the Battle of Dunbar and prisoners on this website https://spows.org/about-us/

I included a bit about the weather as it's often the first thing people ask when thinking to visit Scotland. Do I recommend visiting in October? Absolutely! The fall colors are beautiful, places are not overly busy and the weather is what Scotland is known for only a bit cooler.

This was our 3rd visit to Scotland and I'm headed back to spend more time on Orkney and then.... I'd love to spend some time walking on Harris and the Cowal Peninsula. So in reality I have planned, in my head, 3 more return visits. lol Love Scotland.

NOT to pull your TR off topic but did you see they've had SNOW on Orkney and Shetland? The pictures are gorgeous. I am sure will all the wind they normally have, this was not terribly comfortable.

Thanks for the extra information about your ancestors. Since I posted I read the Wikipedia article on the Battle of Dunbar and am just glad yours were sold as indentured instead of being buried in a mass grave under Durham Cathedral. Yikes.

And yes, everyone wants to know about the weather and SHOULD ask about it, hahaha!!

Thank you for sharing your wonderful trip report! Scotland truly is a special place. I love the ancient energy of the stones at Calanais and cannot begin to imagine how incredible it was for you and your spouse to be the only visitors there. I visited the library at Innerpeffray 20+ years ago on a "librarian's tour of Scotland" organized by the library school at UW Madison. Ted the librarian showed our tour group several historic books from the collection. I am glad to see the library is still open.

How was it for you to deal with the reduced hours of daylight in October? That would dissuade me more than the weather.

Hi NYC Librarian
I did actually think of you when we visited Innerpeffray :) A few people came & went while we were there staying for maybe 20 minutes or so. Being book lovers we wanted to know everything about the library and its collection. Of course I had 50 questions. All were patiently answered. I was allowed to carefully handle a book from 1524. Joy! The book was in French, hand made paper, hand printed, hand carved and painted illustrations.

The shorter days did not bother us so much. We were out and about all day and DH tired easily so by 5 we were back at our accommodation where we discussed the day's adventure and speculated on the following day's discoveries. Dark by 5:30-6:00 worked for us as we didn't feel as if we were missing out exploring in longer daylight. We did experience Fall Back one hour in Scotland and it seemed to get darker much more quickly than an hour earlier. It was surprising actually. Returning to the States after a few days we fell back one hour here. Made adjusting to time difference very interesting. lol

I think combining the last of September with the first half October is a great time to be in Scotland. Might be my favorite time to be there. Although, baby critters in the Spring can be irresistible.

We spent about 10 days in Scotland in September of 2023 and it just wasn't enough time to see everything we wanted. Your trip report highlights are amazing and it makes me want to book a trip right now! I too, have ancestry in Scotland and went to a few little towns where some of my ancestors were born, married, and died. It was an amazing experience.

Diane, what a lovely trip report. I absolutely love Lewis and it was so nice to read about your travel there. I plan on going back there at some point in the next few years. I definitely want to visit Orkney and Shetland, but also make another trip back to Harris and Lewis and stay longer. And visit a friend on Skye.

And I love that you stopped at the Weaving Shed! I love that place and was so excited when I first read about it. I stopped there on my way to Lewis, and really enjoyed talking to the owner and buying a few things in the shop.

Another interesting library is the Leighton Library in Dunblane. It is Scotland's oldest purpose built independent library.
A subtly different claim to fame than Innerpeffray!
Dunblane is just north of Stirling, with trains from both Edinburgh and Stirling. When I was in Dunblane a few weeks ago I went there from Glasgow and returned to Edinburgh as that was how my ultra cheap rail connections to and from Cumbria worked.
I didn't know about it until approaching the Cathedral. In spite of being recommended to visit by the Cathedral docents I didn't have time, as I had other things to do in Edinburgh on the way home.

Stuart, thank you for sharing about the Leighton Library--it would have fit in perfectly on the librarians' tour of Scotland that I enjoyed. I will add it to my itinerary for a future visit.

Thank you for this! I now have some places added for when I return. And it’s nice to know about weather. I am like you - as long as I have dinner available, I don’t need to be sightseeing into the evening, whether it’s dark or light. :)

Thank you so much Stuart for information about the Leighton Library! I have been through Dunblane a couple times now and never knew the library existed. I've bookmarked its website and have added it to my list of places to visit when I'm back next fall.