Scotland on a Budget – Oh, Aye!

When I remember our two weeks in Scotland I think first of two things: the unspoiled loveliness, and...food. Then I think of all the things we didn't do, and begin to dream of our next trip to this wonderful land. There's something fractal about Scotland; it isn't all that big, but the closer you look, the more there is to see.

Note: I'll end this review with a few resources that were helpful to us, especially as budget-constrained travellers.

We had the great good fortune to stay in a private home in Edzell, which we used as home base for day trips for the first week. Edzell is a little town in the east, roughly halfway between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and an easy drive to either. But we're not city people particularly, so we spent most of our time there exploring the glens and North Sea villages.

FOOD I – Fine Dining
We began our sojourn with a Brigadoon-like experience. Driving our rented car from Glasgow, punchy from the flight from Boston, already enchanted, we began looking for a place to have dinner. Somewhere outside Stirling...I think...maybe...we found a country hotel. The lobby, more an expansive hall than what an American would think of as a hotel lobby, was deserted except for a few tweedy men watching a televised sporting event in a small bar in the corner. We were assured we could get dinner, however, and in a few minutes were shown into one of several small elegant dining rooms, where we were entirely alone except for the young waitress who glided quietly in and out. Determined to start our visit with Scottish specialities (say: spe-see-AL-i-ties) we ordered salmon fillet, and roast lamb. They were exquisite, that's all. Having happily blown about half our food budget, we went back out into the night, headed for Edzell. We had only the faintest idea of where we had been, and have never been able to reconstruct the place; it has vanished from everywhere but our imagination.

EXPLORING I – Glens, Farms, and Villages
At that time, Edzell was still the site of a US Navy air base, now closed. It is a pretty, unassuming little village, with a "high street" lined with shops, only one of which caters to the tourist ( I don't what to know what that was in the butcher shop window). There is a pretty river (River North Esk) crossed by "Shakin' Brig," and there is Lindsay castle with its famous renaissance garden, which we never got around to visiting.

Our first day trip set the pattern for most others: after a quick American breakfast we made a thermos of strong hot tea (this was in October; it wasn't winter quite but it sure wasn't summer), picked up some pastries at a local bakery, and headed up Glen Esk. Now here's where things begin to blur – we explored many a glen and many a loch, and each had its distinct personality, but they have since merged into one vast and varied, impressionistic experience. We wandered along loch-side trails, climbed up rocks, gaped through binoculars at red deer way up high, and golden eagles even higher, stopped at a farm where we failed to find anyone to sell us honey from their hives. We admired the sheep on the hillsides and pressing against the roadside wire barrier, and found a snagged bit of wool for souvenir. Hilltop cairns and ruined crofts and castles evoked the cruel and romantic history of Scotland in our imagination. Broad lochs reflected scudding clouds; waterfowl scattered the image. More restful were the lovely pastoral expanses of rolling farmland, and the heather hills, now brown.

Midmorning we'd fortify ourselves with tea and scones (or whatever), and early afternoons we'd seek out a small local hotel lounge for lunch. By nightfall we were happy to be back home to rest our feet and relive the day, and share a meal with our hosts.

FOOD II – Country Lounge
In the spirit of research, my husband would almost invariably order steak pie for lunch, and I would order fried haddock. They ranged from very good to truly wonderful. Our scientific conclusion is that you can't go wrong with steak pie or fish and chips in a country hotel lounge. What I missed was fresh veggies. Salad was always – ALWAYS – a sprig of alfalfa sprouts and a slice of tomato. This is also a place to find friendly conversation and a tip on where to find the birds or the castle or whatever you have in mind. It was a lounge conversation that sent us trekking off in search of golden eagles.

EXPLORING III – Edinburgh
Like most of our travels, our day in Edinburgh was quirky. The city is a stunner, with the impossible hulk of Edinburgh Castle looming over the parks and monuments of the city center. We hiked around and through the castle like good tourists, but what I remember is the tiny chapel of St. Margaret, the oldest structure on the mount. To step into its dim, cool stone heart is to be transported to the 12th century, when pious Queen Margaret tamed her husband King Malcolm. Leaving there, we despaired of the midtown traffic, and found ourselves for some reason on a side street being sucked into a used book store. By some miracle we escaped before nightfall, and had time for a drive up and around Holyrood Park. As with everything else in this review, there are centuries of history behind this name; I am grateful that time and space preclude its recitation and so should you be.

FOOD III – High Tea
En route home from Edinburgh, we stopped in Kirriemuir, birthplace of J.M. Barrie, for our evening meal. We looked for high tea, and found it in a quaint little hotel. It proved to be a full meal, followed by a full dress tea: racks of toast, and a pyramidal stand festooned with cakes and scones and all manner of pastries. And, of course, pots and pots of tea. Lovely. Did I mention that I gained 15 pounds in two weeks?

EXPLORING II – The North Sea Coast
Oil-drilling has replaced the diminishing fishing industry as the North Sea's major source of income, but the old fishing towns survive. It is an inhospitable coast, with virtually no natural harbors, so each village has its man-made harbor of stone sea walls. Anchored within are a few remaining fishing boats; nets are spread about the stone pavement. Neat whitewashed houses overlook the harbor and the chill gray sea.
An inn or pub serves the predictable, delicious food. Then there are the cliffs, looming above broad clean beaches, windy and bright. These towns – Stonehaven, Johnshaven, St. Cyrus – have an austere, restful loveliness, and I think they are my favorite places in Scotland. Anything to do with boats draws my husband like a magnet, and I happily go along; our day in Aberdeen was spent entirely at the seaport, admiring the great North Sea vessels.

EXPLORING IV– Highlands and the West
After a week of exploring on a local scale, we decided to head to Glasgow and home via the Highlands and the West coast. The scenery became more dramatic, often simply stunning. We shied away from the tourist's Loch Ness, but did explore the
Caledonian Canal locks at Fort Augustus. It was here that I locked the keys in the car, and we had our most dramatic example of the friendly, helpful good spirits of the Scots. We went into the local grocery to scavenge up some tool to break into the car, and ended up with the butcher and the baker and the candlestick maker, not to mention several clerks and box boys and passers-by, all with cheerful advice. The store manager finally came up with an ingenious solution which I have now forgotten, but never to be forgotten is the good nature and kindness of all these folks.

We wound our way through the Highlands toward the coast, stopping often to admire the peaks and valleys and ancient stone monuments, and just once for shopping, at a pottery where we picked up little gifts to take home. Our goal was Oban, on the West coast.

Oban is the jumping-off place for the Western Isles, but we found it so engaging in itself that we stayed an extra day. The town surrounds a busy harbor, and of course we had to admire the island ferries other and boats coming and going. We spent much of the day at the Caithness glass workshop, watching the glassblowers fashioning their famous paperweights.

The last leg of our journey was disappointing. Ben Lomand: clouds. Loch Lomand: fog. And so on to Glasgow Airport. But we'd had our fill, and these jewels were just two more things to put on our Next Time Wish List.

SCOTLAND: The Cliche
We missed it, somehow. The only place we saw a kilt was in a bar in Johnshaven; its wearer came in to ask for matches. The only place we heard pipes (recorded) was in a vast tourist shoppe I have no idea where. Haggis: nope. Of course, we weren't there for any games or festivals, and didn't even manage a Ceilidh (informal dance party). Nobody said Ach aye, but we did hear a lot of Oh aye. The only place we couldn't understand the language was Glasgow.

FOOD IV – Bad
If you want bad food in Scotland, I can tell you where to get that, too. Go to a bustling tourist center and enter a busy restaurant and order from the very American-looking menu. You can have an overdone hamburger with limp greasy french fries, but you'll get the usual lame salad.

Another place we had bad food was a shopper's tea room in downtown Perth. Limp little white bread sandwiches with hardly any filling. Blechh.

BED AND BREAKFAST
Like many, if not most, travelers in Scotland, we stayed in B&B's once we left our private digs in Edzell. All in the budget category, they ranged from the barely adequate to the quite nice. Even the barely adequate – a small bedroom in a featureless suburban home – was scrupulously clean, and the famous Scottish breakfasts never failed us. (Expect toast, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage, and broiled mushrooms and tomatoes. The mushrooms and tomatoes are wonderful but beware the British sausage!) Our favorite was "Eastbank," in Helensburgh, across the river Clyde from Glasgow. We spent our last night there, and our affable host joined us in the evening and told stories about the region and its history – a wonderful send-off.

THE "NEXT TIME" WISH LIST
Arbroath, for the smokies (that's smoked fish), the lighthouse, and the lifesaving museum
The Western Isles – Mull for birding, Skye for history, Iona for faith
More of Edinburgh, preferably with deep pockets
A few days in St. Cyrus, hiking, birding, eating and sleeping
More castles, especially Dunottar
St. John o' Groats, and wherever "Local Hero" was filmed
Charles Rennie Mackintosh art & architecture tour of Glasgow
Ben Nevis, Loch Lomand
A Ceilidh, or several
More time...lots more time

RESOURCES

General Tourist Information:
– The web is a goldmine, of course, but you'll want a print guidebook or two unless you and your laptop are inseparable. Use the web to research and make reservations.
– Gateway: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/scotland.html
– Excellent links to the regions: http://www.visitscotland.com/
– Fodor: Excellent print guidebook. Online at: http://www.fodors.com/
– Let's Go: Designed for students, it's the perfect guide for budget travellers of whatever age: http://www.letsgo.com/

Maps
– UK Ordnance Survey Maps are invaluable. You can get them to any scale, from country wide to town and village: http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/home/index.html
– More paper maps: Michelin's are excellent: http://www.michelin-travel.com/eng/catalogue/accueil.htm
– Interactive maps: http://uk2.multimap.com/

Most Entertaining Epinions Review: "Scotland, Not for the Faint of Heart"
http://www.epinions.com/trvl-review-62A-B2F6193-39F5CB27-prod2
...wherein Fiona/nathsmom warns you about divers hazards, but fails to mention sausage, which is a major oversight on her part. Well, she does discuss haggis and blood pudding, so if you generalize these remarks to all sausages to be found in the British Isles you should be safe.

Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug