Great Scot! (Part II)

Since Ben had the weekend free, but needed to be back in southern Scotland by Sunday night, we took a leisurely drive there via the west coast. Our first site was a ruined cathedral in Elgin. Ben was excited with this stop since he read a historical fiction book earlier this year about building a cathedral in 1200 AD.
We drove through Inverness and made our way to Loch Ness with the famous Urquhart Castle (and Nessie!) before sunset.
For some reason I was really reminded of Braveheart and Ben tried to bribe me to yell (in my best Scottish accent) “Freedom” from the top of the tower, but it just wasn’t going to happen.

Ok maybe it did.
On Sunday, we got to check out Edinburgh together during a free walking tour (New Europe). It was a lot of fun to learn about Edinburgh and Scottish history. Plus we saw some fun stuff to do if we ever return and if Ben has free time on this trip (a round at St. Andrews and a Whisky Tour are already on his list).
The job started which meant Ben had to stay on site (or very close), so we made Gretna our homebase. A quick search on the Historic Scotland website, and I decided to stay close too and started to explore the beautiful countryside in the Dumfries & Galloway and Borders areas.
I drove east on Monday to the Drybrugh Abbey in Saint Boswells.

And yesterday I headed west to Shearington where Caelaverock Castle was nearby.
An awesome trip! Now I need to go catch my flight back to the States!