Anyone Out There Live in Stonehaven, Scotland or That Area?
Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at
10:11 am
I am planning my first trip to Scotland and my first destination will be the east coast (Dunnottar, Stonehaven, etc.) Would love to chat with folks about your beautiful country! What do you like best & least about living there?
Tagged with: amp • beautiful country • East Coast • First Trip • Scotland
Filed under: Scotland
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Actually ‘me’, it’s one of the driest and sunniest parts of the country. If you consult your map, you’ll notice there are a lot of high mountains which stop all that rain on the prevailing westerly winds from making it all the way over to the North Sea – so it falls on Argyll and Glasgow instead.
The east coast tourist routes, from Berwick around the East Lothian coast to Edinburgh, then on north around the coast of Fife through numerous charming little fishing ports such as Pittenweem and Crail and the ancient university and golf town of St Andrews, then on north over the Tay and via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven to the oil metropolis of Aberdeen make a good introduction to the real Scotland. Certainly a change to the twee bagpipes and tartan trail of Loch Lomond, Fort William and Loch Ness followed by too many tourists.
Stonehaven itself mightn’t have many must-see sights (unless you’re there at New Year for the Fire Ball Festival) but Dunottar is one of the great sights of Scotland. It’s also very important in our history as the place where that symbol of Scottish nationhood, the ‘Honours of Scotland’ (the Scottish crown jewels) were hidden from the English (in the form of Oliver Cromwell on this occasion) and later smuggled out beneath the skirts of the minister’s wife under the noses of the Parliamentarian army.
Which is why, unlike the English crown melted down by the Parliamentarians, the ancient Scottish crown (the oldest in Europe), sword and sceptre can still be seen today in Edinburgh Castle.
its cold and damp