| Summertime in Scotland! Starting with a couple of days in Edinburgh, we then headed up to the Perthshire area where we'd taken a "self-catering" cottage, as they call it - a weekly house rental. Concluding our glorious July journey, we headed down into the lower Highlands to Bridge of Allan and Stirling.
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| The Royal Yacht BRITANNIA, now a museum ship berthed in Leith, the port of Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth. |
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| The royal residence, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, still an active royal palace for the Queen, and once home to Mary, Queen of Scots. |
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| The palaces interior courtyard. Photo Right - Stone tracery remains of the abbey adjacent to the palace. |
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| Entry to the Glasshouse Hotel, a unique hotel property as it comprises of the full top floor of a new office building which affords great views from every angle. |
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| View from Room 43 - Dalmore Suite. |
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| Our balconey had a sweeping view northwards to the Firth of Forth. |
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| . . . and very dramatic at night! |
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| Found on the Royal Mile, a cart selling nothing but dozens of varieties of thistles. |
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| One of the unusal windows gracing Rosslyn Chapel in the village of Roslin, about 6-miles south of Edinburgh. The chapel, parts of which date to 1446, gained new fame with the publication of THE DA VINCI CODE. |
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| The chapel is currently undergoing a multi-year restoration and has thus been covered by a temporary roof structure to keep the elements away while stone work goes on. |
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| A view of Craignuisq Farmhouse from A827. This was our "self-catering" cottage that we rented on the Kinnaird Estate. The estate comprises 9,000 acres in the Tay River valley of Perthshire - about one-hour north of Edinburgh. |
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| A view from the terrace of Craignuisq down to the River Tay. |
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| Brichfield sketching on the lawn. |
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| An evening storm moving down the valley. |
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| The late evening sky at 10:30pm. |
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| Beautiful and amazing thistles . . . |
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| A man in his kilt! |
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| And praticing a good twirl . . . |
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| A walk in the woods at The Hermitage, a National Trust of Scotland site outside of the village of Dunkeld. The Hermitage contains Ossian's Hall, an 18th century folly overlooking the dramatic Falls Braan, where we observed salmon jumping up the falls! |
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| Artist Birch Coffey creating an Andy Goldsworthy like installation. |
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| The charming village of Dunkeld - red certainly seems to be in fashion! |
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| The front facade of Kinnaird House is bathed in late afternoon light. |
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| Inside the lush walled garden. |
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| An odd piece of tree trunk still clinging the wall of the garden. |
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| Heading to the croquet lawn . . . |
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| Maureen and Birch plotting strategy! |
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| Chas awaiting his turn . . . |
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| And the winner is . . . Birch with three match wins to Chas with one! |
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| A whirl of grass makes for interesting patterns! |
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| Beautiful colors and patterns as seen from our terrace at Craisgnuisq. |
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| Close-up of the reflections on the River Tay from Craigsnuisq House. |
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| Getting set for another match . . . |
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| A bit of friendly distraction wanders onto the court. |
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| Birch and Joanne look on as Maureen goes through the hoop! |
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| Stirling Castle perched on the rocky mount with amazing views of the surrounding valley and the River Forth. |
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| A hawk as part of the hawking demonstration at Stirling. |
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| Joanne, Birch and Maureen transfixed on the hawks. |
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| A nicely attired Scot! |
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| The Great Hall at Stirling. |
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| One of the many window shield insets of the Great Hall |
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| Wonderful rooflilne patterns and colors against a blue blue sky. |
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| An amazing scultped earthworks as seen from Stirling. |
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| Here is a sculpted field of grass next to the great earthwork. |
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| A view from Stirling over to the Wallace Memorial Tower. |
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