M&D's Scotland's Theme Park

Non-Disney Parks
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I’m clueless on both Outlander and Downton Abbey, but this thread was a nice excuse to go back and look at look at my travel notes and pictures.

I remember being a bit concerned about “castle burnout” since we were seeing so many back-to-back, but they all had such a different feel to them, it wasn’t an issue.

Our impressions:
“All 3 Scottish castles have been so different! Linlithgow was a ruin that was super fun to explore, Stirling was much better preserved and felt grandiose and palatial, and Edinburgh was more of a military fortification.

…This castle (Cawdor) was different yet again - fully furnished with family heirlooms and still occupied for half the year.”

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the gardens and trails at Cawdor.

I remember everyone being quite taken with Culloden and engaged for quite a while with the well-done exhibits and the grounds, but I’m not sure if it would appeal to your littles since our youngest were 8. If you’re interested in that history, I’d find a way to make it work, but you may need to take turns walking with the kids out on the grounds while the other peruses if they lost interest or what their tolerance is for recreated battle footage violence.

I’m “that mom” that spends a couple months before the trip lightly dousing my kids with historical info so they have some context for what they’ll see. (The family we travel with doesn’t, and there is a definitely a difference in the engagement level, but our kids’ enthusiasm definitely bleeds over to them.)

These 2 young ladies at Linlithgow were absolutely amazing. They gave us a wonderful little tour, and were so polished and knowledgeable. It was super impressive. After that, we had pretty much free rein to explore, which was really great.

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In contrast, this was the preservation level of Stirling.

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These 2 are the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh with the “Malt Disney” ride:

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In our prep, the story that most captured the DS8 twins’ attention was Greyfriars Bobby so we had to find the statue and eat at the pub and walk by Greyfriars Kirkyard.

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If you can work it in (and if it’s running then), our kids loved the Leault sheepdog demo in Kincraig.

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That’s so odd seeing ‘local’ photos on this forum :laughing:

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@amyvanhoose I don’t think that you meant to upload the first picture!

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Lol. Nope. Fixed that. Bad tapping/scrolling. I went back and added some captions of what’s what.

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Love, love it! I think DH and I were just planning on skipping any sort of whiskey tastings, but this one looks like a great opportunity. Also the sheepdog farm would be a big hit.

And you definitely visited an Outlander site at Greyfriar’s Bobby!

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These were 2 of the books I used to prep the kids before the trip. We just read a page of two every day. I kept a picture of the family trees in my phone to help me keep it all straight while we toured. I probably benefitted from it more than they did.

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Ok, wait, are these not your kids dressed up??

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No, those are the tour guides! Having kids give the tour was a brilliant idea because it really engaged our kids.

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29

I didn’t mention the Harry Potter connections since your boys are so little, but Greyfriar’s Kirk is interesting in it’s own right anyway. It has HP, Greyfriar’s Bobby and the more serious side with the memorial to the 700+ Covenanters.

The museum of Scotland has some very child-friendly galleries, with hands-on exhibits and buttons to press in the engineering galleries - ships, trains, steam engines etc.

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Add New Lanark to your list of places to check out to decide on visiting. It’s got a little ride like the whiskey tours, but it’s all about life in a cotton mill. It has an old school and an old shop set up as they would’ve been in the 1800s. The surrounding woodlands are beautiful and include the ‘Falls Of Clyde’ ie the river Clyde, but where it’s nice and active.
My kids like it there.

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We hit quite a few HP related points of interest along our way as well. More in London, really though, finding where different scenes were shot that we were passing near.

Now when we watch the movies though, so many scenes invoke memories of the Scottish countryside!

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Ya, we are not yet at Harry Potter stage of life. But I am sure we will have to come back someday anyway!

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For a return trip for HP purposes keep Alnwick Castle in mind. It’s in the north of England, so not greatly accessible for your bases on this trip anyway.
Lots of the first movie was filmed there and they do lots of fun HP events.
(Even outwith HP stuff Alnwick is fab!).

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One thing that did catch us unexpected is how scarce restaurant seatings were at times in some places. We were a larger group, but even trying to split up we had troubles finding space sometimes. Breakfast in Inverness we resorted to McDonalds after trying unsuccessfully to even get carry out anywhere else. Dinner in Portree on Skye was another.

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Great to note! I am planning to “self cater” (I believe it how they say it overseas) since my kids are maniacs in restaurants, and a year of lockdown has obviously not helped that. But we will definitely need carry out/take away! Were the restaurants closed or just not doing take out?

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Not doing takeout because they were bustling with the seated dining. That might be different now, though, that it’s become more a mainstay of the industry.

We did a lot of wonderful picnics. Lots of really scenic areas plus many of the historic sites had picnic areas.

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That’s not really been a big thing here during the pandemic. Covid may have changed that in some places, but it’s still mostly the case that restaurants generally don’t do take away.
We have takeaway places separate from seated dining.
Obviously there are exceptions to that, like pizza hut and some Chinese/Indian restaurants, but most seated dining restaurants only serve in person.

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So interesting! I have to say that seems to have been a huge sea change over here. Almost every restaurant does take out now. I think it has saved a lot of places. I really, really hope this stays forever.

While we are on this topic, what should we eat in Scotland?? What are your traditional picnic items and are there any restaurants that I should try and tame my monkeys for?

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That’s really interesting. It’s absolutely booming here.

We had assumed we’d need reservations if we wanted to eat at a specific restaurant. It never occurred to us that we would need reservations to eat anywhere. And that takeaway options would be so limited.

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I’m sure there are places that have adapted, but on the whole, restaurants have been pretty much closed here, so I wouldn’t come expecting them to have introduced takeaway services.

Anywhere coastal, get seafood :+1:t2:

I guess sandwiches. I don’t know how ‘traditional’ you can describe picnics in Scotland. We only get a few a year :laughing:.

Depends on what you like and where.
If you went to Skye, I would recommend The Three Chimneys, but it’s very pricey and might not be good for kids.

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