Notre voyage en Ecosse

ThursdayFriday

SaturdaySunday

Thursday

● St Giles Cathedrale● Royal Mile● Holyrood House

St Giles Cathedrale

St Giles Cathedrale

St Giles Cathedrale

St Giles Cathedrale, located in Royal Mile, is also called « The High Kirk of Edinburgh ». It was founded in the XIIth century, by the normands, and burned the next century. It was rebuilt in the XVth century.

Royal Mile

Royal Mile

Probably Edinburgh's oldest street, The Royal Mile connects Edinburgh Castle with the Palace of Holyrood House.The Deacon Broadie’s tavern on the picture, is the one which is themed on on Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde.

Holyrood House

Holyrood House

Founded as a monastery in 1128, the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is The Queen's official residence in Scotland. Situated at the end of the Royal Mile, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is associated with Scotland's turbulent past, including Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived here between 1561 and 1567. Successive kings and queens have made the Palace of Holyroodhouse the first royal residence in Scotland. Today, the Palace is the setting for State ceremonies and official entertaining.

Friday

● Stirling Castle● The walk

Stirling Castle

We visited stirling and its castle, which was one of the most defended castle in Scotland. On one side, there is a sheer rock face, and on the other, an high wall, so it was a place where major battles happened. One these battles opposed the english king Edward I and William Wallace, the most famous scottish hero, who has a monument at Stirling.

The Walk

In the afternoon, we walked around the Loch Lomond in the Trossachs during one or two hours. It was a bit tiring but quite fun. After, we should have visited the Scottish wool center where we are told about the scottish sheeps and wool, but we arrived too late to visit it.

Then we went back to whins of Milton in our family.

Saturday

● The Glenturret’s Distillery

● Scone Palace

The Glenturret Distellery

The story of Glenturret Distillery began in 1775 and this is the Scotland’s oldest distillery of pure malt. At the beginning, it was ruled by smugglers and they choose this place because it was a hill, so they could see everybody who is coming to their illegal distillery. Distilling was only legalize in Scotland in 1823.

The Glenturret’s Distillery

Now we’ll present you how the whisky is made in 6 stages:

Mashing:

Malted barley is fed into the mill where it is ground into grist, which resembles coarse flour.

The Glenturret Distillery

• Milling:The grist (flour) is mixed with hot water in the mash tun, a large circular metal vessel.

The Glenturret Distillery

• Fermenting:After about 48 hours the fermentation has turned the liquid into a weak form of alcohol, similar to beer.

The Glenturret Distillery

• Distilling:The liquid flows into a traditional pot still made from copper (=cuivre), the shape of which has remained unchanged since Scotch whisky was first made.

The Glenturret Distillery

Filling:Before being put into barrels the spirit's strength is reduced by the addition of water, the same water that is used for mashing.

The Glenturret Distillery

• Maturing:The cask (=tonneau) is stowed in the warehouse and left undisturbed for a minimum period of six years.

Scone Palace

Scone PalaceScone Palace is one of the most interesting and historical place of Scotland because the Kings of Scotland were crowned, for example: Macbeth, Robert the Bruce, Charles II.This is were they used to live too. This palace dating from the 17th century is a fine example of early 19th century Georgian Gothic architecture.Around the palace, there are beautiful wild gardens planted in 1848 and expanded later in the 1970’s. In 1842, to celebrate the new union between England and Scotland, Queen Victoria slept in a special bedroom for one night. It’s the most beautiful room of the palace.

Sunday

● The Britannia● Edinbourgh Castle● Ghosts and Gouls

The Britannia

We visited the royal yacht Britannia. It’s a very luxuous yacht which is used by the royal family for special occasions. It’s located in the port of Edinburgh. We visited it with audio-guide and it was abit boring.

Edinburgh Castle

This medieval castle which is located upon Royal Mile was used to defend Edinburgh from assault. Scottish Lord lives there nowadays.

After, we were freed for the afternoon and we did shopping in Edinburgh.

Ghosts & Ghouls Tower

Later, we made the Ghosts & Ghouls Tower which is a few stories about scottish ghosts or about men who were condamned to death. We visited the vaults of Edinburgh at this occasion.

On the evning, we leaved Edinburgh to Dover in order to come back to France.