The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England. In the late 15th century, the Princes in the Tower were housed at the castle when they mysteriously disappeared, presumed murdered.
The zenith of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen. This use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower". Despite its enduring reputation as a place of torture and death, only seven people were executed within the Tower before the World Wars of the 20th century, notably Anne Bolyn, Catherine Howard, (wives of Henry 8th), Lady Jane Grey and Sir Thomas More. Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, with 112 occurring there over a 400-year period.
In the First and Second World Wars, the Tower was again used as a prison and witnessed the executions of 12 men for espionage. After the Second World War, damage caused during the Blitz was repaired, and the castle reopened to the public. Today, the Tower of London is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions.
The bridge is 800 feet (240 m) in length and consists of two 213-foot (65 m) bridge towers connected at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, and a central pair of bascules that can open to allow shipping. The bridge deck is freely accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, whereas the bridge's twin towers, high-level walkways and Victorian engine rooms form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition.
Tower Bridge has become a recognizable London landmark. It is sometimes confused with London Bridge, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) upstream, which has led to a popular urban legend about an American purchasing the wrong bridge. Several stunt pilots have flown underneath the bridge, including the pioneering Francis McClean.
Borough Market is a wholesale and retail market hall in Southwark, London. It is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London,[1][2] with a market on the site dating back to at least the 12th century. The present buildings were built in the 1850s, and today the market mainly sells specialty foods to the general public.
If all you come with is an appetite, you’ll be able to sate it in a thousand ways. But if you care about what you eat and where it comes from, our traders can feed your curiosity too. Here, in this historic setting, you’ll find an incredible range of food from all over Britain and the rest of the world – and every item has a story to tell.
The Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonization.
The British Museum houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities (with over 100,000 pieces) outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It also houses one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the Classical world, with over 100,000 objects. With a collection numbering some 330,000 works, the British Museum possesses the world's largest and most important collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. The Department of Prints and Drawings holds the national collection of Western prints and drawings. It ranks as one of the largest and best print room collections in existence alongside the Albertina in Vienna, the Paris collections and the Hermitage.
Top Exhibits to See: Rosetta Stone, Egyptian Mummies, Elgin Marbles (Parthenon Marbles), Royal Game of Ur, Easter Island Statues, Goddess Athena, Statue of Ramesses the II, Sutton Hoo Treasure
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London, England.
Its name, which derives from the neighboring Westminster Abbey, may refer to several historic structures but most often: the Old Palace, a medieval building-complex largely destroyed by fire in 1834, or its replacement, the New Palace that stands today. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and, for ceremonial purposes, retains its original status as a royal residence.
The Palace is one of the centers of political life in the United Kingdom; "Westminster" has become a metonym for the UK Parliament and the British Government, and the Westminster system of government commemorates the name of the palace. The Elizabeth Tower, in particular, often referred to by the name of its main bell, Big Ben, has become an iconic landmark of London and of the United Kingdom in general, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city, and an emblem of parliamentary democracy. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia called the new palace "a dream in stone".
Kensington Gardens was originally the western section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. It was separated from the remainder of Hyde Park in 1728 in order to form a landscape garden, with fashionable features including the Round Pond, formal avenues and a sunken Dutch garden.
Another feature is the bronze statue of Peter Pan by George Frampton standing on a pedestal covered with climbing squirrels, rabbits and mice. It is also home to a statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by her daughter, Princess Louise, to celebrate 50 years of her mother's rule stands outside Kensington Palace. The park also contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump.
The land surrounding Kensington Gardens was predominantly rural and remained largely undeveloped until the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and there are other public buildings such as the Albert Memorial (at the south-east corner of Kensington Gardens, opposite the Royal Albert Hall), the Serpentine Gallery, and Speke's monument. Queen Victoria had commissioned the Italian Gardens and the Albert Memorial during a series of improvements.
The ceremony of Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, is a focal point for the many thousands of tourists who visit London each year. This intricate procedure facilitates the renewing of a guard at the end of its duty, ‘the Old Guard’. It is relieved by a refreshed detachment referred to as the ‘New Guard’.
Buckingham Palace is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the center of state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning.
Originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th century it was enlarged, with construction of three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.
The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the East Front, which contains the well-known balcony on which the British royal family traditionally congregates to greet crowds. A German bomb destroyed the palace chapel during the Second World War; the Queen's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.
The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring.
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden". The south end contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
The area was fields until briefly settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic, then abandoned at the end of the 9th century after which it returned to fields. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was granted in 1552 by the young King Edward VI to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c.1485–1555), the trusted adviser to his father King Henry VIII. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build some fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Paul's. The design of the square was new to London and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for new estates as London grew.
By 1654 a small open-air fruit-and-vegetable market had developed on the south side of the fashionable square. The central building re-opened as a shopping center in 1980 and is now a tourist location containing cafes, pubs, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market, along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.
7 am: Early Departure by train for Edinburgh
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, or Holyrood Castle, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyroodhouse has served as the principal royal residence in Scotland since the 16th century, and is a setting for state occasions and official entertaining.
Queen Elizabeth II spends one week in residence at Holyroodhouse at the beginning of each summer, where she carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies. The State Apartments, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public throughout the year, except when members of the Royal Family are in residence.
The Augustinian Holyrood Abbey that is sited in the grounds was founded in 1128 at the order of King David I of Scotland. The name derives either from a legendary vision of the cross witnessed by David I, or from a relic of the True Cross known as the Holy Rood or Black Rood, and which had belonged to Saint Margaret, David's mother. As a royal foundation, and sited close to Edinburgh Castle, it became an important administrative centre. Robert the Bruce held a parliament at the abbey in 1326, and by 1329 it may already have been in use as a royal residence. In 1370, David II became the first of several kings to be buried at Holyrood. Not only was James II born at Holyrood in 1430, it was at Holyrood that he was crowned, married and laid to rest. James III and Margaret of Denmark were married at Holyrood in 1469.
In 1512 a lion house was constructed to house the king's menagerie, which included a lion and a civet among other exotic beasts. James V added to the palace between 1528 and 1536, beginning with the present James V's Tower. This huge rectangular tower, rounded at the corners, provided new royal lodgings at the north-west corner of the palace. Equipped with a drawbridge and probably protected by a moat, the tower provided a high degree of security and is now the oldest part of the Palace of Holyroodhouse surviving today.
The royal apartments in the north-west tower of the palace were occupied by Mary, Queen of Scots, from her return to Scotland in 1561 to her forced abdication in 1567. The Queen had archery butts erected in her private gardens to allow her to practise, and hunted deer in Holyrood Park. It was at Holyrood that the series of famous interviews between the Queen and John Knox took place, and she married both of her Scottish husbands in the palace: Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, in 1565 in the chapel, and James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, in 1567 in the great hall. It was in the Queen's private apartments that she witnessed the murder of David Rizzio, her private secretary, on 9 March 1566. Darnley and several nobles entered the apartment via the private stair from Darnley's own apartments below. Bursting in on the Queen, Rizzio and four other courtiers, who were at supper, they dragged the Italian through the bedchamber into the outer chamber, where he was stabbed 57 times.
The New Town Edinburgh Cooking School
St Giles' Cathedral or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; significant alterations were undertaken in the 19th and 20th centuries. St Giles' is closely associated with many events and figures in Scottish history, including John Knox, who served as the church's minister after the Scottish Reformation (during which Catholicism was rejected.)
Likely founded in the 12th century and dedicated to Saint Giles, (patron saint of lepers, lived in late 600s.) In 1559, the church became Protestant with John Knox, as its minister. The church's role in the Scottish Reformation and the Covenanters' Rebellion has led to its being called "the Mother Church of World Presbyterianism".
St Giles' is one of Scotland's most important medieval parish church buildings The church was altered between 1829 and 1833 and restored between 1872 and 1883 by William Hay with the support of William Chambers. Chambers hoped to make St Giles' a "Westminster Abbey for Scotland" by enriching the church and adding memorials to notable Scots.
Since the medieval period, St Giles' has been the site of nationally important events and services; the services of the Order of the Thistle take place here. Alongside housing an active congregation, the church is one of Scotland's most popular visitor sites: it attracted over a million visitors in 2018.
1:30: Her Majesty's Royal Yacht, the Britannia
Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, also known as the Royal Yacht Britannia, is the former royal yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, in service from 1954 until 1997. She was the 83rd such vessel since King Charles II acceded to the throne in 1660. During her 43-year career, the yacht travelled more than a million nautical miles around the globe. Now retired from royal service, Britannia is permanently berthed in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a popular visitor attraction with over 300,000 visits each year.[2]
Britannia sailed on her maiden voyage from Portsmouth to Grand Harbour, Malta, departing on 14 April and arriving on 22 April 1954. She carried Princess Anne and Prince Charles to Malta in order for them to meet the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the end of the royal couple's Commonwealth tour.
On 20 July 1959, Britannia sailed the newly opened Saint Lawrence Seaway en route to Chicago, where she docked, making the Queen the first British monarch to visit the city. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower was aboard Britannia for part of this cruise; Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were welcomed aboard in later years. Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, took their honeymoon cruise on Britannia in 1981.
The yacht was a regular sight at Cowes Week in early August and, usually, for the remainder of the month, was home to the Queen and her family for an annual cruise around the islands off the west coast of Scotland (known as the "Western Isles Tour").
During her career as Royal Yacht, Britannia conveyed the Queen, other members of the Royal Family and various dignitaries on 696 foreign visits and 272 visits in British waters. In this time, Britannia steamed 1,087,623 nautical miles
Edinburgh Castle stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century, the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognized increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programs have been carried out over the past century and a half.
As one of the most important strongholds in Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1,100-year history, giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world".
The castle also houses the Scottish regalia, known as the Honours of Scotland, and is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum of Scotland.
The castle is Scotland's most, and the United Kingdom's second most-visited paid tourist attraction, with over 2.2 million visitors in 2019 and is a recognizable symbol of Edinburgh in particular and of Scotland as a whole.
12:30 pm: - Lunch at Mums Great Comfort Food
1:45 pm: Depart for Greater Scotland Tour
Scone (skoon) was an ancient gathering place of the Picts, and was probably the site of an early Christian church. The place of coronation was called Caislean Credi, 'Hill of Credulity', which survives as the present Moot Hill. In the Middle Ages the mound was marked with a stone cross, but this disappeared probably during the Scottish Reformation in 1559, when the Abbey buildings were sacked by a mob from Dundee and led by John Knox.
Scone was from at least the 9th century the crowning-place of the Kings of Scots and home to the Stone of Scone, more commonly referred to as the Stone of Destiny. Kenneth MacAlpin (traditionally known as the first King of Scots), Shakespeare's Macbeth, Robert the Bruce, and Charles II number amongst the 38 kings of Scots inaugurated and crowned at Scone. It was believed that no king had a right to reign as king of Scots unless he had first been crowned at Scone upon the Stone of Scone. (Read interesting details on the stone below)
Scone was also the site of the first Parliament of Scotland, or Council/Assembly. King Constantine II in 906 called for an assembly to meet at Scone. The assembly was recorded in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba; Alba being the early name for the early medieval Kingdom of Scotland. Scone was thus the center of power in the ancient Kingdom of Alba, doubling up as the site of both Scottish coronations and parliaments. Later, in medieval times, Scone acted as a royal residence and hunting ground. Robert II would have spent most of his life calling Scone home. He was eventually laid to rest in the Abbey itself, although his grave has never been located. A popular old saying suggests the significance of Scone's status in the Kingdom of Alba's, and later Scotland's, governance and rule:
"When the Bell of Scone tolls, the law of the land has been made".
This saying clearly suggests Scone's important role in Scottish history, and in the early formation of the Scottish nation. The primary source of much of Scone's early history and modern reputation is reliant upon Scottish folklore. An example of another piece of Scottish folklore which reminds us of Scone's position as the premier seat of power in the evolving early medieval Scottish nation is the Gaelic:
In Gaelic poetry Scone's association more specifically with kings and king-making gave it various poetic epithets, for instance "Scone of the High Shields", and "Scone of the Noisy Shields" which refers to a folkloric ceremony in which magnates would gather at Scone for a Council. As they entered the Great Hall each magnate in turn would hang their shield displaying their coats and then drum on them with their swords.
Scone's Moot Hill is the inauguration site of the Scottish Kings. It is also called 'Boot Hill', possibly from an ancient tradition whereby nobles swore fealty to their king whilst wearing the earth of their own lands in their foot-bindings or boots, or even by standing upon the earth that they had brought with them from their respective homelands (carrying the soil in their boots). Thus Moot Hill, or rather 'Boot Hill', came into being as a result of this tradition of nobles bringing a piece of their own lands to Scone. The kings of Scots, themselves inaugurated upon the Moot Hill, were thus making a symbolic commitment to the people of Scotland, the Scots. The hill created by the deposition of soil from all parts of Scotland represented all parts of the kingdom and thus allowed the King to make his oaths whilst standing symbolically upon all of Scotland.
Westminster Abbey
In 1296, during the First Scottish War of Independence, King Edward I of England took the stone as spoils of war and removed it to Westminster Abbey, where it was fitted into a wooden chair—known as King Edward's Chair—on which most subsequent English and then British sovereigns have been crowned. Edward I sought to claim the status of the "Lord Paramount" of Scotland, with the right to oversee its King.[11]
Some doubt exists over the stone captured by Edward I. The Westminster Stone theory posits that the monks at Scone Palace hid the real stone in the River Tay, or buried it on Dunsinane Hill, and that the English troops were tricked into taking a substitute. Some proponents of this theory claim that historic descriptions of the stone do not match the present stone.[12]
In the 1328 Treaty of Northampton between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, England agreed to return the captured stone to Scotland; riotous crowds prevented it from being removed from Westminster Abbey.[13] The stone remained in England for another six centuries, even after King James VI of Scotland assumed the English throne as James I of England in 1603. For the next century, the Stuart kings and queens of Scotland once again sat on the stone – but at their coronation as kings and queens of and in England.
On 11 June 1914 suffragettes protesting for women's rights placed a small explosive device near the Coronation Chair and Stone; the explosion caused visible damage to the chair.[14][15]
Removal
On Christmas Day 1950, a group of four Scottish students (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson,[16] and Alan Stuart) removed the stone from Westminster Abbey for return to Scotland.[17] During the removal process, the stone broke into two pieces.[18][19] After burying the greater part of the Stone in a Kent field, where they camped for a few days,[20] they uncovered the buried stone and returned to Scotland, along with a new accomplice, John Josselyn.
According to one American diplomat who was posted in Edinburgh at the time, the stone was hidden for a short time in a trunk in the basement of the consulate's Public Affairs Officer, unknown to him, before it was removed.[21] The smaller piece was similarly brought north at a later time. The entire stone was passed to a senior Glasgow politician, who arranged for the Glasgow stonemason Robert Gray to repair it professionally.[22][23]
The British Government ordered a major search for the stone, which proved unsuccessful. The custodians left the stone on the altar of Arbroath Abbey on 11 April 1951, in the safekeeping of the Church of Scotland. Once the London police were informed of its whereabouts, the stone was returned to Westminster four months after it had been removed. Afterward, rumours circulated that copies had been made of the stone, and that the returned stone was not the original.[24][25]
Return to Scotland
In 1996,[25] in a symbolic response to growing dissatisfaction among Scots at the prevailing constitutional settlement, the British Government decided that the stone should be kept in Scotland when not in use at coronations. On 3 July 1996, Prime Minister John Major announced to the House of Commons that, seven hundred years after it had been taken, the stone would return to Scotland.[26] On 15 November 1996, after a handover ceremony at the border between representatives of the Home Office and of the Scottish Office, the stone was transported to Edinburgh Castle. An official handover ceremony occurred in the Castle on 30 November 1996, St Andrew's Day, to mark the arrival of the stone.[27] Prince Andrew, Duke of York, representing Queen Elizabeth II, formally handed over the Royal Warrant transferring the stone into the safekeeping of the Commissioners for the Regalia.[28][29] It currently remains alongside the crown jewels of Scotland, the Honours of Scotland, in the Crown Room of Edinburgh Castle.
William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, and the future King Charles II have graced the Castle with their presence. Most famously though, it was at Dunnottar Castle that a small garrison held out against the might of Cromwell’s invading army in the 17th century for eight months and saved the Scottish Crown Jewels, the ‘Honours of Scotland’, from destruction. The property of the Keiths from the 14th century, and the seat of the Earl Marischal, Dunnottar declined after the last Earl forfeited his titles by taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. The castle was restored in the 20th century and is now open to the public.
The ruins of the castle are spread over 31⁄2 acres, surrounded by steep cliffs that drop to the North Sea, 160 feet below. A narrow strip of land joins the headland to the mainland, along which a steep path leads up to the gatehouse. The various buildings within the castle include the 14th-century tower house as well as the 16th-century palace.
8 pm: Dinner and Live Scottish Folk Music at the Blackfriar's Pub in Aberdeen
https://www.shipinnstonehaven.com/
Day #7: Friday, April 29:
9:30 am: Depart Stone Haven
10:30 am: Balmoral Castle Visit & Tea
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, owned by Queen Elizabeth II. It is near the village of Crathie, 50 miles west of Aberdeen. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British royal family since 1852, when the estate and its original castle were bought by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Soon afterwards the house was found to be too small and the current Balmoral Castle was commissioned. The architect was William Smith of Aberdeen, and his designs were amended by Prince Albert. Balmoral remains private property of the Queen and is not part of the Crown Estate.
The castle is an example of Scottish baronial architecture. The new castle was completed in 1856 and the old castle demolished shortly thereafter. The Balmoral Estate has been added to by successive members of the royal family, and now covers an area of approximately 50,000 acres. It is a working estate, including grouse moors, forestry and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, and ponies.
The royal couple Victoria and Prince Albert, arrived for their first visit to Balmoral on 8 September 1848. Victoria found the house "small but pretty", and recorded in her diary that: "All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils". The surrounding hilly landscape reminded them of Thuringia, Albert's homeland in Germany. Quickly, the house was confirmed to be too small, and, in 1848, new offices, cottages and other buildings were added along with improvements to the woodlands, gardens, and estate buildings.
The growing family of Victoria and Albert, the need for additional staff, and the quarters required for visiting friends and official visitors, however, meant that extension of the existing structure would not be sufficient and that a larger house needed to be built. In early 1852, this was commissioned from William Smith whose designs were amended by Prince Albert, who took a close interest in details such as turrets and windows.
Construction began during summer 1853 and the new house was completed in 1856, and the old castle subsequently demolished. The castle is built from granite quarried at Invergelder on the estate. It consists of two main blocks, each arranged around a courtyard.
The purchase of a Scottish estate by Victoria and Albert and their adoption of a Scottish architectural style was influential for the ongoing revival of Highland culture. They decorated Balmoral with tartans and attended highland games at Braemar. Queen Victoria expressed an affinity for Scotland, even professing herself to be a Jacobite. Added to the work of Sir Walter Scott, this became a major factor in promoting the adoption of Highland culture by Lowland Scots. Historian Michael Lynch comments that "the Scottishness of Balmoral helped to give the monarchy a truly British dimension for the first time".
Following Albert's death, Victoria had several monuments to her husband built on the estate including a pyramid-shaped cairn built a year after Albert's death, on top of Craig Lurachain. A large statue of Albert with a dog and a gun by William Theed, was inaugurated on 15 October 1867, the twenty-eighth anniversary of their engagement. As a widow, Victoria spent increasing periods at Balmoral, staying for as long as four months a year during early summer and autumn. It was during this period that Victoria began to depend on her servant, John Brown. He was a local hunting guide from Crathie, who became one of her closest companions during her long mourning.
After Victoria's death, the royal family continued to use Balmoral during annual autumn visits. The royal family employs approximately 50 full-time and 50–100 part-time staff to maintain the working estate. There are approximately 150 buildings on the estate, including Birkhall, formerly home to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and used now by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall for their summer holidays.
The current Queen Elizabeth and her late husband, Prince Philip, famously spent the summer and early autumn months there each year throughout their marriage, normally residing there for 12 weeks at a time.
1
pm: Depart for drive thru Highlands to Inverness
Stop for Lunch
Try to spot a highland "Coo"!
Overnight at
Heathmount Hotel, Inverness
https://www.heathmounthotel.com/
Day #8: Saturday, April 30:
