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Nairn and Cawdor Castle

Nairn Travel Blog › entry 5 of 8 › view all entries

My wife and I had always wanted to explore Scotland, and thanks to my eldest stepson we had an exceptional opportunity. Between his sophomore and junior year in college, Chip scored an awesome summer internship in Inverness, the largest town in the Scottish Highlands, thanks to a roommate whose father works there. As conscientious parents it was our duty to fly across the Atlantic and make sure he was getting along okay!

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Nairn and Cawdor Castle

July 1, 2003

Gardens at Cawdor Castle

Chip had to work Wednesday, so this was a solo outing for Kim and I. We opted to visit the Eastern Coast to balance yesterday’s adventure, bound for Nairn and Cawdor Castle. We wanted to visit Cawdor Castle because it was reputed to be the setting for Macbeth…we subsequently learned that the ‘area’ was where the real-life Macbeth lived, although this castle was obviously built after he had gone to greener pastures. The gardens were marvelous, although the castle tour is a bit odd --- the owners inhabit the place for part of the year, and going through a bedroom where there are phones and pictures of family greatly detracts from any feeling of history.

We pressed on to the coastal village of Nairn and tromped about the town. The glorious rocky coast reminded both Kim & I of when we lived in Maine…just beautiful!

We meandered back to Inverness and detoured to sneak a peek at another coastal village, Ardiesier.

Cawdor Castle

Not a tourist town, Ardiesier was a bit run down but still had a pretty coastline. We ducked into a bar for an afternoon spot of tea and got quite a chuckle. In addition to ourselves, there were three middle-aged women and the bartender…with the ladies accompanying “Harper Valley PTA” on the radio in thick brogues! That was just too weird…

From Ardiesier we made the final trek to the Farr House, treated to a sumptuous dinner by Chip’s host family. We didn’t tarry as we had an early train departure for Edinburgh the next morning, and said goodbyes to Chip.