Day Trip to the Scottish Highlands

During our long weekend in Edinburgh, we knew we wanted to get out of the city for a day to see the Scottish countryside. My husband read about the Falls of Dochart in Killin, so we drove there for an afternoon.

On our drive, we passed the Kelpies, famous large horse head sculptures. I was surprised that we could see them from the highway. As an equestrian, I love all things horse-related, but had decided that we wouldn’t visit this site on this trip due to time constraints. I was happy to at least see them from the road!

It was a beautiful drive all the way to Killin and we passed many scenic views of farms, churches, castles, and lochs.

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Killin has a lot of local folklore of fairies, giants, and saints. The area is known to have been inhabited since Stone Age people hunted on the land 6,000 years ago. Killin sits at the northeast edge of the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park. This large national park of beautiful Scottish countryside looks to be a great destination if you want to experience nature in Scotland. The Highland Boundary Fault, which separates the Scottish Lowlands from the Highlands, cuts through the park. By the time we got to Killin, we had entered the lower end of the Scottish Highlands region.

Killin is home to four main attractions:

• Falls of Dochart. The River Dochart passes through Killin with its Highland Falls, The Falls of Dochart. They were beautiful. We spent a lot of time on the rocks, taking in the view. The terrain here at the Falls surprisingly reminded me a lot of mountains and falls we have seen in the northeast and southern United States.

• Old Mill. At the Falls of Dochart sits the Old Mill. It is believed that the original mill in this location was built by St. Fillian in the 8^th century. The current mill was built in 1840 and was a working woolen mill until 1939. It has since housed a folklore center and Killin’s tourist information center. It now also houses a thrift store and gift shop.

• Old Bridge. The old bridge that passes over the river and the falls was originally built in 1760. It is said to be made, at least originally, of stones directly from the river.

• Clan Macnab Burial Island. From the bridge, you can access the Clan Macnab Burial Island, which is also the site of an Iron Age fort. Access to the island is locked, but you can pick up the key at the at the Old Mill Shop with a £ 5 donation and £ 20 deposit. The Clan Macnab ruled this area until the late 16th Century.

The entrance to the Clan Macnab Burial Island.

The entrance to the Clan Macnab Burial Island.

We lucked out with weather and had a beautiful day to visit Killin. In the middle of our day visit, we had a nice lunch at the Falls of Dochart Inn. We enjoyed their cozy dining room where we could relax and warm up with some traditional Scottish dishes. We had soup, a Scottish tasting platter, fish and chips, and more (there were five of us!).

I forgot to mention in my last post about this trip to Scotland that we made a point to try the popular Scottish soft drink, Irn Bru. This orange colored soda has a sweet, bubble gum flavor to it, and is supposedly very popular. I was pleasantly surprised that my son didn’t end up liking it. It was so sugary, he probably didn’t need to drink a lot of it. I kind of enjoyed finishing it off for him!

After enjoying everything Killin had to offer, we headed back to Edinburgh. We drove a slightly different route home to enjoy more views of the countryside. After passing more sheep farms and some Highland cows next to a Loch, I was supremely satisfied with our Scottish Highlands experience!