Scotland Trip 2019
Cindy and I had the opportunity to take our first visit to Scotland in late October 2019. The trip combined a little business for Wisconsin Golf Trips with celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on October 29, 2019. The trip stemmed from my relationship with Destination Kohler here in Wisconsin. For those that don’t know, Mr. Kohler owns the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews and Kohler promotes packages to the area. So with the business I bring to Kohler, WI, I was invited to visit the Old Course Hotel and learn more about what they offer so I can speak intelligently about it with my customer base.
Scotland Day 1 – Arrival
We flew from Chicago to Dublin to Edinburgh. We very smartly upgraded to a decent rental car with a built in GPS, and then I began my adventure of driving on the left side of the road all week. It was quite the experience, especially driving thru some of the small towns along the way. We made our way straight to St Andrews to check in at the hotel. We got up to our room, opened the drapes, and there it was…. The Old Course. We did what any tourist/golf fan would do. It was Sunday and the course was closed for play, so we immediately went down and walked the 17th and 18th holes, then walked back up holes 1 and 2. Quite surreal. We then grabbed a drink up at the Road Hole Bar up on the 4th floor of the hotel and then went in to downtown St Andrews for dinner.
Scotland Day 2 – The Old Course
As many of you know, getting a tee time on The Old Course is as much a bucket list item as actually playing the course. We decided to get the full experience and go wait in line to obtain one of the open slots in the tee shot given on a first come, first serve basis. We left our room at 4:00am and were very pleased to discover on 2 people there before us. When the staff arrived at 7:30am there were almost 30 people looking for spots. We secured a 10:20am two-ball and were able to play together. It was a LONG 3-1/2 hours in the cold, but what a great experience!! Cindy and I both played pretty well and only once or twice found our way into a bad spot. Playing the home stretch was such a treat.
Scotland Day 3 – Kingsbarns
We started our day with a quick drive to the town of Falkland which doubles as Inverness in the first episode of Season 1 of Outlander. For those that don’t know, Outlander is a romantic fantasy series based on a very popular series of books written by Diana Gabaldon. The 5th season of the television show on Starz is now in production. More on Outlander in a second… but after stopping in at some of the local golf courses in the area, we arrived for our round at Kingsbarns, one of the top rated courses in the world. Just a wonderful day playing with two great caddies and a couple from France. Kingsbarns is a spectacular venue!
Scotland Day 4 – Drive to Fort William
Day 4 was pretty uneventful, as we made the long drive from St Andrews up to the Fort William area on the west coast. Along the way we stopped at the Glenfinnan Viaduct, better known as the Harry Potter Bridge, and we made it to the town of Mallaig for the sunset. But we were still buzzing from the night before, so I am including those pics here as well. Long story short… on our actual anniversary, October 29th, we learned that the cast of Outlander was staying at our hotel. We ended up having some drinks up in the Road Hole Bar for a couple of hours, within earshot of 5 or 6 of some of the actors involved with the show. For a couple Outlander nerds, it was the best gift we could have received!!
Scotland Day 5 – Glencoe
Day 5 was a full day dedicated to the Scottish Highlands. We explored all we could in the Glencoe area and even made the drive to the tip of Glen Etive. Cindy was very proud of me because I participated in a real hike and did not complain once. It was quite a trek, not the longest hike but one that went straight up and then straight back down after. This is one of those days where the pictures truly just do not do the area justice!
Scotland Days 6 and 7 – Castles
Day 6 of our trip was almost a complete loss as the fog rolled in and did not break up. We stopped in for a tour of The Gleneagles Hotel, but were unable to golf. So we spent the rest of the day touring nearby Stirling, home to Stirling Castle and the William Wallace Monument. We got up early on Day 7 to drive to downtown Edinburgh to start our full day Outlander tour. After so much driving, it was such a great day just relaxing and letting a professional tour guide get us where we needed to go. We saw a number of locations used in the filming of the show, including the Fraser Estate of Lallybroch!! We spent the night in Edinburgh and flew home early the next morning.
