A True Scottish Adventure

Today proved to be a very interesting, improvised day. A friend and I decided to go see the castle at Doune, which is a small village near Stirling. The reason this castle was so special? It was used as one of the best scenes (I might be a little biased now, after seeing the castle) in one of the most famous comedies - Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This very small, unassuming castle was used to film the scene with Monty Python and the French military men. How exciting.

We started the day of with this goal in mind - get to Doune. We weren't exactly sure how to do it, so we traversed down to the bus station and hopped on the next bus to Doune. Things were going pretty smoothly. We rode for a while, and the ride was supposed to be about half an hour. So after a bit, we come up on a sleepy little down, which we assume is Doune. We get off the bus, and slightly regret our decision. Since the town of Doune is supposed to be small, we should see the castle, right? Well, there was no castle. To remedy this, we venture into the only place open, which was a small post office. We asked them to politely point out the way to the castle. They looked confused for a second, then kind of chuckled. They said "Doune castle?"

We said, "Yes."

Their reply? "This isn't Doune. This is Deanston."

Well. How nice for Deanston. Fortunately, they also mentioned that Doune and Doune castle was only about a mile walk from there. Which was nice. We set about walking, and came up on Deanston distillery. Funny thing was, we had talked about going to that same distillery someday to take a tour. And we happened upon it today. So of course, we stopped to take a tour.

It was very interesting, and the whiskey tasting at the end was fun. I don't think I'm a huge fan still, but I liked it more than whatever I had in the highlands. After our brief detour, we set about looking for the castle. Part way down the main road, we saw a sign that said "Public access path, Doune Castle." Of course we took it. What could go wrong? One thing I noticed though was that Doune as a whole, smelled awful. Like a ginormous farm that never cleaned its animals. But anyway, we go down this path. We go through a gate. We pass a small farm house. We keep going, now definitely thinking we were lost again. We pause, and face the river, assuming we'd have to turn back. So we turn back around, and there is the castle. It was quite comical really.

So we found the castle. And it was a spontaneous adventure and a great time. But now I can officially say I have been lost in Scotland for a brief amount of time. Which I figured was going to happen anyway, but it took longer than I thought. Doune castle itself was not that spectacular, but now I can say I've visited it, which is always fun when you're watching movies and you've been to wherever it takes place. And that was that. Until next time...