Across the Firth of Forth to the north of Edinburgh is the historic county of Fife, sometimes known as the Kingdom of Fife. A number of towns and villages make for easily accessible day trips out of Edinburgh, including to Dunfermline (once the capital of Scotland), St Andrews, Kirkcaldy (birthplace of Adam Smith), and any number of picturesque small coastal villages which grew up around the fishing industry.

Heading west after crossing the Forth, one historic village which is worth visiting is Culross - pronounced with a silent L - nestled between a high ridge, on which sites Culross Abbey, and the sea. 

Culross is reputed to have been the birthplace of St Kentigern (aka St Mungo), the patron saint of Glasgow - as such it developed a healthy trade in the Middle Ages as a site of pilgrimage for travellers heading east to St Andrews. More recently the visitors to Culross have been walking in the footsteps of less saintly figures - the village was a filming location for the Outlander television series.

The quaint and picturesque buildings of Culross are clustered around a central square where a mercat cross marks the original site of markets and trade in the village. Cobbled lanes - ill-suited for modern vehicles - wind between the original cottages with their whitewashed walls and pantiled roofs, many featuring the original crow-step style of gable walls which would later be co-opted into the Scots Baronial architectural style of the late nineteenth century.  

The most eye-catching collection of buildings in the village are the orange or ochre coloured Culross Palace, built around the turn of the seventeenth century and visited by James VI in 1617.  

The original laird who built the palace was George Bruce, who established a successful trade link out from the Firth of Forth over to northern Europe, and in particular to the Netherlands and to Sweden. His house was built partly with imported materials, including Dutch tiles for the floors and decorative glass for its windows. The Ductch pantiles of many of the buildings in the village would have arrived as ballast in ships that Bruce operated. He also built Culross's other significant claim to industrial fame - the world's first coal mine which extended under the sea, which operated between 1590 and 1625.

The palace is today managed by the National Trust for Scotland, and features extensive gardens planted with the kind of plants and flowers that would originally have decorated the space.

Culross's original town hall or tolbooth still stands overlooking the green at the southern side of the village.

Built in the 1620s it served all manner of community purposes, including as a council chamber, a debtors' prison, a weigh station, and a place where accused witches would be held pending their trial and (usually) execution. A memorial to those who lost their lives due to accusations of witchcraft - including four women burned at the stake in Edinburgh after confessing to authorities at Culross town hall in 1675 - can be found in the village.

The town's war memorial was designed by Robert Lorimer, who produced many such monuments across Scotland after the First World War.

Today Culross is an interesting place for a visit, with several nice cafes and ice cream shops for refreshments, a children's playground, and pathways to explore the historic, Instagrammable village itself. 

Because of its Outlander connections it can be a busy place in the summer, but a large car park provides plentiful parking and you only need a short stop to get a flavour of the village and its picturesque houses and streets. If you're driving, you can continue westwards along the Forth to eventually circle back towards Edinburgh via Linlithgow or the Kelpies near Falkirk. 

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Some Scottish castles have a unique appeal for visitors, who are drawn to them for sometimes quite specific reasons. Eilean Donan, for example, is the most photographed castle in the UK, representing a definitive vision of Scottish-castle-ness... Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness has the merit of actually existing and being visible, unlike the other attraction of that loch... And Doune Castle is still best known (probably) for being where Monty Python filmed scenes from their 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Located just a few miles beyond Stirling Castle, Doune is a great example of a ruined castle with enough sense of place and space to warrant a visit, and can be incorporated into the itinerary of a day trip from Edinburgh without too much difficulty.

Here's my introduction to this historic (and cinematic) place.

Although there probably a fortress on this site from sometime in the twelfth century (and a nearby Roman settlement from the first century) the current castle dates from around 1400CE, built around a central fortified courtyard with apartments and functional spaces on the northern range of the structure.

​The castle was built was Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (1340 - 1420), son of King Robert II. As an uncle to James I of Scotland, Albany ruled Scotland as regent during the years when James was held prisoner by the English. Later Doune became a royal residence and was visited by both Mary, Queen of Scots and her son, James VI.

Originally the courtyard is believed to have smaller structures built around its internal walls - places for keeping animals, store rooms, and workshop spaces, perhaps - and a series of large windows on the southern wall suggest a planned expansion with grand private chambers which never got built.

The castle was significantly restored in the 1880s, having become a roofless ruin, so the bulk of the physical interior of the space is Victorian - but giving a great sense of what Doune might have been like at the height of its status as a grand residential property.

The audio tour included in Doune castle's entry price is narrated by Terry Jones, one of the aforementioned Pythons and a bona fide historian with several serious history books to his name. His commentary as you explore the castle provides a level of detail about what life at Doune would have been like, as well as the background to some of the historical figures and families associated with the place. Optional extra content periodically reflects on the experience of filming Holy Grail, with audio excerpts from the film.

Doune was also used as a filming location for Castle Leoch scenes from Outlander (optional audio content narrated by Sam Heughan is available) and featured in a variety of other screen outings, including Ivanhoe with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 1952, the 2018 film Outlaw King, about King Robert the Bruce, and served as Winterfell Castle in the Game of Thrones TV adaption.

The kitchen area is a cavernous space where meals would have been prepared - check out the enormous fire pit where meats would have been roasted.

​In the walls of the room you can still see the marks made by the kitchen staff who would have been sharpening their blades against the stone - a fascinating detail that really shows how history leaves its mark...

Meals would have been served in the Great Hall, which is one of the rooms which was restored in the nineteenth century. A large brazier in the middle of the room shows where heat would have been generated originally (note there are no fireplaces in the space).

​A raised area at the eastern end of the room would have been where the high table was located, where the lord of the castle and high statues visitors would have sat to eat. One of the benefits of this space was a private garderobe or toilet! 

This hall was used for the Camelot song and dance sequence from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Upstairs you can still see the private chambers, including a smaller hall that would have been used for smaller gatherings and private meetings. One of the alcoves in the room, overlooking the castle's inner courtyard, would have served as a small chapel for private religious observation.

​This is the brightest room in the castle, with large windows on three sides of the space, and the remnants of stone supports in the walls indicate that there would have been another level above it originally. 

Standing in the private bedrooms - one with its own private bathroom space! - gives a remarkable sense of connection to the past, and although the Lord's Hall is distinctly Victorian in its style and decoration it's not hard to imagine the high status quality of life for the figures who spent time here. 

This room has two large fireplaces right alongside each other - an unusual configuration, and possibly arranged in such a way for either one or both to be lit to provide varying amounts of heat to the room as required.

Although a relatively modestly sized site for visitors to explore today - allow an hour to 90 minutes for a visit - Doune castle retains much of its imposing fortress structure and offers an opportunity to use your imagination to imagine what life would have been like back in the late Middle Ages. And if that's not your thing, stick Monty Python on and immerse yourself in a much sillier medieval world!

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Many people visit Edinburgh as part of a wider itinerary, travelling around Scotland and discovering the variety of places and landscapes the country has to offer.

Although I don't take tours out of Edinburgh, there are plenty of places I'm always keen to recommend to visitors - and Stirling Castle is one place I always suggest is worth taking a day trip to visit.

In fact - whisper it! - I think Stirling Castle is better than Edinburgh Castle... *Shocked face* So here's my brief guide to this iconic fortress.

Like Edinburgh, Stirling grew up along a ridge of volcanic rock which rises from the surrounding plateau. And like Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle rises from the dome of the rock as a settlement which overlooks the landscape around it. 

Unlike Edinburgh, Stirling was once one of the rotating capitals of Scotland - until 1437, the capital was wherever the king was, meaning cities like Stirling, Dunfermline, Inverness and Perth took it in turns to hold the honour.

Although the site would have been a strategically significant location in prehistory, and would doubtless have been occupied as a settlement, the earliest record of the castle at Stirling dates back only to the early twelfth  century. The structures that form the basis of the castle site today were started by James IV of Scotland prior to his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

​The palace itself was built by his son, James V - later the father of Mary, Queen of Scots - as a wedding present for his wife, Mary of Guise. When James died shortly after the Battle of Solway Firth (leaving his week-old daughter as queen), Mary of Guise made the palace her home.

THE PALACE
Featuring huge amounts of Gothic carvings on the outside, and typically Rennaissance stylings on the inside, James V's palace is the jewel in the crown of Stirling Castle. 

The internal quad through which visitors enter the palace today is known as the Lion's Den - and it is believed that James kept an actual lion in this space after being gifted the creature in the 1530s. 

A multi-million pound renovation of the palace was recently completed, restoring several of the interior spaces to the kind of style and decoration that Mary of Guise would have had. In particular the queen's bedchamber and the hall in which she accommodated visitors and guests, which are hung with replicas of original Flemish tapestries that are held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. 

Representing the hunting of the unicorn - often seen as a Christian allegory - the tapestries were created on-site at a tapestry studio that can be visited at the top of the castle site.

THE GREAT HALL
Built by James IV, the heart of the fortress was the Great Hall, a cavernous space which served not just as a location of banquets but for all manner of courtly gatherings. 

On 30 August 1594, to mark the baptism of James VI's infant son Henry - who would pre-decease his father and so never became king himself - a huge banquet was held in the Great Hall at which a series of grand presentations were given. Most notably, a full-size galleon, complete with masts, rigging, sails, and functioning canons, and decorated all around with fish and sea creatures modelled in sugar and sweet pastries. It is this grand piece of food theatre which is credited with originating the phrase 'to push the boat out', meaning to make a great effort in some venture!

The Great Hall was renovated in the late 1990s, and its plaster painted a vivid shade, which is believed to be the colouring of the original structure. 

THE CHAPEL ROYAL
Stirling Castle included a variety of different buildings within the complex, including a chapel for religious worship. The original chapel was built around 1501, and it was here that Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned queen of Scotland in 1543.

That original building was demolished and rebuilt in 1594, for the baptism of Prince Henry. The structure was later used for a variety of purposes, including as a military barracks and a storage room, but has been restored to its original stylings today.

The interior of the space was redecorated in the 1630s, ahead of the visit of Charles I - James VI's surviving son, who became king on his father's death - and features royal iconography as well as a false window to create the illusion of more light from the outside... 

THE STIRLING HEADS
Originally commissioned to decorate the roof of the king's presence chamber in the palace, a series of 56 carvings feature heads of a series of historical and mythical figures. The newly renovated palace features brightly coloured painted recreations of the original heads, whilst the surviving originals are displayed in an accompanying gallery nearby. 

These elaborate decorations were carved from Polish oak, and include figures representing kings and queens of Britain, including Henry VIII and James V, as well as faces representing the likes of Julius Caesar, Hercules, and a court jester. 

A multimillion pound project to restore the palace apartments allows visitors now to see both the originals and the reproductions - in all their vivid colour.

In all, Stirling Castle offers a fantastic alternative perspective to Edinburgh Castle. Whereas the latter was predominantly utilised for military purposes and protection, Stirling was most certainly a luxurious space, where the monarchy of the sixteenth century could display their style and their status.

As such, it is well worth a visit, and cold be combined with a number of other options for a day trip out of Edinburgh - if you're driving, you could take in the Kelpies along the way, or visit historic villages like South Queensferry, or you could take the train to Stirling and spend a day in the city.

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