There are castles…and then there are castles.

We are off to see another castle today...

There are two types of castles to visit in Scotland…well, actually there are three.  The first type is a castle that is basically a ruin that has been preserved by the family or an organization like Historical Scotland.  The second type is a castle that has been preserved by the family or National Trust and the family still uses part of the buildings as their home – even if it just a summer home.  The third type is a ruin that is just sitting out in a field and is generally not open to the public.

The best example of the first type would be Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle - one of my favorites...
 

or Edinburgh Castle.  (Actually Edinburgh Castle is still a working Army Garrison and each night at 6:00 p.m. it closes to the public and reverts back to an Army facility) 

I never tire of looking at the Edinburgh Castle...from any angle it is very impressive!!
 

 Other impressive castles of this first  type would be Linlithgow Palace, 

Dunnottar Castle,

 and today's castle - Rothesay Castle (pronounced Roth - sea).

 

A few examples of the second type of castles would be Inveraray Castle,

Scone Castle,

 

Glamis Castle, 

Blair Castle.  

 Culzean Castle

 And...Eilean Donan Castle

Wow, we have visited a lot of castles, and I have probably missed a few others that we have visited.

 The third type of castles are “no-name” castles and mainly just historic reminders of the past.

Recently we visited Blair Castle and today we took the ferry from Wemyss Bay (pronounced Weems) to the Rothesay Castle.  My next posts will be pictures of those castles.