Scotland Day 2: More Hadrian's Wall and Lots of Hermits

We woke up on Day 2 still feeling a bit fuzzy from jetlag, but also excited for our first official day of vacation and adventures.

First up, we decided to visit another section of Hadrian's Wall. This is partly because Paul loves to spoil me (AWW!) and partly because, as Paul told me, "I was pleasantly surprised about how cool that wall ended up being." Of course it was cool, Paul, it's flippin' Hadrian's Wall! 

This time, we stopped by the section called Walltown Crags. You simply park your car in a tiny parking lot and climb up a hill full of sheep. There was no path or anything, and it's so hard to get used to that kind of casualness about walking wherever you want.

This section of Hadrian's Wall was super beautiful. There were rolling hills full of sheep and curvy wall remains for a long way in both directions. We brought our morning coffee up there with us, and that was such an amazing way to start our day. We sipped coffee and casually strolled up and down along the walls, drinking in the scenery and caffeine.

After that lovely start to our day, it was time to start our Scotland adventures. We had a few hours of travel to do in order to get into Scotland and our first stop was to the Falls of Acharn. We had thought that the pretty parts weren't going to be for a few days yet, but the pretty mountains of Scotland started early. And we also thought that the narrow roads in the middle of nowhere wouldn't start quite yet, but we got down to business right away. 

Despite the Falls of Acharn being "in the heart of town", in order to get to this "town", we ended up going straight up a mountain (with warning signs about needing to have small cars and not to take this route in winter) and we were all alone on this narrow "road" with incredible scenery. It was a delightful surprise for our first excursion in Scotland.

The road to the Falls of Acharn (yep, that's not a driveway, that's a road!)

We finally got the one street village of Acharn and parked and started our 1.5 mile hike to see the falls. In order to see the falls, you have to walk through a cave called "The Hermitage". I don't know if a hermit actually lived there at one point or what, but I like to imagine there was a hermit who lived there and got to stare at a waterfall all day long. Unfortunately, the falls weren't really doing much besides a trickle, but it was still fun to walk through a cave to get there. There was also a gorge full of rapids and bridges crossing the gorge so it was a very pretty hike.

Acharn Hike

From there, we tried to find a local stone circle, but we couldn't find it. Boo! Then we drove to something in our notes called "Hermitage near Dunkeld walk to Ossians Hall".

Apparently, back in the 1700s or 1800s, a local Duke wanted to create a "pleasure garden and walk" and basically made a large park to entertain him. It was a lovely 3-ish mile hike, past waterfalls and rapids and super old magical forests. 

There was a building called Ossian's Folly (basically a fake building to show off his wealth) and also a manmade area called Ossian's Cave, also called The Hermitage. Again, I'm not sure if a hermit lived in the cave or not, but I'm pretending the Duke followed the weird tradition at the time of hiring someone to be a hermit in your pleasure gardens. Aristocrats were really bored and weird back then. 

Looking at the Waterfall from Ossian's Folly 

Pretty waterfall!

After the hike, we made sure to drive past Meichleour Beech hedges, which are HUGE and super old hedges along the road for a short distance. They were really cool but there wasn't a good place to stop to take pictures.  Here's one from our friend google:

Then, it was time to crash at our airbnb and try out a new-to-us whisky, which was recommended to us from a local we met at the grocery store. It was a delightful first day in Scotland!