Flat Stanley Comes to Scotland - A Blog for Luke

This is the 7th Flat Stanley that has visited me. Flat Stanley comes from a children's book about a little boy who is flattened. He makes lemonade with the lemons life gave him and decides that because he is flat, he can travel easily around the world in envelopes. Flat Stanley came to Scotland this year! Did you know that the national animal of Scotland is the unicorn? We live in Aberdeen, which is known as the "granite city" due to the granite found here and that the majority of buildings are made with it! 

Flat Stanley saw many places during his visit to Scotland. We went to many castles traveling along the cliff sides that overlook the North Sea. The North Sea surface water ranges from about 34-54 degrees. It's very cold water!

Our first stop was Dunnotar Castle. Dunnotar has been around for over 1000 years! That's really old, Luke. Important battles were fought here during the Dark Ages.

Now, we couldn't let Flat Stanley starve, so we took him to a few cafes for lunch/dinner. The one below had some pretty neat paintings on the building.

I think Flat Stanley was trying to call you, Luke. I guess you didn't recognize the number.

Next, we took a look around Drum Castle (below). Drum Castle was the home of the Irvine Family from 1323 to 1975. This one is pretty old too, eh?

This is the front of Drum Castle.

After exploring Drum Castle, we went to Crathes Castle (pronounced "crath-is" like the word "is" sounds). This castle was built for the Burnetts of Leys who lived there for over 350 years. They like to keep things in the family around here.

Enough castles! Flat Stanley wanted some activity, so we decided to hike up Scolty Hill. It took about an hour to get to the top in the snow. The snow in some places was a foot or more deep!

There is the tower on top of Scolty Hill. We are almost to the top!

From the top, you can see the Cairngorm Mountains!

That little town down there is Banchory (pronounced like "Bankory")

 Our last stop was Slains Castle. This castle is said to be the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's Dracula! OOooo... spooky! It's perched on some amazing cliffs and gets pretty windy.

Check out the cliffs you can see from one of the windows!

This shows you how big the cliffs are here. See how small I am over there?

There is Slains Castle in the background.

I'm so happy that Flat Stanley got to visit us while we are living here. I hope that you enjoy the pictures, Luke!