23rd August to 27th August 2023
This was a bit of a bucket list trip. I have always wanted to see the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and as a Christmas gift, my kids bought Moira and I tickets for the penultimate performance of 2023 on 26th Aug. As the Tattoo coincides with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival I booked the closest campsite I could find as soon as I was able. This was back in Dec 2022 as I wanted make sure we had a place to stay.
But first we had an errand to run. Daughter number three and her partner were attending a wedding in the Lake District on the 24th Aug and needed someone to look after their dog whilst they were at the function. So we agreed to take a diversion on our trip to Edinburgh, to small place called Lorton, near Cockermouth. We found that a local pub was happy to accept a two night stop-over. They have a few static caravans around the back of the pub and an area where we could park up the motorhome and plug in. The pub was the Wheatsheaf Inn in Lorton.
The food at the pub was great. I can recommend the Pig Sty Burger – superb, and Moira’s lasagne looked good too – pity she ate every last scrap or I would tell you what it was like. The site is a bit more than a pub stop-over but not quite a developed campsite. There was electric hook-up and a toilet block open 24/7 but I would class it as “for emergency use only”.
Errand completed, we headed to Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Club Campsite. As you can see from the map, the site is a few miles from the city centre, but the site has a shuttle bus that runs every half hour to take you into the city and even back from the Tattoo after each performance. So we enjoyed the tranquillity of Silverknowles Beach and the Firth of Forth just along the road and the convenience of easy access to the Royal Mile – perfect. Oh, almost forgot to mention. If you’re a commercial plane spotter this site is on the flight plan into Edinburgh airport. I spent some interesting time identifying planes from around the world using the Flight 24 app on my phone.
On the Saturday morning we headed into the city using the shuttle mini-bus. We strolled around Princes Street and the Royal Mile from the Parliament Building to the Castle and found places we had missed on previous visits. As it was the final day of the Fringe Festival we did partake of a show. A Scottish comedian called Ian TC and his show – “Bad in Bed”. He was really funny. I hope he gets his chance on a bigger stage at some point soon.
But the real focus of the trip was the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Our show started at 6:15 (the final show of the year followed afterwards). What a superb spectacle of Scotland at it’s very best. If you like the emotion that massed pipes and drums creates, as I do, then there is no better place to experience it. The goosebumps didn’t stop whilst the bagpipes played – what an unique and truly moving sound they make when played en-masse. This year there were also the American, Swiss, Norwegian and Jamaican military on show. The Swiss and Norwegians were very polished, even better than the Brits, but the Jamaican’s, well it felt more like a Scat Jazz performance than a military manoeuvre but fun nonetheless.
Here are a few photos :
Round trip distance 587 miles according to google maps.