by Pam Poulsen and Laurin Wittig

Someone had to do it. Really. It was a public service, so, good self-sacrificing human beings that we are, we took up the gauntlet—well, maybe the place tickets—left our husbands and children behind and took ourselves off to the auld country. Scotland. We couldn’t expect to send a whole tour over there without someone testing the premise first, now could we? In an effort to serve our home chapter, we collected our questions, checked our research shelves for the vast holes in our libraries and headed across the pond. Here’s what we learned:

Getting There:

Sitting on the tarmac at Kennedy for two hours isn’t much fun. Take another obsessed writer with you to talk to. You may not get much sleep but you will feed each others’ curiosity (and you can trade the parts of your meal you don’t want).

Try not to look at the road when you take your first ride on the left. It’s really not very helpful if you shriek “Watch out!” every time you turn a corner into the “wrong” lane.

There are sheep everywhere. Watch your step.

In many ways Scotland looks and feels a lot like the U.S., except for the bathrooms (much cleaner), the highways (much narrower), and the castles (much older).

Castles:

Don’t expect the locals to know about the wonderful castle you’re on your way to see. When asking about a castle a few miles up the road, we were told by a shopkeeper, “Oh, are you talking about the ruins? I never go to the ruins.” Blasphemy.

Castles are frequently smaller than you would expect. Nowhere do you feel this more clearly than while climbing a narrow turnstile (circular) stair, barely wider than a braw lad’s shoulders and without railings. We wondered how many drunks lost their footing inside these things.

It was hard to imagine real people (except for the aforesaid drunks) in the castles—until we discovered the privies. Somehow the tiny window over a drafty seat and a niche in the wall, head high, just right for a sputtering candle, brought the ghostly inhabitants to life for us. Go figure.

Changes in a castle’s architecture baffled us until we heard an ancient voice whispering “Dear, I’d really rather that door be over there.” Suddenly, the changes each new inhabitant to the castle had made made sense. Remodeling isn’t a modern phenomenon.

Things to Take With You:

Take a pair of comfortable shoes. No, take two pair. Preferably waterproof. Also see above: sheep.

Film. Take lots. Take more than you think you will need.

Suitcases. Pack an extra one. We needed it to bring back all the books we bought. Oh yeah, and souvenirs. On the subject of books. Buy as many as you can at the Historical Scotland gift shops found in many castles. Not only do they carry books not easily found in the U.S., but we found them to be much cheaper than elsewhere, too.

Notebook. Take one for a journal. Good luck keeping up with it. We finished writing about the trip around a week after we got back.

Tape recorder. If you are going to do research (and you are, of course, right? This is a business trip. Right?) take Denise McInerney’s suggestion (we did) and take along a small tape recorder. Many times you will find fascinating detailed information on plaques and signs around the castles that is not in any of the guidebooks or other reference material. You can spend you whole trip writing this stuff down, or you can read it outloud to yourself. Your choice.

Binoculars. If you like bird watching definitely take a pair; even if you don’t like the birdies, many times you can’t get close to the detail around the doorway on the third floor of a castle, (because you are looking at it from ground level, the upper floors long since rotted away) and the binoculars would be helpful.

Flashlight. Get a small flashlight, one that will fit in your purse and keep it with you at all times. Why, you ask? Good question. There are many dark corners and tucked away places in old castles. A little illumination in these cases is very helpful, especially on rainy days.

Surprisingly, few of the questions we had carefully prepared to research were actually answered. What we discovered instead was a deep love for the chilly, windy, endlessly varied country that is Scotland, and a hands-on feel for the history that is many times older than our own. Was it worthwhile, then? Absolutely!

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Pam Poulsen is a Golden Heart Finalist for her paranormal manuscript, For All Time, and is now hard at work on a Scottish historical. Laurin Wittig is also hard at work on a Scottish historical. They are already planning their return trip to Scotland.