If you’re driving towards Edinburgh you might use the motorways or choose to spend some quality time by going for a scenic route to Edinburgh.
This was my case just a month ago, at the beginning of April 2023. I was driving from Liverpool to Edinburgh and chose to leave the M74 for A72 to Peebles to see some ruins from a castle, then to A703, and finally to reach the famous A701 to the Scottish capital city.
Scenic route to Edinburgh
You’ll find many of them if you’re searching the internet for a scenic route to Edinburgh. We’ll stay with the one described above, but feel free to click the upper link to discover what more you can see in the area.
As we’re talking about Scotland, and the timing is the beginning of April we can say we were lucky with the weather. Not the best for landscape photography, but at least I had good visibility. The grey cloudy sky got its appeal, but I would have preferred blue, to be honest.
As driving from Liverpool, after about two hours I left M74 to head to A701. I choose to have a short diversion from the route to see the ruins of Horsburgh Castle. The landscape is perfect for photography, but the ruins have nothing spectacular in my opinion.
So if you don’t have to be there, I don’t recommend going the distance special for this one. Only if you’re in the area, then it is a pity to miss it. For the full scenery only:
Heading to this one, I passed a sign indicating Neidpath Castle. This wasn’t in my plans, and I knew nothing about it. Off course I stopped, and took a photo. I read a big announcement saying that visiting the Neidpath Castle is possible only with an appointment.
I am dropping a link here in case you want to know more about this castle.
Now, back to our trip. Next, I stopped a few times to shoot the roads near Peebles. I found it very appealing, the presence of blooming yellow daffodils on both sides of the road.
Next, I am sharing with you more pics with some views from this scenic route to Edinburgh. On this trip, I used my best compact travel camera – Sony RX100 VII. If you like the quality of the image you can check the review I wrote for this camera.
For my blog posts, I am resizing the images to help the page load faster. If you want to see the pictures in full resolution to have a better idea about the camera’s image quality, you might check them on my pexels account. You can download and use them for free if needed, or just just check the quality.
So, here are some more pics from the A72 to A701 to Edinburgh:
I also find it fascinating that people choose to live so isolated, far from facilities like hospitals and shopping centers. But I am guessing that this family inherited the land and the house, and they are living as they got used to.
I have no idea, but the scenery makes it worth it:
Conclusion
Heading to our destinations is a day-by-day activity for most of us, especially when driving. But if you got some time to spend, then it is worthing to skip the fast motorways for the more scenic routes.
This is my case when not in a hurry, and I am recommending everyone to do the same.
Fast is not always good. Take your time to enjoy even the busiest days, if possible. After all, life is as beautiful as we make it for ourselves 😉