We in Scotland are famous for our castles and our history, tourism figures prove that, and the resilience of that attraction is borne out by the numbers of people who still visited even during the recent and now exhausted outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease.
is incredible. This is enhanced by the romantic views of Scotland portrayed by our famed authors, such as Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and latterly by the late great Nigel Tranter. As a nation we have also been incredibly inventive, where would we be now without telephones, televisions, pneumatic tyres, penicillin and a host of other essential inventions. We haven't yet claimed responsibility for the wheel or fire, but no doubt we are working on improving them!
But back to the tourism, the images portrayed by the Royal castles of Edinburgh and Stirling upon their volcanic stacks with the rolling hills of the highlands in the background, the clans and their highland fortresses, the injustice and romance of many a true and fictitious tale set in this contrasting country of ours, all fire the imagination.
No where else in the world could you walk out in a rain storm and say it adds to the atmosphere. Such is the beauty 
of this land, that where ever you go (even in the cities!) you are in sight of rolling green hills, castles or the sites of castles, and the history hangs around you like an old friend welcoming you to it's home.
From small insignificant farmhouses 
which still carry the signs of early fortification, to sprawling fortress castles of the nobility, you will pass them whichever road you travel, and if you don't see them, you can almost sense that they had been there. It captivates appreciative natives as much as it does the tourist, the surprise being that so many of us have left in the past, and will in the future.
It is because of this attraction and web contact through our common, yet diverse interest in castles, that I met Ralph and Megan Duncan, who came for a visit to sample this atmosphere. We are now firm friends, and I have much to thank this old country of mine for. Ralph asked me to write a bit about Scottish Castles for his web page, he got this. No doubt through visiting his web page, you will sense his enthusiasm for this country of ours (since it belongs as much to those who live in it ..the lucky ones, as to the descendants of, and those who left). Such enthusiasm is infectious, and so I needn't write about the castles, you will want to explore them for yourselves.