Scotland Road Trip to Craigievar Castle + Fife

After our Scotland road trip to the Isle of Skye, there were still a few things I wanted to make sure we saw in person before we left! One was the coastal towns in Fife and the other was the Craigievar Castle! So we decided to rent a care just for a day and pack as much as we could into our last opportunity to see Scotland - at least for now!

Craigievar Castle is about a 3 hour drive from Edinburgh. I know, I know - this is far. But when we switched up our road trip to be a round trip from Edinburgh instead of a loop all around Scotland - Colin promised he would take me… and likely regretted that promise, haha. I will say though that our girls are really good car riders. As long as we have snacks and shows, they hardly make a peep from the back row so that for sure contributes to us being able to plan day trips like this one!

Craigievar Castle is a 7 story pink, picturesque castle nestled in fields of cows and pastures. It was finished in 1626 - after 50 years of building! It was originally cream but then some resurfacing done in 1824 is what gave it the distinctly pink coloration. You are able to take tours of the instead of it as well.

I wanted to go because its so cute, and I had shown a picture to Charlotte before arriving in Scotland and she LOVED it. So as a momma, I wanted to show my girl a pink castle up close. When we got there, it was raining… pretty hard. At this point it was a little comical that after our drive up it was raining, so we went out and realized that we were also the only ones there - because of the rain, haha! We snapped a few photos, Charlotte was beyond thrilled by the size of the castle and we hopped back in the car to eat lunch at a McDonalds down the road. I feel like the reality of traveling is that we can’t control the weather. So though I was a little bummed we didn’t get to spend more time there like I had imagined, I was thankful we got to go and was ready for our next stop of the day!

We drove about 2 hours after lunch to the area of Fife! There are lots of little towns here, but due to daylight savings time and it getting darker much earlier than it had a week before, we decided to head to a viewpoint before backtracking about 15 minutes for dinner.

I had only seen a photo of Ruby Bay but it looked beautiful so we headed right there! We were SO thankful that the rain had cleared and we got to experience the most beautiful sunset right there by the lighthouse. Again, we were completely alone and honestly had the most magical time letting the girls run around and get dirty, while Colin snapped photos of our surroundings with the most beautiful golden hour light - his happy place. If you are in Edinburgh and need an easy and quick trip out of the city - GO HERE. You will not regret it.

On our way back to dinner, we passed the St. Monans Windmill before making our way to the HIGHLY recommended Anstruthers Fish Bar in Anstuther, Scotland. This place has been recognized for their fish and chips for years and it felt like a no brainer to stop and give them a try. Of course, we were not disappointed. If you find yourself on the coast, make sure to add a meal here to your list.

And with that, we headed back to return our rental car and took a taxi back into the city! Day trips are fun for us because we can cram a lot in, but then sleep in our own beds and have a slow morning the following day. These kinds of days may not work for your family, but I hope you can can a stop or two from our experience and add it to your own itinerary!