Haggis seems to be served in many incarnations. My favorite variation is not actually haggis, as it is vegetarian haggis -- grains, veggies and seasoning. All the flavor without the ewww factor. The dish last night was a haggis stack: a thin layer of haggis at the base, then neeps & tatties layered on top. Sort of a haggis trifle, if you will. Quite tasty. I've yet to have one served sewn into the sheep stomach.
We ate at the Sheep's Heid, (pronounced "heed" as in "Heed, pants, now." Our favorite line from So I Married an Axe Murderer.) Scotland's oldest surviving pub, 1360. From our house at the edge of Holyrood Park (Arthur's Seat), we can walk one of two roads around the hill to Duddingston, where the pub is located on the edge of the small village. Because we were enjoying a tropical heat wave of 73 F, it was a lovely walk in late afternoon. Caroline joined us under duress, but within 1/2 mile or so, she had forgotten that she hated us and was enjoying the family time.
The multiple adorable bunny sightings helped the mood. The bunnies seem to love the shadowy areas under the thorny gorse bushes, which are now covered in small bright yellow flowers. The bunny holes lined the sides of the hills under the bushes and the mile and a half walk took a good 45 minutes to stop and awwwww over the bunnies.
We took the higher road, ending the walk with a hike down to the Duddingston. Prestonfield Golf Club is below, and the views of the course are spectacular. Leading into the village from the park is a long, beautiful set of rough stairs bordered by an old stone wall on one side and more flowering bushes and budding trees on the other.
When you walk into a pub as a family, the first order of business is to inquire if they serve children in the restaurant. At the Sheep's Heid, that is upstairs. It's hard to look like a local when you have to ask where the restaurant is ...
After dinner, we walked home on the lower road, enjoying the bunnies and views again. Just outside the village, the family good mood almost came to a traumatic conclusion. About 5 feet above the road, on the side of the hill, two bunnies were hopping around the outside of their den. Watching them from a few feet off was a perfectly still black & white cat. We had to stop to watch the drama. That cat did not so much as twitch, sitting perfectly positioned to pounce the three or so feet. As we watched, one bunny quickly returned to the den, but its sibling seemed oblivious and even turned its back to the cat.
I whispered to Daryl that if that bunny either sprang into the path of a car or was caught by the cat, we were going to have an awful time with Janie! We were all rooting for the bunny to get back in the hole. The bunny suddenly darted back into the den, and the cat took up a slightly less obvious position just behind the nearby tree. But he was just as alert and poised to pounce. He seemed to know he was waiting in a perfect place for bunny pouncing.
As we circled back around the base of Arthur's Seat to get home, we noticed a tunnel opening below us that led out onto bike paths. The tunnel was open for pedestrians and bikes so we walked its chilly length to arrive at a street just outside the Park and very close to home. It is called the Innocent Railway Tunnel and was the first in Scotland, possibly in Britain.
http://www.thetraveleditor.com/article/1913/Things_to_do_Activity_Walks_Innocent_Railway_Tunnel.html
Next up: haggis IN the stomach .... or not.
