Christmas Tea at Edinburgh Castle: A Festive Treat or Just Regular Afternoon Tea?

24/02/202627/07/2026wareontheglobe Leave a comment

Christmas Tea. Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

When we visited Edinburgh for Hogmanay, I could not resist booking a “Christmas Tea” at Edinburgh Castle. It sounded magical. We reserved and paid for the tea in advance, excited for a festive afternoon surrounded by holiday cheer. The experience turned out to be fun and fine—though not quite as Christmasy as I’d hoped or imagined. It ended up being more of a regular tea, just taking place during the Christmas season. In this post, I’ll share all the details of our Edinburgh Castle Christmas Tea and what to expect if you’re planning to go yourself! And side note, I am pretty sure the Edinburgh Castle Tea is very similar to the Christmas Tea year round, so read this before booking any Edinburgh Castle Tea experience.

In front of Edinburgh Castle. You cannot get past the entrance gate without a ticket.

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New Years Dinner at Cannonball Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland!

19/12/202530/06/2026wareontheglobe 1 Comment

As you may know, Dan and I spent last New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh, Scotland for Hogmanay – Scotland’s New Year holiday. Despite Hogmanay being a huge overnight street party with food, drinks, and vendors, we opted to book a formal sit down New Year’s Eve dinner in Edinburgh for actual New Year’s Eve dinner, as we were concerned about the cold and the weather. Turns out, booking that dinner was a GREAT idea, as Hogmanay was largely cancelled two days before the holiday due to high winds (note – we booked over a month in advance of the cancellation). This posts details our New Year’s Eve tasting menu at Cannonball Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dan & I on Hogmanay in Edinburgh. This was at a pub before dinner.

Located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, literally steps down from Edinburgh Castle’s main entrance, Cannonball Restaurant is set inside a 17th century building called the Cannonball House. It’s quite easy to locate. According to the restaurant, it is the former townhome of the First Duke Gordon and is also home to Scotland’s oldest door knocker. For most tourists purposes, however, it boasts a cosy cocktail and whiskey bar and a formal restaurant serving local fare.

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Highlights of Glasgow, Scotland during Hogmanay

22/07/202530/06/2026wareontheglobe 1 Comment

The Duke of Wellington, Glasgow, Scotland.

After spending Hogmanay in Edinburgh last year, we spent New Year’s Day and January 2nd (also a holiday in Scotland!) in Glasgow, Scotland. And while Glasgow may have somewhat of a “rough reputation”, especially compared to other Scottish destinations, we spent two nights here because (1) we needed to take the train from Glasgow to London to catch our flight home, (2) many things are closed in Scotland on January 2nd (in addition to the 1st!), and (3) our friend’s grandparents met in Glasgow, so he wanted to see a bit of the city. Glasgow surprised me in a good way in that it had much more to offer than I expected, and I wish that we’d had a more time (or more normal time when things weren’t closed for Hogmanay) to explore the city. This post highlights my favorite things that we did in Glasgow, in no particular order. It, however, excludes our a wonderful food tour that we took, which you can read about here!

THE IRISH INFLUENCE IN GLASGOW (& KITTY O’SHEA’S PUB)

The most interesting thing that I learned about Glasgow is that there is a very strong Irish presence there. In fact, I learned that my friend’s Irish grandparents met in Glasgow, despite being from Ireland (and no, not Northern Ireland), and we were in town for the show down between the local Celtics (Catholic/Irish) football team and the local Rangers (Protestant/Unionist) football team. That match was a big deal, with lots of police out and about to deter the inevitable bar fights. And, we visited an authentic Irish pub called Kitty O’Shea’s, which is right next to Glasgow Central station. Kitty O’Sheas is extremely Irish, and it pours a delicious Guinness. Our waitress was even from Ireland and provided some more background on Irish influence and culture in Glasgow. Super fascinating.

Kitty O’Shea’s Irish pub.

A great Guinness pour at Kitty O’Shea’s.

Lots of Irish snugs in Kitty O’Shea’s. Just like Ireland. This one was pretty funny.

Irish fans outside a pub watching football match.

GLASGOW’S DUKE OF WELLINGTON STATUTE

Another fun thing about Glasgow is its infamous Duke of Wellington statute. The Duke of Wellington is a statute of the First Duke of Wellington on a horse outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art. Since the 1980s, the Duke always finds himself with an orange traffic cone on his head, compliments on drunk passers-by. The Duke is unofficially the mascot of Glasgow. You can find him on magnets, t-shirts, etc., LOL.

The Duke of Ellington, himself.

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Restaurant Review: Dinner at Dishoom, Edinbough

04/05/202530/06/2026wareontheglobe Leave a comment

I absolutely love, nay, LOVE, Indian food. Dan doesn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I do but luckily for me, someone recommended Dishoom to Dan before our trip to Scotland (and London), so I had an excuse to reserve a table. In sum, and while Dishoom has been written about many, many, many times, our meal was fantastic and it is absolutely worth the hype.

Dishoom – the UK’s most famous Indian restaurant

Dishoom is a chain of 13 (currently) Indian restaurants in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2010, Dishoom is often described as “Indian street food” and was designed to feel like “an Irani cafe popular in Mumbai in the 1960s”. The founders left the business in 2017, but Dishoom is still incredibly popular and totally delicious. And, rumor has it that Dishoom is opening a location in New York in 2026…

Restaurant Review: Dinner at Dishoom, Edinbough

Edinburgh’s Dishoom.

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A Hogmanay Food Tour Through Glasgow On January 2nd!

29/04/202529/04/2025wareontheglobe Leave a comment

Our second stop on our Hogmanay tour of Scotland was Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow. Unlike Edinburgh, Glasgow is not a charming European city with castles and ancient things; rather, Glasgow is a fairly modern city with a large university and numerous factories. It struck me as a real working town, in a great way. Along those lines, Glasgow has a reputation as being gritty and, in places, somewhat dangerous, and I probably would have skipped Glasgow all together had we not (1) needed to catch the train to London from Glasgow Central and (2) our friend’s grandparents met in Glasgow before immigrating to North America and he wanted to see the city. These two points pushed me into staying two nights in Glasgow. Due to both of our evenings being public holidays (yes, January 1st and 2nd are public holidays in Scotland), I didn’t get the complete Glasgow experience, but I did take a food tour with a lovely local, ate lots of delicious food and learned a decent bit of Glasgow history. I enjoyed Glasgow quite a bit and would like to return and explore further. This post describes the food tour that we took through Glasgow – my favorite way to see a city!

At Glasgow’s Brown’s Brasserie on the food tour. I loved the little palms.

STOP ONE: VEGAN HAGGIS AT A LOCAL BREWERY

Our first stop on our Glasgow food tour was at one of Scotland’s most well-known breweries, Innis & Gunn, for a beer and, dun dun dun, Haggis! Before diving into the main event (i.e., the Haggis), Innis & Gunn is a well known Scottish Brewery that makes, most famously, a slightly sweet, velvety beer aged in Single Malt Whisky casks. And while I usually hate beer (or anything) aged in whisky barrels, I do enjoy this beer! The brand Innis & Gunn was created in Scotland way back in 2003 and its an OG craft beer. Of course, our meal began with a half-pint of Innis & Gunn’s original brew, called, appropriately, the “Original”. As expected, the Original was incredibly smooth and quite tasty (despite being aged in whisky casks)!

Innis & Gunn’s Glasgow City Centre location. It’s right near Glasgow Central.

A Hogmanay Food Tour Through Glasgow On January 2nd!

Clearly had a big Hogmanay celebration.

Innis & Gunn’s Original.

Moving on from Innis & Gunn’s noteworthy beer, our tour guide advised that the first tasting of the tour would be … Haggis! I was not particularly excited to sample Haggis again, but this was a vegan version (i.e., no meat!), so I was game to sample it. The Vegan Haggis was served in fried ball form, paired with a homemade brown “chippy sauce”. Being honest, I much, much, much preferred the vegan version to the real Haggis that I tried back in Edinburgh. I would actually order this version again! Point one for the food tour, as I would have never ordered Vegan Haggis on my own. The Vegan Haggis paired very well with the Chippy Sauce. Definitely give this a try if you want to try Haggis but are scared…or even if you just find yourself at Innis & Gunn. Even the meat lovers on our tour praised the dish.

Vegan Haggis with a Brown Chippy Sauce.

The full sampling at Innis & Gunn.

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