My trip to Scotland was so great that I'm probably going to break it up into a lot of sections--mainly because I think it would take hours to type everything up in one post! So, this stretches it out for me--and you! As always, you can click on any picture to make it bigger.
But first--here's a little vocabulary lesson.
Loch=Lake
Glen=Valley
"Inver"=At the Mouth of--so, Inverness means at the mouth of the river Ness
When you have a Loch like Loch Alsh, the town that corresponds is Lochalsh, the town of Glen Coe is called Glencoe.
Kyle=Straight
Everyone ready? Here we go...
Thursday afternoon I had class at 1:30, then my train for Edinburgh left Oxford at 4:52. After a long night of traveling I finally got to Edinburgh around 11:15. What amazed me about Edinburgh was the fact that I hiked out of the train station and right in front of me was this huge castle on a hill, lit up against the sky. I knew there was the castle, and I'd seen pictures, but I didn't expect it to dominate the skyline the way it did! It was the first thing I saw! I got to the hotel, got checked in, and went to sleep! My tour left at 8:00 the next morning.
Friday I woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then checked out to head off on my tour. I got a little turned around trying to get to the touring company's office, but everyone I spoke to was so nice and helpful--one woman on her way to work actually stopped and walked with me until I got there! Talk about a warm welcome!
Once I got to the ScotLine office and checked in, the driver said to me, "Well, I'm going to take you as far as (insert unintelligible Scottish name here)." That freaked me out, because I paid to be taken everywhere on the tour--not to have to find my own way around! It turns out that my three-day tour was actually a series of three individual day-tours strung together, which worked out fine, but that's not how it was advertised. So the first day I was with a large group going on a day trip from Edinburgh to Loch Ness, then I met up with a driver who took me to Inverness. The second day I was on a day trip to the Isle of Skye, and the third day I was on a day trip to see the area around Inverness before meeting up with another large group at Loch Ness and driving back to Edinburgh.
Background aside, here's what happened.
We drove via Stirling and a little village called Killmahog.
Here's a picture of a very blurry Stirling castle up on the hill-we only saw it from the road, we didn't stop.
Near Stirling Castle is the Wallace Memorial to commemorate William Wallace. You might know Wallace from Braveheart, but from all I've learned over the weekend, Mel Gibson and the real Wallace were nothing alike. I think the filmmaker's heart was in the right place, though. Wallace was definitely considered a really important patriot by the Scottish people.
Next we stopped at the Killmahog visitor's center for a break and some breakfast. They had three Highland Cows near the visitor's center...this one is Heather.
Next we drove through Rannoch Moor--the start of the Highlands--and stopped at Glen Coe, the site of the famous Glen Coe Massacre. Basically, the MacDonalds lived in Glen Coe, and when the King required the heads of all the clans to sign allegiance to the king, the head of the MacDonald clan was late. He still signed the agreement, but the king took his tardiness as a sign of disloyalty, and ordered the Campbell Clan to kill the MacDonalds. So the Campbells headed over to Glen Coe (Each clan lived in a Glen) but a huge snowstorm came up and caused problems. Highland tradition dictates that you let anyone into your home, friend or foe, in the case of bad weather. So the MacDonalds let the Campbells in to stay with them for the duration of the storm. The Campbells stayed for 11 days, then killed 38 MacDonald men. Another 40 or so died of exposure after their houses were destroyed.
That's why they say, "O Cruel is the Snow that sweeps Glen Coe."
And now they have a piper there piping away for tourists--it also makes for really good photographs.
After a lunch stop in Fort William, we made a quick trip to the Commando Memorial, which is built to honor the Scottish Commando forces of WWII. It overlooks the Great Glen and gives views of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. It was raining at this point, so we only stopped for about five minutes.
Our last stop of the day was Urquhart Castle, the ruined castle on the banks of Loch Ness. At this point I'm thinking you probably need a break from all that history, and I have laundry I have to go check on. Now that I've effectively pulled you in to my gripping narrative, I'll leave you with this picture of the castle in hopes that you'll come back later to finish the story!
Lots of love,
Sarah
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