On Saturday we started our 7 day Haggis tour of Scotland. After a quick tour though new and old Edinburgh it was off to Dunkeld Cathedral and Town to have a quick glance at the cathedral, then it was off to the town of Kingussie for lunch. We went to Culloden Battlefield where the Bonnie Prince Charley of Scotland was defeated by the Brits, a battle which changed Scotland and clan life forever. The Scot’s lost horribly and the British decided that it was then illegal to wear the kilt, carry weapons, and harbor Scottish Jacobites, this forced a mass emigration from Scotland over to Ireland and America, because the Highland Clansmen could no longer live their normal way of life without weapons to hunt for food. I have to say that the prince was insane and picked the worst, flattest area to fight, which was detrimental because the Highlanders had heavy weapons and only knew how to attack by ambush and by propelling themselves down the mountain sides. We also visited Clava Cairns, a druid Stonehenge like place. This one is famous because it contains the split rock which the book series by Diana Gabaldon, “The Outlander”, was based off of to propel the protagonist from the 20th century back into the 1740’s. I have to say, I highly recommend the book, I’m only 100 pages in and in love, plus it’s amazing to read about a place and then visit it, it’s like I am living in the book. We drove through Inverness onward to Carbisdale Castle for our overnight. Nothing like sleeping in a haunted castle overnight, I am not sure if the children’s giggles I head in the restroom were the ghosts or the German schoolgirls sleeping in the room across from it, but according to Scottish tales it’s haunted by murdered children ghosts, the Duchess of Southerland, and a man.
Day two was off to explore the highlands, we stopped at Clottie Well, where people tie a piece of a sick loved one’s clothing to a tree and as the clothing disintegrates so does the sickness. By the looks of the mostly intact clothing, I am not sure it works but who knows. Then it was off to Loch Ness to hunt for Nessie. A little blurb about Loch Ness; it’s the biggest body of fresh water in the UK; used to be connected to the sea until a glacier cut it off in the ice age; it contains a type of arctic char that has adapted to a fresh water fish; they have ferrox a type of cannibalistic trout; it’s a perma-dark lake due to peat; and its 4 degrees Celsius year round. We also saw Urquhart Castle and Fort William which had St. Andrew’s Church. We drove through the Glen Nevis region and saw beautiful waterfalls due to the liquid sunshine, the mountain Ben Nevis, and the mound used in the film Braveheart, where Mel Gibson yelled for a free Scotland. On our way to Fort Agustus to sleep we stopped in at a floating pub in the Laggen Lochs. In fact on the drive we saw all four lochs (lakes) in the Glen Nevis region, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, Loch Lochey, and the sea Loch Lenny. That night at the hostel in Fort Agustus we participated in an overly long and drawn out pub quiz that most of us ended up dropping out of just because it was taking too long, but the local Black Isle Beer was delicious (and it’s organic).
On the bus we learned about the Scottish weather; it’s either glorious, atmospheric, or dramatic, and it’s liquid sunshine, not rain, as others would call it. In two days we have had much liquid sunshine. I’m hoping once we exit the highlands in a few days we will get a bit more sun and not the liquid kind. I also wouldn’t mind trying more Uskabey or Whisky or The Water of Life, mmmmm….
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