Scottish Highland Fling
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Hi all,
Well we found ourselves with a week's break; half term holidays they call it in the schools over here, so we packed up the car and headed up to Scotland. Peak time for tourism in Scotland is June through to September it seems, so we thought we'd be sneaky and do it a little cheaper in off-peak time (didn't count on accommodation being closed did we...that story later).
Well we've headed up for 8 or 9 days, with the original intention to do some camping and save a little on accommodation as we travelled around the coast of Scotland. Ha ha ha ha ha, we soon came to realise that camping would not be an option when we first drove into Scotland to scenery like this:
While this is the closest we've been so far to such a great deal of snow, it is pretty chilly all the same, so camping is off the agenda. We bought this little pop-up tent too, it'll have to do us when we head over to Europe.
We decided to bypass Glasgow on the way in. Not sure if we'll regret that later, but I figured one city is sometimes the same as the next. Though we will head into Edinburgh at the end of our trip. Our first stop was Stirling Castle. Famous for the patriotic William Wallace (Braveheart fame) and his stand against the invading English. The battle happened at Stirling Bridge, with the intention to win back the castle to Scottish ownership. As you can see in the pictures below, it's how you would imagine a castle to look, stonework, turrets, archers windows, an arched entry (but no porticullis), cobbled courtyards, and cannons on the battlements; really a beautiful piece of history.
Stirling was the home of the Scottish Kings and Queens (including the famous Mary Queen of Scots) for many years. Unfortunately the castle is not entirely authentic, having been rebuilt to match the original after many battles throughout history resulted in the last inhabitants destroying the castle so that it could no longer be under seige from enemies. All the same, it was pretty amazing to stand in the banquet hall and stare up at the timber beams criss crossing the ceiling and to think that kings and queens dined in here while musicians played on the higher deck you can see in the background.
From here we headed to the seaside town called Oban, on the West Coast. This is the gateway to a great number of islands in the region, which unfortunately we did not have the time to visit. We took a chance at a backpackers for that night, and it was.....interesting. We got a private room with a double bed, the tiniest double bed you can imagine. Other than that the room was fine, apart from the other residents talking in the stairwell late at night (paper thin walls obviously), and one drunk loner stumbling along the road out of town (and passed our window) groaning and moaning (it sounded like he was dragging a broken leg or something, given the sounds coming out of his mouth - no broken leg though, just broken brain to alcohol). So, with Glen and I sleeping with shoulders overlapped and fingers stuffed in our ears, we finally did get some sleep that night.
The next day we headed off again, not before it began to snow lightly. Little cotton-like fragments floating down from the sky, mingled with rain. Was a bit exciting to see! Further along the road there was a some older snow lying around and Glen couldn't resist a wee frollick to throw some snowballs.
Continuing along the way, we stopped at Fort William and marvelled at the size of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain peak in mainland Britain.
Apparently the average relatively fit person can walk it, five hours up and two back. We weren't going to try it in the snow...
Look at these critters we saw along the way:
Deer lazing in a field.
We continued on to a town called Glenfiddan. This is another historically famous location, where The Bonny Prince Charlie took a stand to regain the Scottish throne from the English (I believe it's something along those lines. Honestly, there has been so much conflict, invasion and battle between the Scottish and the English over the course of history, it's a wonder they still get along).
TRIVIA: Glenfiddan is also home to this famous scene - can you guess what movie it's from? (Answer is after the photo, leave a comment if your guessed correctly please!)
HINT 1: look at my dodgy impression of the occupation of the characters in these films...
HINT 2: In the films the countryside is far more verdant, I guess they didn't shoot in winter then. hey?
Well we found ourselves with a week's break; half term holidays they call it in the schools over here, so we packed up the car and headed up to Scotland. Peak time for tourism in Scotland is June through to September it seems, so we thought we'd be sneaky and do it a little cheaper in off-peak time (didn't count on accommodation being closed did we...that story later).
Well we've headed up for 8 or 9 days, with the original intention to do some camping and save a little on accommodation as we travelled around the coast of Scotland. Ha ha ha ha ha, we soon came to realise that camping would not be an option when we first drove into Scotland to scenery like this:
While this is the closest we've been so far to such a great deal of snow, it is pretty chilly all the same, so camping is off the agenda. We bought this little pop-up tent too, it'll have to do us when we head over to Europe.
We decided to bypass Glasgow on the way in. Not sure if we'll regret that later, but I figured one city is sometimes the same as the next. Though we will head into Edinburgh at the end of our trip. Our first stop was Stirling Castle. Famous for the patriotic William Wallace (Braveheart fame) and his stand against the invading English. The battle happened at Stirling Bridge, with the intention to win back the castle to Scottish ownership. As you can see in the pictures below, it's how you would imagine a castle to look, stonework, turrets, archers windows, an arched entry (but no porticullis), cobbled courtyards, and cannons on the battlements; really a beautiful piece of history.
Stirling was the home of the Scottish Kings and Queens (including the famous Mary Queen of Scots) for many years. Unfortunately the castle is not entirely authentic, having been rebuilt to match the original after many battles throughout history resulted in the last inhabitants destroying the castle so that it could no longer be under seige from enemies. All the same, it was pretty amazing to stand in the banquet hall and stare up at the timber beams criss crossing the ceiling and to think that kings and queens dined in here while musicians played on the higher deck you can see in the background.
From here we headed to the seaside town called Oban, on the West Coast. This is the gateway to a great number of islands in the region, which unfortunately we did not have the time to visit. We took a chance at a backpackers for that night, and it was.....interesting. We got a private room with a double bed, the tiniest double bed you can imagine. Other than that the room was fine, apart from the other residents talking in the stairwell late at night (paper thin walls obviously), and one drunk loner stumbling along the road out of town (and passed our window) groaning and moaning (it sounded like he was dragging a broken leg or something, given the sounds coming out of his mouth - no broken leg though, just broken brain to alcohol). So, with Glen and I sleeping with shoulders overlapped and fingers stuffed in our ears, we finally did get some sleep that night.
The next day we headed off again, not before it began to snow lightly. Little cotton-like fragments floating down from the sky, mingled with rain. Was a bit exciting to see! Further along the road there was a some older snow lying around and Glen couldn't resist a wee frollick to throw some snowballs.
Continuing along the way, we stopped at Fort William and marvelled at the size of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain peak in mainland Britain.
Apparently the average relatively fit person can walk it, five hours up and two back. We weren't going to try it in the snow...
Look at these critters we saw along the way:
Deer lazing in a field.
We continued on to a town called Glenfiddan. This is another historically famous location, where The Bonny Prince Charlie took a stand to regain the Scottish throne from the English (I believe it's something along those lines. Honestly, there has been so much conflict, invasion and battle between the Scottish and the English over the course of history, it's a wonder they still get along).
TRIVIA: Glenfiddan is also home to this famous scene - can you guess what movie it's from? (Answer is after the photo, leave a comment if your guessed correctly please!)
HINT 2: In the films the countryside is far more verdant, I guess they didn't shoot in winter then. hey?
ANSWER: it's the bridge that The Hogwarts Express crosses carriyng those mischief seeking young wizards off to their studies (which they seem to spend very little time doing, except for Hermione of course, but she never lets on now does she?)
We spent the night in a little village called Kyle of Lochalsh. After pulling in late (4:30pm is late, it's getting quite dark by then), we cruised around a little to find that none of the B and Bs were open. Well, technically they had 'no vacancy', yet I am more than suspcious of the fact that they should have probably said 'not open'. We ended up staying in the local hotel, which was nice, and given that I had begun to develop a sore throat, on top of a runny nose and cough, the big warm bed was certainly welcomed.
The next morning I woke feeling much better. We took a llittle drive on the Isle of Skye then paid a visit to Elean Donan castle. This one is privately owned and it too has been rebuilt (early 1900s) from ruins. It still belongs to the family to this day, and they have rooms there they can stay in.
Imagine that: 'Hey, where are you off to this summer?'
'Oh, I'm just going to spend some time at the family's castle, that's all.'
Pretty impressive stuff if you ask me.
From here we headed to the very famous Loch Ness (Lake Ness) to do some monster hunting. We took a little cruise on the Loch, but no monster was to be found. Maybe it was just me, but since the Loch is very deep, its waters are dark, and the way the light refracts off the waves and ripples on its surface, almost makes it seem like it's alive with writhing serpent-like things. Glen wasn't convinced by my conclusions, but have a look for yourself in the photo below.
Couldn't quite capture my phenomenon, but I think you get the idea. In my opinion the darkness of the waves was far more obvious here, than in other bodies of water.... Needless to say, one can't help but feel a little awed by this location, and all the hype it's created over the years. My eyes were darting all over the place hoping (but also afarid) to catch a glimpse of the famous mythical creature. But alas, no Nessie spotting was to be had by us. The closest I came to Nessie is on a fridge magnet from the enormous gift shopping selling everything monster orientated you can imagine. Ah well, I'm sort of glad in a way, I don't know what I would have done if I saw it...hidden behind Glenny.... ha ha, I'm so not brave.
Well that brings part one of our Scotland trip to a close. Part two to come in a week's time.
Stacey
1 comments:
Of course I knew immediatley the significance of that bridge. More Harry Potter trivia, did you visit the cafe where J.K stayed while she wrote HP? It had a room above where she lived and looked out over a graveyard and old school which look eerily like Hogwarts and surrounds in our favourite series
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