Finally Finished - Scottish Tour Post
Well, I've finally finished typing up the 4-Day Skye & Highlands Tour post with photo links. It's a long post but worth it in the end, I believe. The Tour dates were 8:00am Tuesday, May 30 - 7:30pm Friday, June 2. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think. :)
_________________________________________
Well, it's been a few days since I've updated my LJ because I've been up in the Highlands of Scotland and not had internet access. On Tuesday morning, I headed over to the Wild In Scotland office on High Street (walked over - took all of maybe 5-10 minutes, even with luggage). There were sixteen of us on the trip, plus the driver/tour guide - Fiona (or Princess Fi). Only two fellas on the tour the rest were women, and from several different countries. There were four from Australia, three from Malaysia, three from Germany, one from Switzerland, two from Estonia, two from Israel, myself from Canada and our guide/driver was from Stirling, Scotland.
Tuesday, May 30
We left Edinburgh around 8:30am and headed towards Stirling to see the Wallace Monument. Very nice. It was quite a walk up the hill. But we didn't go in to the monument this time. We did get a history of why the monument was erected and the purposefulness of why it was positioned where it was on Abbey's Craig. (For more information behind the real historical events of the Battle at Stirling Bridge go to Wallace Monument". Then we headed to the Trussocks to see Haimish, of the Highland Cattle. From there we left and ventured towards the highlands to the Rob Roy McGregor Burial Site, and got some of the history behind his fights. Then off to lunch in Killin and the Falls of Dochart. I went to a little pub that had a woodsmoke firepit (which used to be used for fire horseshoes). The smell of the fire in the pit brought me back to memories of being down at my grandparents place when I was a child. Finally we reached The Highlands and cracked open a bottle of 12 year old Scotch Whiskey. I only had a small sip as I don't really like scotch. A short trip from there and we were in Glencoe. In Glencoe, we did a walkthrough and learned of the history behind the area. Clan against clan and the start of the breakdown of the clan system. Massacre of Glencoe. Pictures of Glencoe: Glencoe #1 and Glencoe # 2. Finally we settled in Corpach (Gaelic name: A'Chorpaich). In the Highlands there's been a resurgance of the ancient Gaelic language and Scottish traditions. We stayed at a hostel in Corpach, a little past Fort William, with the highest of the Highland mountains, Ben Nevis in the background. It was absolutely beautiful. A group of us went out after supper and took pictures. Ben Nevis 1 & Ben Nevis 2.
Wednesday, May 31st
Left Corpach at 9am and headed for the Isle of Skye. We stopped off to see the Commando Memorial in Lochaber. Then it was off to Eilean Donan Castle. Absolutely beautiful. For those of you who have seen the films Highlander or the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, will have seen the castle in these shots. This castle is actually a replica, as the original was destroyed by the Royal Navy in 1719. For more information on Eilean Donan Castle, go to The Eilean Donan Castle Official Website. For some of my pictures of the castle, check on the links below:
Eilean Donan Castle at a short distance
Inside Castle Grounds
Eilean Donan Castle & Me
After that, the tour headed off the Cuillin Mountain Range in Sligachan, where we had a brief rest and heard the story of Cúchulainn, an Irish warrior who’d been hired to best Scáthach, a Scottish warrior princess, but ended up falling for her. For more information about these two, check out Cúchulainn and Scáthach. For pictures of the area, check the links below. The mountain range in this area are the Black Cuillins (of which the most noticeable peaks are the Sgurr nan Gillean and the Pinnacle Ridge. Cuillins
Black Cuillins1
Black Cuillins2
We then headed off to have a tea break after hiking up a mountainside to a broch. This particular one wasn’t very deep, but you could see definite characteristics of the ruins of the broch. There was this cute family of sheep on the way up the hill. The young lamb who was a fair bit ahead of the adults would turn around and ‘baaa’ at them as if to say, ‘come on, already’. Really cute. This particular broch, is figured to be nearly 3000 years old. After tea break, we headed back down and then off through Dunvegan. We stopped and took some pictures of Highland Cattle. We passed by Dunvegan Castle as we didn’t have time to stop through. On our way to the hotel we were staying in that night we stopped off to see MacLeod’s Tables. Finally we ended up at the McEwan’s Edinbane Hotel where we stayed the night. We had some really good food and heard some traditional Scottish music.
Skye Brock Wild In Scotland Tour
Thursday, June 1st
We left the Edinbane and headed off to The Fairy Glen in the village of Uig (still on the Isle of Skye). It was absolutely gorgeous. Named The Fairy Glen because the peaks of the hills and mountains is much smaller than other parts of the Highlands. See pictures below.
Fairy Glen 1
Fairy Glen 2
Me at the Fairy Glen
Then we headed to see the Duntulum Castle ruins. There are supposedly a couple of ghosts there - The Ghost of the Bouncing Baby and that of Uisdean MacGillespie Chleirich. Below is the story behind the haunting of the latter.
“Almost every castle with the prefix 'dun' in the name is haunted. Above is a drawing of Uisdean MacGillespie Chleirich, said to haunt Duntulm Castle, eight miles north of Uig, on the Isle of Skye. Uisdean (Hugh) was a cousin of the Lord of the Isles, who plotted to take over the leadership of the Clan MacDonald, but failed because of a careless mistake. In the throes of his conspiracy, Uisdean wrote a letter to a friend outlining his plans to overthrow his cousin. On the same day he wrote a letter to his cousin declaring eternal friendship. Somehow the messengers were misdirected and the Lord of the Isles received the letter that was meant for Uisdean's friend. Uisdean was captured, imprisoned in a room in the highest tower of Duntulm, and left to starve.” (http://www.geocities.com/leylinequest/leylines_haunted_castles.htm). Pictures below that I took.
Duntulum Castle 1
Duntulum Castle 2
Duntulum Castle 3
We took a short ride to see the Kilt Rock - it’s a cliff that sort of looks like a kilt from a distance - the way it sort of forms columns (like pleats of a kilt), and the lower part looks like the tartan of a kilt. There’s a beautiful waterfall there as well.
Kilt Rock
Falls at Kilt Rock
We drove through the Trotternish Peninsula and passed The Old Man of Storr, but we didn’t get a good look at it as it was rather misty and the mist covered the stones. Off then to Portree (Gaelic for The King’s Port) - the largest town on Skye, to have lunch. After that, we headed up to Loch Carron to go out on a boat and do some scallop fishing with a local fisherman. It was really neat. And I didn’t get motion sick - which is something I used to do). I also got to steer the boat at one point. J We also got to see some crab brought up and hold them. We got to eat some of the scallops that we’d brought up (uncooked, and then cooked in garlic butter).
Off to Loch Ness, were we took a brief break at Urquhart Castle, where we took a few pictures at a distance. As we needed to get to our hostel as it was getting time to make supper (we arrived around 7:30pm). The three Malaysian women and I made a vegetable stir-fry with pasta for the tour crew. We also had heated up some garlic bread as well. After supper we had a joke contest in which the proprietor of the hostel judged (as she loves jokes). At 10:30, Fiona (our tour guide/driver) drove the lot of us back to Urquhart Castle where we roamed investigating the ruins of the castle. It was still pretty light out - though a bit too dark for my camera to get some good shots off at the time. At about 11:20 we all started walking back to the hostel (about a mile away). It was pretty strange that at 11:30 at night, it was still relatively light out. But being that far north, it was pretty usual for the local folk. We tucked in for the night shortly after returning at midnight.
Friday, June 2nd
It was the last day of the Tour. We gathered up our things and we got on the road again. On the way to Inverness, we stopped so some of the folks could take some more pictures of Loch Ness. Sadly no monster appeared. We also took a very brief stop in Inverness to take some pictures of Inverness Castle. The next stop was probably one of the most heart rendering of them all. We stopped at The Battlefield of Culloden. It was there in April of 1746 when the last military clash in Scotland, where the Jacobite army (led by Bonnie Prince Charlie Stuart - the last of the Royal Stewart monarch line) fought against the Royal Army. Some 4000 Jacobites (comprising of Scottish Highlanders, some troops from northern England, and from France and Spain) fought against some 12000 British troops. For more details about this massacre of these highlanders, read The Battle of Culloden. Some pictures taken below.
Culloden Battlefield Jacobite Army Line
Cairn to Bonnie Prince Charlie
Culloden Plaque
Royal Army Line
Following this we drove a little while and stopped at the Clava Cairns. It was impressive and magical. To see these stone formations which are thousands of years old. Rather awe inspiring. To me, it almost felt as though the hairs rising on my arms and a tingling sensation.
Balnuran of Clava
Central Ring
NorthEast Burial Chamber 1
NorthEast Burial Chamber 2
Then we were off for something completely different - a tour of the Tomatin Whiskey Distillery. We had the opportunity to have a shot of their single malt or blend - I didn’t. I did, however, get a miniature of their Heather liqeour, which has some whiskey in it, and chocolate. We stopped off at Aviemore to pick up some stuff for pack lunches and then over to Loch Morlich and the Cairngorm mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous out. It was about 20C with a slight breeze. Had lunch and then laid back on the beach on got some sun.
Cairngorm Mountains & Loch Morlich
The Hermitage in Perthshire - the walk through the forest and the falls was rather breathtaking. So beautiful.
The Hermitage Falls
The Hermitage Falls 2
I’ve got pictures to share for that as well. After this stop Friday afternoon, we were finally headed back to Edinburgh. We had to drop two of the tour group off at the airport then off into the city. I was tired, sore (from lugging my small suitcase, backpack and totebag of stuff the 10-minute walk back to the hostel I was staying in for the night. Once all my stuff was deposited at the hostel and I’d made my bed with the fresh sheets, I took off in search of a cash machine and a shop that might sell cloth totebags. Didn’t find any. But did come away with two shirts and a pair of boxers. Popped into an internet café to get my train schedule printed off my Virgin Trains acct. Grabbed a package of fish & chips and headed to the hostel again.
Saturday, June 3rd.
Up at 6am, get washed and dressed and packed and head for the short walk to Waverley Train Station. Get a bite to eat and some stuff for the train and then I’m off. Plenty of connections. Edinburgh to Newcastle (GNER train - has paid wireless internet), Motorcoach from Newcastle to Darlington (as they were doing Engineering works on the rail between those two destinations. Back on GNER to York.
Then from York to Leeds I was on Northern Rail. By then it was rather warm and I was headed over to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to see the Bad Girls The Musical. I loved it. Once I got over the fact that the woman playing Nikki Wade (Hannah Waddingham) for the musical was blonde (which actually didn’t take too long at all) - as the actress Mandana Jones who played Nikki in the series was brunette, I could quite enjoy the musical. She certainly got Nikki’s attitude down. And given that it’s musical theatre, they can take different allowances than they could for the series. There were a few other minor character differences, but small enough to not really make a big difference to the overall feel of it. Two of the actors for the musical have also been in the tv series but in different roles. Nicole Faraday who plays the character of Shell Dockley in the musical played the character of Snowball Merriman in the fourth and fifth series, and Laura Rogers who plays Wing Governor Helen Stewart in the musical, played the character of Sheena Williams in the seventh and current eighth series of the show. She does a marvelous job with the character of Helen. Very different from her role on the series. The website I remarked at the beginning of this paragraph - you can hear some of the songs from the musical.
After that I grabbed my gear from the office and headed back towards the train station. I had a bit of a wait for my train so I’d bought some supper from a fast food joint on the way. Another couple of connections to get back to London (Leeds to Doncaster, then Doncaster to London Kings Cross station. From there I took a cab to meet up with a friend of my cousins (who works as a police officer at the British Parliament, and she drove me back to my cousin’s in Cheam. Couldn’t get online at the time as it was really late and I needed to get everything packed up in both suitcases and my rucksack, because we were off to the Gatwick Airport for 8am. Flight was delayed so we were nearly an hour before we were off the ground (10:50am). I got whacked with an excess baggage charge. I knew I’d have a bit of a charge but got hit with £96 for 16 kg overweight. Anyway, all set and paid for. The flight was all right, then got into Halifax, Nova Scotia about 1:15pm and a short jaunt through Customs and then Dad drove me back to Fredericton, with a stop for food and gas in Truro, NS, a stop at the Salisbury, NB Tim Horton’s and then back at the house near 7pm. I was completely knackered.
_________________________________________
Well, it's been a few days since I've updated my LJ because I've been up in the Highlands of Scotland and not had internet access. On Tuesday morning, I headed over to the Wild In Scotland office on High Street (walked over - took all of maybe 5-10 minutes, even with luggage). There were sixteen of us on the trip, plus the driver/tour guide - Fiona (or Princess Fi). Only two fellas on the tour the rest were women, and from several different countries. There were four from Australia, three from Malaysia, three from Germany, one from Switzerland, two from Estonia, two from Israel, myself from Canada and our guide/driver was from Stirling, Scotland.
Tuesday, May 30
We left Edinburgh around 8:30am and headed towards Stirling to see the Wallace Monument. Very nice. It was quite a walk up the hill. But we didn't go in to the monument this time. We did get a history of why the monument was erected and the purposefulness of why it was positioned where it was on Abbey's Craig. (For more information behind the real historical events of the Battle at Stirling Bridge go to Wallace Monument". Then we headed to the Trussocks to see Haimish, of the Highland Cattle. From there we left and ventured towards the highlands to the Rob Roy McGregor Burial Site, and got some of the history behind his fights. Then off to lunch in Killin and the Falls of Dochart. I went to a little pub that had a woodsmoke firepit (which used to be used for fire horseshoes). The smell of the fire in the pit brought me back to memories of being down at my grandparents place when I was a child. Finally we reached The Highlands and cracked open a bottle of 12 year old Scotch Whiskey. I only had a small sip as I don't really like scotch. A short trip from there and we were in Glencoe. In Glencoe, we did a walkthrough and learned of the history behind the area. Clan against clan and the start of the breakdown of the clan system. Massacre of Glencoe. Pictures of Glencoe: Glencoe #1 and Glencoe # 2. Finally we settled in Corpach (Gaelic name: A'Chorpaich). In the Highlands there's been a resurgance of the ancient Gaelic language and Scottish traditions. We stayed at a hostel in Corpach, a little past Fort William, with the highest of the Highland mountains, Ben Nevis in the background. It was absolutely beautiful. A group of us went out after supper and took pictures. Ben Nevis 1 & Ben Nevis 2.
Wednesday, May 31st
Left Corpach at 9am and headed for the Isle of Skye. We stopped off to see the Commando Memorial in Lochaber. Then it was off to Eilean Donan Castle. Absolutely beautiful. For those of you who have seen the films Highlander or the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, will have seen the castle in these shots. This castle is actually a replica, as the original was destroyed by the Royal Navy in 1719. For more information on Eilean Donan Castle, go to The Eilean Donan Castle Official Website. For some of my pictures of the castle, check on the links below:
Eilean Donan Castle at a short distance
Inside Castle Grounds
Eilean Donan Castle & Me
After that, the tour headed off the Cuillin Mountain Range in Sligachan, where we had a brief rest and heard the story of Cúchulainn, an Irish warrior who’d been hired to best Scáthach, a Scottish warrior princess, but ended up falling for her. For more information about these two, check out Cúchulainn and Scáthach. For pictures of the area, check the links below. The mountain range in this area are the Black Cuillins (of which the most noticeable peaks are the Sgurr nan Gillean and the Pinnacle Ridge. Cuillins
Black Cuillins1
Black Cuillins2
We then headed off to have a tea break after hiking up a mountainside to a broch. This particular one wasn’t very deep, but you could see definite characteristics of the ruins of the broch. There was this cute family of sheep on the way up the hill. The young lamb who was a fair bit ahead of the adults would turn around and ‘baaa’ at them as if to say, ‘come on, already’. Really cute. This particular broch, is figured to be nearly 3000 years old. After tea break, we headed back down and then off through Dunvegan. We stopped and took some pictures of Highland Cattle. We passed by Dunvegan Castle as we didn’t have time to stop through. On our way to the hotel we were staying in that night we stopped off to see MacLeod’s Tables. Finally we ended up at the McEwan’s Edinbane Hotel where we stayed the night. We had some really good food and heard some traditional Scottish music.
Skye Brock Wild In Scotland Tour
Thursday, June 1st
We left the Edinbane and headed off to The Fairy Glen in the village of Uig (still on the Isle of Skye). It was absolutely gorgeous. Named The Fairy Glen because the peaks of the hills and mountains is much smaller than other parts of the Highlands. See pictures below.
Fairy Glen 1
Fairy Glen 2
Me at the Fairy Glen
Then we headed to see the Duntulum Castle ruins. There are supposedly a couple of ghosts there - The Ghost of the Bouncing Baby and that of Uisdean MacGillespie Chleirich. Below is the story behind the haunting of the latter.
“Almost every castle with the prefix 'dun' in the name is haunted. Above is a drawing of Uisdean MacGillespie Chleirich, said to haunt Duntulm Castle, eight miles north of Uig, on the Isle of Skye. Uisdean (Hugh) was a cousin of the Lord of the Isles, who plotted to take over the leadership of the Clan MacDonald, but failed because of a careless mistake. In the throes of his conspiracy, Uisdean wrote a letter to a friend outlining his plans to overthrow his cousin. On the same day he wrote a letter to his cousin declaring eternal friendship. Somehow the messengers were misdirected and the Lord of the Isles received the letter that was meant for Uisdean's friend. Uisdean was captured, imprisoned in a room in the highest tower of Duntulm, and left to starve.” (http://www.geocities.com/leylinequest/leylines_haunted_castles.htm). Pictures below that I took.
Duntulum Castle 1
Duntulum Castle 2
Duntulum Castle 3
We took a short ride to see the Kilt Rock - it’s a cliff that sort of looks like a kilt from a distance - the way it sort of forms columns (like pleats of a kilt), and the lower part looks like the tartan of a kilt. There’s a beautiful waterfall there as well.
Kilt Rock
Falls at Kilt Rock
We drove through the Trotternish Peninsula and passed The Old Man of Storr, but we didn’t get a good look at it as it was rather misty and the mist covered the stones. Off then to Portree (Gaelic for The King’s Port) - the largest town on Skye, to have lunch. After that, we headed up to Loch Carron to go out on a boat and do some scallop fishing with a local fisherman. It was really neat. And I didn’t get motion sick - which is something I used to do). I also got to steer the boat at one point. J We also got to see some crab brought up and hold them. We got to eat some of the scallops that we’d brought up (uncooked, and then cooked in garlic butter).
Off to Loch Ness, were we took a brief break at Urquhart Castle, where we took a few pictures at a distance. As we needed to get to our hostel as it was getting time to make supper (we arrived around 7:30pm). The three Malaysian women and I made a vegetable stir-fry with pasta for the tour crew. We also had heated up some garlic bread as well. After supper we had a joke contest in which the proprietor of the hostel judged (as she loves jokes). At 10:30, Fiona (our tour guide/driver) drove the lot of us back to Urquhart Castle where we roamed investigating the ruins of the castle. It was still pretty light out - though a bit too dark for my camera to get some good shots off at the time. At about 11:20 we all started walking back to the hostel (about a mile away). It was pretty strange that at 11:30 at night, it was still relatively light out. But being that far north, it was pretty usual for the local folk. We tucked in for the night shortly after returning at midnight.
Friday, June 2nd
It was the last day of the Tour. We gathered up our things and we got on the road again. On the way to Inverness, we stopped so some of the folks could take some more pictures of Loch Ness. Sadly no monster appeared. We also took a very brief stop in Inverness to take some pictures of Inverness Castle. The next stop was probably one of the most heart rendering of them all. We stopped at The Battlefield of Culloden. It was there in April of 1746 when the last military clash in Scotland, where the Jacobite army (led by Bonnie Prince Charlie Stuart - the last of the Royal Stewart monarch line) fought against the Royal Army. Some 4000 Jacobites (comprising of Scottish Highlanders, some troops from northern England, and from France and Spain) fought against some 12000 British troops. For more details about this massacre of these highlanders, read The Battle of Culloden. Some pictures taken below.
Culloden Battlefield Jacobite Army Line
Cairn to Bonnie Prince Charlie
Culloden Plaque
Royal Army Line
Following this we drove a little while and stopped at the Clava Cairns. It was impressive and magical. To see these stone formations which are thousands of years old. Rather awe inspiring. To me, it almost felt as though the hairs rising on my arms and a tingling sensation.
Balnuran of Clava
Central Ring
NorthEast Burial Chamber 1
NorthEast Burial Chamber 2
Then we were off for something completely different - a tour of the Tomatin Whiskey Distillery. We had the opportunity to have a shot of their single malt or blend - I didn’t. I did, however, get a miniature of their Heather liqeour, which has some whiskey in it, and chocolate. We stopped off at Aviemore to pick up some stuff for pack lunches and then over to Loch Morlich and the Cairngorm mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous out. It was about 20C with a slight breeze. Had lunch and then laid back on the beach on got some sun.
Cairngorm Mountains & Loch Morlich
The Hermitage in Perthshire - the walk through the forest and the falls was rather breathtaking. So beautiful.
The Hermitage Falls
The Hermitage Falls 2
I’ve got pictures to share for that as well. After this stop Friday afternoon, we were finally headed back to Edinburgh. We had to drop two of the tour group off at the airport then off into the city. I was tired, sore (from lugging my small suitcase, backpack and totebag of stuff the 10-minute walk back to the hostel I was staying in for the night. Once all my stuff was deposited at the hostel and I’d made my bed with the fresh sheets, I took off in search of a cash machine and a shop that might sell cloth totebags. Didn’t find any. But did come away with two shirts and a pair of boxers. Popped into an internet café to get my train schedule printed off my Virgin Trains acct. Grabbed a package of fish & chips and headed to the hostel again.
Saturday, June 3rd.
Up at 6am, get washed and dressed and packed and head for the short walk to Waverley Train Station. Get a bite to eat and some stuff for the train and then I’m off. Plenty of connections. Edinburgh to Newcastle (GNER train - has paid wireless internet), Motorcoach from Newcastle to Darlington (as they were doing Engineering works on the rail between those two destinations. Back on GNER to York.
Then from York to Leeds I was on Northern Rail. By then it was rather warm and I was headed over to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to see the Bad Girls The Musical. I loved it. Once I got over the fact that the woman playing Nikki Wade (Hannah Waddingham) for the musical was blonde (which actually didn’t take too long at all) - as the actress Mandana Jones who played Nikki in the series was brunette, I could quite enjoy the musical. She certainly got Nikki’s attitude down. And given that it’s musical theatre, they can take different allowances than they could for the series. There were a few other minor character differences, but small enough to not really make a big difference to the overall feel of it. Two of the actors for the musical have also been in the tv series but in different roles. Nicole Faraday who plays the character of Shell Dockley in the musical played the character of Snowball Merriman in the fourth and fifth series, and Laura Rogers who plays Wing Governor Helen Stewart in the musical, played the character of Sheena Williams in the seventh and current eighth series of the show. She does a marvelous job with the character of Helen. Very different from her role on the series. The website I remarked at the beginning of this paragraph - you can hear some of the songs from the musical.
After that I grabbed my gear from the office and headed back towards the train station. I had a bit of a wait for my train so I’d bought some supper from a fast food joint on the way. Another couple of connections to get back to London (Leeds to Doncaster, then Doncaster to London Kings Cross station. From there I took a cab to meet up with a friend of my cousins (who works as a police officer at the British Parliament, and she drove me back to my cousin’s in Cheam. Couldn’t get online at the time as it was really late and I needed to get everything packed up in both suitcases and my rucksack, because we were off to the Gatwick Airport for 8am. Flight was delayed so we were nearly an hour before we were off the ground (10:50am). I got whacked with an excess baggage charge. I knew I’d have a bit of a charge but got hit with £96 for 16 kg overweight. Anyway, all set and paid for. The flight was all right, then got into Halifax, Nova Scotia about 1:15pm and a short jaunt through Customs and then Dad drove me back to Fredericton, with a stop for food and gas in Truro, NS, a stop at the Salisbury, NB Tim Horton’s and then back at the house near 7pm. I was completely knackered.