Finally Another Update: Skye, Inverness, etc.
It’s been quite a while since I updated my journal, and since I updated last, quite a bit has happened.
Most recently, I met with my advisor, and he gave me some direction for what I should do with myself over the net three years, pointing me towards some sources which I need to read. It also felt nice to get a key to the Scottish History Library; I feel important now. I don’t look forward to lugging my laptop over there, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. I may also be able to find some of the sources that are over there, available to be checked out in the main library.
On Sunday the 2nd, I purchased for myself a copy of Rome: Total War, the latest game in Activision’s Total War series. From my experiences with the game and from reviews, I can say that although it’s not perfect, it’s still pretty close, and an absolutely amazing game. I won’t review it; ign.com, gamespot.com and gamespy.com, and plenty others have done that better than I can. I’ll limit my comments to saying that I’ve found manoeuvre to be far more important in the battles in Rome: Total War than in the other Total War games. It’s also really great to see Roman units charge towards the enemy, throw their pila, and then charge in, just as they did historically. The developers at Activision have always paid great attention to detail in all their games, but it seems even more so in Rome: Total War.
The most major event in my life since I updated this journal about a month ago, though, was a trip to the highlands which I took with my parents, the week of the 20th. The plan was to travel first to the Isle of Skye by train, which meant a very long journey, spend two nights there, and then travel to Inverness (which was along the way to Skye), spend two nights there, and travel back to Edinburgh.
While the train ride from Edinburgh to Inverness is really great-especially starting at Pitlochry, which is about halfway to Inverness-the ride from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh (the train station closes to the Isle of Skye) is nothing less than superb. Lots of jagged mountains, and at least one bay that was surrounded by these mountains. It was rather rainy for a bit of it, so much so that we were stuck in Strathcarron (agonizingly close to Kyle of Lochalsh) due to water on the tracks. Fortunately the landscape was rather impressive with some mountains nearby, so my dad and I jumped out of the train and took some photos to pass the time.
When we arrived at Kyle of Lochalsh, we had a local guide who picked us up and drove us everywhere we went on Skye. Before going to Skye, though, we visited Eilean Donan Castle (http://www.eileandonancastle.com/) which isn’t too far from the Isle of Skye. It would have probably been more impressive had the weather not been as rainy, but that’s just Scotland-one can’t complain too much about that, since it’s a given. It was as it appears in the photographs-a small castle on an island with mountains surrounding most of it-classically Scotland.
Once we got onto the Isle of Skye (which was across a recently built bridge), the rain and haze picked up quite a bit. The drive from the southern end of the island to the northern end, where our accommodation was, was filled with comments from our guide along the lines of, “If it wasn’t so rainy, you could see…” He assured us we’d have better weather the following day, simply out of optimism, but he was right.
We limited ourselves to the northern bit of the island, which was certainly quite impressive. I’ve never seen landscape like it before-it was almost like an alien landscape, quite often up-and-down, sort of undulations, like I can’t really describe, but different than I was used to seeing in the parts of the Highlands through which I’d previously travelled. Several parts of the island were quite green, and there were lots of gigantic rock outcroppings. They were a bit similar to Salisbury Crag here in Edinburgh, except that their scale and effect were far greater.
Besides the natural wonders, we visited Dunvegan Castle, which is the MacCleod family home, however we didn’t go in. I suspect that it would have been much like Cawdor and Eilean Donan castles, which was simply rich nobility showing off their allegedly good taste. Instead we opted to walk through their large family garden, and absorb the landscape some more. Near the castle were a couple of completely flat-topped mountains that I believe were called “MacCleod’s Tables” or something very similar. There was a story associated with why they were called that, but it’s too long and drawn out-suffice it to say, according to legend, one of the MacCleod heads held a banquet up there.
After this, since I’d been interested in seeing a broch while I was over here, our guide took us to one. A broch is basically an iron-age circle-shaped stone fort, and I think they tended to be built in the last few centuries before the birth of Christ. Pictures of the particular one I visited are at http://www.darkisle.com/d/dunbeag/dunbeag.html. It’s unfortunate at the site that there aren’t any pictures taken from the Broch itself, because it really makes it clear why it was built where it was built; it commands an incredible view both of the countryside on several sides, and of a bay.
That was about the end of our day.
The Inverness trip was far less impressive, comparatively, but still fun. Worth noting mostly was that we had great weather for our boat-ride on Loch Ness, which was far different than the other time I was on Loch Ness. The view approaching Urquhart Castle was simply amazing. We didn’t get much time at Urquhart Castle, which was too bad, but at least my parents go to see it.
Most recently, I met with my advisor, and he gave me some direction for what I should do with myself over the net three years, pointing me towards some sources which I need to read. It also felt nice to get a key to the Scottish History Library; I feel important now. I don’t look forward to lugging my laptop over there, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. I may also be able to find some of the sources that are over there, available to be checked out in the main library.
On Sunday the 2nd, I purchased for myself a copy of Rome: Total War, the latest game in Activision’s Total War series. From my experiences with the game and from reviews, I can say that although it’s not perfect, it’s still pretty close, and an absolutely amazing game. I won’t review it; ign.com, gamespot.com and gamespy.com, and plenty others have done that better than I can. I’ll limit my comments to saying that I’ve found manoeuvre to be far more important in the battles in Rome: Total War than in the other Total War games. It’s also really great to see Roman units charge towards the enemy, throw their pila, and then charge in, just as they did historically. The developers at Activision have always paid great attention to detail in all their games, but it seems even more so in Rome: Total War.
The most major event in my life since I updated this journal about a month ago, though, was a trip to the highlands which I took with my parents, the week of the 20th. The plan was to travel first to the Isle of Skye by train, which meant a very long journey, spend two nights there, and then travel to Inverness (which was along the way to Skye), spend two nights there, and travel back to Edinburgh.
While the train ride from Edinburgh to Inverness is really great-especially starting at Pitlochry, which is about halfway to Inverness-the ride from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh (the train station closes to the Isle of Skye) is nothing less than superb. Lots of jagged mountains, and at least one bay that was surrounded by these mountains. It was rather rainy for a bit of it, so much so that we were stuck in Strathcarron (agonizingly close to Kyle of Lochalsh) due to water on the tracks. Fortunately the landscape was rather impressive with some mountains nearby, so my dad and I jumped out of the train and took some photos to pass the time.
When we arrived at Kyle of Lochalsh, we had a local guide who picked us up and drove us everywhere we went on Skye. Before going to Skye, though, we visited Eilean Donan Castle (http://www.eileandonancastle.com/) which isn’t too far from the Isle of Skye. It would have probably been more impressive had the weather not been as rainy, but that’s just Scotland-one can’t complain too much about that, since it’s a given. It was as it appears in the photographs-a small castle on an island with mountains surrounding most of it-classically Scotland.
Once we got onto the Isle of Skye (which was across a recently built bridge), the rain and haze picked up quite a bit. The drive from the southern end of the island to the northern end, where our accommodation was, was filled with comments from our guide along the lines of, “If it wasn’t so rainy, you could see…” He assured us we’d have better weather the following day, simply out of optimism, but he was right.
We limited ourselves to the northern bit of the island, which was certainly quite impressive. I’ve never seen landscape like it before-it was almost like an alien landscape, quite often up-and-down, sort of undulations, like I can’t really describe, but different than I was used to seeing in the parts of the Highlands through which I’d previously travelled. Several parts of the island were quite green, and there were lots of gigantic rock outcroppings. They were a bit similar to Salisbury Crag here in Edinburgh, except that their scale and effect were far greater.
Besides the natural wonders, we visited Dunvegan Castle, which is the MacCleod family home, however we didn’t go in. I suspect that it would have been much like Cawdor and Eilean Donan castles, which was simply rich nobility showing off their allegedly good taste. Instead we opted to walk through their large family garden, and absorb the landscape some more. Near the castle were a couple of completely flat-topped mountains that I believe were called “MacCleod’s Tables” or something very similar. There was a story associated with why they were called that, but it’s too long and drawn out-suffice it to say, according to legend, one of the MacCleod heads held a banquet up there.
After this, since I’d been interested in seeing a broch while I was over here, our guide took us to one. A broch is basically an iron-age circle-shaped stone fort, and I think they tended to be built in the last few centuries before the birth of Christ. Pictures of the particular one I visited are at http://www.darkisle.com/d/dunbeag/dunbeag.html. It’s unfortunate at the site that there aren’t any pictures taken from the Broch itself, because it really makes it clear why it was built where it was built; it commands an incredible view both of the countryside on several sides, and of a bay.
That was about the end of our day.
The Inverness trip was far less impressive, comparatively, but still fun. Worth noting mostly was that we had great weather for our boat-ride on Loch Ness, which was far different than the other time I was on Loch Ness. The view approaching Urquhart Castle was simply amazing. We didn’t get much time at Urquhart Castle, which was too bad, but at least my parents go to see it.