The Highlands: Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye

One item of business before I progress with my tale. It has been brought to my attention that the links to albums in older posts have stopped working, which poses a problem for those of you who periodically check up on my blog. I will try to figure out what's going on, since those links are supposed to be permanent.

Tuesday morning, we were picked up by Haggis Tours, a group which skews towards ferrying around young adult groups. After that, the days are a blur, as we saw a large chunk of Scotland in only a few days. I loved the Highlands, which were just beautiful, with its large rolling hills of greeness. We started by driving up to Loch Ness, stopping at Dunkeld Cathedral, the only cathedral built in a location not designated a city, for it is here that the remains of St. Columbo of Ireland are kept. Just so you can get an idea of the kind of tranquil settings I was traveling through, here's a picture below:



After stopping for lunch in a ski village, we stopped at Culloden, site of the 1745 Battle of Culloden, where the Scottish Jacobites supporting the Stuart line claim to the throne were permanently defeated. After this battle, the Gaellic language was banned, and the Scots were forbidden to own weapons, in an attempt to prevent future outbreaks. We then went to Loch Ness, to the town of Fort Augustus, on the southern tip of the loch, to stay the night. We saw a cultural show where we were shown what life would have been like for 18th century Scotsman. Our hostel that night had a Scottish movie theme, featuring posters from movies set in Scotland, with each room designated a movie. We stayed in the Rob Roy room, a film starring Liam Neesom which I have yet to see, but is now resting in my Netflix Queue for me to view when I return to the States.

Loch Ness:


The next day we drove to the Isle of Skye, stopping at Eilean Donon Castle, filming location for Highlander and one or two other films. At the Isle of Skye, we drove around to several natural landmarks, including Sligachan, a river which is supposed to grant beauty to those who bathe in it, and Kilt Rock, a striated cliff face, supposedly created when by a giant hanging his kilt. Our tour guide new many folklore stories which he told as drove as around, which definitely added to the trip.

Kilt Rock:

Day Three was mostly spent driving to Edinburgh, but we did stop at the Commando Monument, to commemorate the Green Berets who died in World War II, the Three Sister Mountains, and the National Wallace Memorial (the same Wallace whose character is featured in the film Braveheart. We also stopped to say hello to Hammish, a Highland cow who is a popular tourist trap.

Wallace Memorial:



After a quick four hour train ride home, I had enough time to pack and grab a few hours of sleep before my next destination: Paris!

Highland Albums:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three