DAY 1
I set out to a beautiful clear day on Saturday morning. We piled onto 3 buses and headed north. Our first stop was at Hermitage where we went on a hike and saw the tallest tree in Great Britain.
You can't see the top 10 feet or so... Even though we were across the river I couldn't get the whole tree to fit into my picture.
The bridge,
and the waterfall.After our hike we got back on the bus and drove an hour and a half to the "highland border." This is an imaginary line dividing the lowlands and the highlands.
This is the Drumuachdar Pass.
Welcome to the Highlands!
I think the best part about the highlands is that all the street signs are in Gaelic and English. Although only 1% of the population fluently speak Gaelic, it is becoming mandatory in schools to try to bring back the language.
Our next stop was at Culloden Battlefield. It was the last battle fought on the Island of Great Britain.
For a little history lesson (skip this if you don't like history...):
In the 1688, King James VII of Scotland and II of England had to flee to France because of the political and religious turmoil taking place in Britain. He was a Stuart and a Catholic.
In 1707 the Act of Union was passed which combined the English and the Scottish Parliaments. This was highly controversial as well as which religion would be dominant in Scotland and who would rule them. Mary and William of Orange came from Europe to rule Scotland during James' absence. As usual, the English and the French were at war and when England suffered a great defeat, Prince Charles Stewart (James' son) took the opportunity to go to Scotland and attempt to take back his crown and country. The story goes that when he arrived he was met by Alexander, a highland chief, who told him to go home. Prince Charles' famous reply is "I am home." Because of his charm and his dedication to the cause, within a few weeks Charles had rallied the highlanders to fight with him against England. These people came to be known as Jacobites (Jacob being the Latin for James) and their efforts the Jacobite Rising. At first it seemed that they would be victorious. They stormed Edinburgh and took the city easily. They sat around in Holyrood Palace planning their next move. For although Edinburgh was the capitol of Scotland, the government was in London. They chose to march to London in the fall of 1745. They got within 125 miles of London, at which point they began hearing rumors that English troops had come back from their battles in France and were planning on coming to the highlands to crush the rising. They decided to head back north. They arrived in the highlands at Culloden in the middle of December. The Jacobites planned to attack the English while they were sleeping. As my history teacher always says: "this would have worked. But this is Scotland." The Scots got lost looking for the English and because they had been marching hundreds of miles in the middle of the winter and had not recieved rations from Edinburgh yet, they fell asleep in the field and did not wake in time to suprise the English. Many woke from sleeping in the rough to the sound of the English cannons. The highlanders were notorious for the "highland charge." They always took the high ground and charged down on their enemies using force and the momentum they gathered to defeat the opponent. This is Culloden field:
The Scots could not have found a place further from the mountains. This was damp, boggy field. The Jacobites returned to their lines and fought alongside their clans. At first they were fired at with cannonballs. Then they were fired at with shrapnel. This didn't usually kill anyone, but it was almost worse to have an injured man than a dead one for you had to decide to either help the man or continue fighting while he died. The Scots couldn't compete. They were defeated in 45 minutes. The English did not want the possibility of another rising. They cordoned off the field and were ordered to kill everyone who had been fighting. The English commander, Prince William Augustus, earned himself the nickname "butcher."
This is the cairn commemorating those who perished in the battle at Culloden.After Culloden the tartan was banned. The bagpipes were banned. The speaking of Gaelic was banned. Carrying or owning weapons was banned. Land was giving to wealthy Lairds and if you could not pay rent you had to leave. Many Scots went to America or elsewhere in Europe. The Jacobite rising was crushed. Prince Charles fled to the Isle of Skye. He earned the named "Bonnie Prince Charlie" not because he is remembered fondly, but because he was disguised as a woman on his voyage and was so good looking that he had to turn down a proposal of marriage from the captain.
We walked around Culloden and saw the graves of the clans and the English. They have attempted to restore the battlefield to what it would have looked like with only flags in certain places to mark the front lines of the English and the Scots.
After this story and a walk around in the howling wind and rain we got back on the bus, cold and disheartened.
Our next stop was the healing well. There were many in the highlands, all thought to be magic.
Someone with an ailment would leave a piece of fabric after soaking it in the well. They would hang it on a nearby branch and circle the well three times. It was said that they would be cured as soon as their fabric disintegrated.
Obviously this has become a tourist attraction and would never have had SO many garments hanging from the trees.
Emma and I.Since we were in the highlands, the sun started to set at about 4 in the afternoon. We got on the bus and drove about 2 hours to the haunted Carbisdale Castle.
The tower and entrance to the castle.
The main hall. Yes there are naked women marble statues. Yes there is a house cat. Yes this is a youth hostel.
Francesca, Emma and I after dinner exploring the castle.
Julia, Emma and I in the grand hall.After we ate dinner and waited around for a LONG time, the Ceilidh (Scottish dancing party) started. Unfortunately the band only knew a few dances and same with the tour guides, so we ended up dancing the same four dances all night. And everyone is from other parts of the world, so we're all terrible at Scottish dancing. I'm surprised someone didn't get hurt to be honest.
But we all had a ton of fun and ended the night having a huge sing along to "Hey Jude" and then retired to our rooms. Did I mention that the castle is haunted? Did I mention it was specifically room 207 that was haunted? Do you want to take a wild guess as to who slept in room 207? That's right, I did. There were definitely some strange castle noises happening, but I was so tired by 3 in the morning that I really couldn't be bothered to get freaked out by them.
DAY 2
We woke up at 6 because the girls on the top bunks who had to take showers. We all tried to sleep in until 7 but it didn't really work. We got up officially at 7, got ready, ate some breakfast and checked out. We took some morning pictures, but the sun was just coming up at 8.
We climbed on the bus with our driver, Peter, and our tour guide, Simon.
Our first stop of the day was at Loch Ness and the beautiful Castle called Urquhart.
The Entrance to the castle.
The dock looking over Loch Ness.
View from the window in the stairwell to the tower.
View from the tower.
Loch Ness.We looked for Nessie all day. I think I saw some suspicious ripples in the water, but I don't have enough evidence to tell you that I actually saw her... but you never know...
Our next stop was in a tiny town for lunch. It's called Fort Augustus. It smells funny. Not bad, just funny. I was here with my family a few years ago and I remember it smelling funny. Nothing was open in the town because it was Sunday, but I found an open glass blowing studio. I was chatting with the man who owns the shop and he let me watch him make Christmas ornaments, so I had to buy one.
This is from the bridge in town.
The lock system in practice (like the Panama Canal). They tried to do this in Scotland and connect all the Lochs, like Loch Ness, Loch Oich, Loch Lochie (my personal favorite), etc. This way the Scots could transport the ships they were building and not have to get out to the sea or go around the top or bottom of the Island. By the time it was finished, the ships that were being built were too big to be shipped down.After lunch we drove to Ben Nevis, Britain's tallest mountain. It is a whopping 4400 feet tall.
We drove a little more and went good ol' fashioned highland hiking.
Our adorable tour guide, Simon.
We left the highlands and had a long journey back to the lowlands.On the way we stopped in Kilmahog, near Callandar. We met Hamish. He is a highland hairy coo (cow).
We fed him crackers and had to leave since it was getting dark and it was freezing!On the way back we drove by the castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
As a side note: you know the saying "Armed to the teeth"? We normally use it to mean that someone has a lot of weapons, but we learned that it originated in the highlands. After Culloden weapons were banned. As my tour guide said "There are laws and then there are laws." In the highlands, many people still carried their weapons, but at a certain point in the lower highlands and getting into the lowlands it became dangerous to carry weapons since you would be thrown in jail. This area was the Teith River, hence the saying "Armed to the Tieth." It has been translated into most languages, but most people don't know where it originated from.
We had a very long drive home because Glasgow was having their Christmas Lighting Festival so there was a lot of traffic. We made it back to Edinburgh in time for dinner. I was so exhausted I went to sleep at about 9 o'clock, concluding my highland adventure.
I'm off to Germany in a week and a half, so be on the lookout for new posts.
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