It’s Just a Flesh Wound

Into the Highlands Day 1 September 28, 2009

Yes I went all the way to Scotland to go to a gaming store.

Well as promised I have a bit of time tonight to update with more details about our trip thus far.  We saw so much and our guide was so informative I am not sure that I will be able to fully remember everything.  We took around 900 pictures on Saturday and Sunday.  We got into our hotel late Friday night went right to sleep, then it was up early to pack.  We were only staying in that hotel for one night, so we caught a cab to our new hotel early.  We dropped off our large bag so they could hold it until we checked in Sunday night and then walked a short distance to the tour office got checked in and grabbed a snack and some much needed caffeine at a nearby Starbucks.   I also had to take a moment to fulfill my geekness by posing for this photo

There were a group of around 15 of us for the tour.  The bus was small but fairly comfortable and our tour guide Kevin was very nice.  We started out by heading north out of Edinburgh and our first stop was the Firth Bridge.  If you are into bridges it was fairly impressive.  We then went for some time through the Kindom of Fife, which if not for the huge hills would look a lot like home,  lots of lush farmland and trees.

Our next stop was at a place called The Hermitage.  This was the first stop where you really started to get a sense for the beauty that this country has to offer.  It’s very secluded with lots of Scot’s Pines.  The path ends in a beautiful stream and waterfall.  We were a bit late in the season but just a few weeks ago the Salmon were jumping the falls.  Wish we could have seen that.  Lots of good photos from that stop and as always we have posted some of them on Kara’s facebook.

That's one way to cut a holiday short.

We thought about just staying the rest of the time in this camper in the parking lot.  According to our guide it had been sitting there for several weeks.

It was then on to Pitlochry for lunch at McKays.  I had the haggis stuffed chicken which was very good.  Kara tried some of the haggis and said it “wasn’t bad” followed up by a quick drink of her soda!  After lunch we were back in the bus and continuing north.  We really started to see the landscape change, with more large cliffs and forests.  We made a stop at the Highland Folk Museum.  This stop had a reconstruction of a typical Highland Village around the 1700′s.  There were several buildings that you could walk into.  They were made of sod and had thatched roof’s, much like a typical homesteader home in the midwest, although the buildings seemed shorter with more sloping roofs,  I assume this is due to the higher snow fall and winds.

Highland "Coo's"

We then made our way to Ruthven Barracks which was built around 1719 and burned during the last Jacobite uprising.  While we were here I convinced Kara that she needed to play the role of the diplomat and make nice with the locals.  We were able to explore the ruins of the barracks for a bit and take photos.

It was then off to Aviemore which during the winter is a very popular Ski resort.  We were really in the highlands now.  We saw lots of people on hiking and bike tours using the town as a jump off point.  One interesting thing we learned about Scotland and really loved is that there are no trespassing laws.  They work off the premise that the land belongs to no one and should be accessible to all.  You are welcome to cross fences, set up camp etc anywhere you want.  The only rules are you can’t camp in the same location for more than 2 days, and you can’t set up camp within 50 yards of a residence.  I think it would be excellent to come back one of these days and take a hiking, camping, climbing tour!  We stopped in Aviemore for afternoon tea and a bit of shopping.  Kara got her a nice new hat which you will see her in for most of the following pictures.  Our guide also recommended a Scotland soft drink called Irn Bru so we thought we would try some while we were here.  It was not all that good.  It has as much sugar as a Mt. Dew I would guess, is orange in color and has a slight bubble gum flavor.  Our guide’s contention was that we didn’t like it because we bought it in a bottle instead of a can although I am not so sure that would have helped much, plus we kept the bottle label for Kara’s Scotland scrapbook project.

It was then on to the Clava Cairns of Balnuaran.  These are believed to be ancient burial grounds constructed by the same people who built Stonehenge.  Having been to Stonehenge what I found amazing about Clava Cairns is that you can actually walk right up to them and touch them!  This was amazing and Kara said it was a bit creepy.  We were both impressed simply by the age of the structures, which are believed to date back to the Bronze Age (3000 BC)

Mass grave and burial markers

We then went on to one of the highlights of the day which was Culloden Battlefield this was the last major land battle in the UK.  This was the last battle of the third Jacobite war.  Some 2000 Jacobites were killed, and buried in mass graves on the site with markers showing the various clans they were members of.  The wiki page has lot’s of good information which I won’t go into here.  It is rather fascinating if you are into that stuff (which I am) but I won’t bore you with it here.

It was then on to Iverness and our stop for the evening on the banks of Loch Ness.  A friend of our recommended a book to read before we left to put us in the mood.  It was called The Loch and was a work of fiction but did give lots of flavor for this area.  We were suprised to find out we were going to be staying in the same town that the main character grew up in.  A little town right on the banks called Drumnadrochit.

We were very excited to be there but were exhausted.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to bed.  It’s getting late here so I will post day 2 tomorrow, which will take us on a boat ride of Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, Glencoe, Stirling Castle and more!  Then Wednesday I will post about our trip to St. Andrews.  Our guide was as I said excellent and was full of great local information and personal experience.  He also was very helpful on the Scottish Gaelic language and where all the names of places came from.

Hope everyone is still enjoying the posts and feel free to comment or ask questions as we look forward to them.   In case you missed it all the best pictures from the trip are posted on Kara’s facebook page.

Cheers!