Deep Scottish Love

A hairy Coo

After a bad start on Friday night – we got a call 2 hours before our train trip to say that the B&B we had booked had double booked us for our Friday night accommodation, and with a rugby game on that night in Edinburgh we had had a lot of trouble finding accommodation in the first place, however the B&B we were supposed to stay at sorted us some alternative accommodation, and out of embarrassment the B&B guy collected us from the train station and took us to our alternative accommodation. So all actually ended well! Whew!

It was so nice catching the train again and enjoying the views of the 4 hour journey. It only felt like a week ago since we had done this last, but in reality it was actually a year and a half ago since we had been to Scotland. Interestingly, this was our first fully guided tour with randoms that we had done.

After arriving, and getting collected by the B&B guy, we went for a walk around the Royal Mile and took some night photos of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Castle at night

Day1
We wandered to the Haggis tours office on the royal mile on a cloudy morning where we queued up with lots of others. It was busy because of the long weekend. Once on the bus we headed out of Edinburgh towards the lowlands, passing an impressive piece of architecture, the Forth bridge, designed by the guy who designed the Eiffel tower (Gustav Eiffel).

Our first stop of the day was a little village called Dunkeld, which is known for its Salmon fishing and the largest river in Scotland, the River Tay.

River Tay in Scotland - famous for its Salmon Fishing

We had a quick stop to look at the ruined cathedral, and a brief look around the cute little town.

We then continued on to Kingussie, where we stopped for lunch. We decided to try a deep fried mars bar! Interesting! Not too different from a deep fried moro in Palmy, just as gooey and fattening!
We continued on to a place called Clava Cairns, which seems to be a burial site similar to that of Stonehenge. There were numerous of these Clava Cairns’ and they were basically made of schist stones, in a circular structure.

Clava Cairns

We then arrived at the new Culloden Moor museum, which has been built on the site of the battle of Culloden Moor. Culloden Moor, known as the battle that changed Scotland and the world! Basically the Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746) was the final clash between the French-supported Jacobites and the British Government in the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Culloden dealt the Jacobite cause—to restore the House of Stuart to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain—a decisive defeat. It was the last battle ever to be fought on British soil.

Cool house at Culloden Moor

Culloden Moor monument

The reason why this battle is of so much interest to us colonials is that once the British Government won, they sentenced the Jacobites to death, but many of them got out of this death sentence by being deported to the British colonies! Very interesting! Sooooo next time you start a conversation with a NZ’er of Scottish decent try and slip the battle of Culloden Moor into the conversation!
From here we stopped at Loch Ness. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see Nessy, and in all honesty, the lake isn’t very exciting without a random monster in it! We then had a quick stop at Urquhart castle which we didn’t go into as it had started to rain and then we moved on to Fort Augustus where we stayed for the next two nights. After dinner we headed down for a boat trip on Loch Ness which was a nice way to end the day.

Nessy!

Loch Ness

Me and Nessy just hanging out

Day 2
This morning we set out early for the Isle of Skye. On our way there we drove passed Eilean Donan Castle, where we returned to at the end of the day. To get to the Isle of Skye we crossed Skye bridge, and then headed to Portree. As true British weather goes, and even more so as Scottish Highland weather goes, the day was a pathetically drizzly day, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of the highlands, but in all honesty I had never imagined Scotland to be hot and sunny! We got pointed out lots of cool landmarks, but we couldn’t see them! The most interesting bit was a windy cliff where there were rocks underneath that created a whistling noise.

On the way home we stopped in to Eilean Donan Castle which was the most picturesque castle we have been to so far. It has been used in movies such as James Bond and the Highlander.

Eilean Donan Castle

When we got back to Fort Augustus we went to a show that explained kilts, weaponry, and history. It was a huge eye opener just to understand how the scots lived back in the old days, and how useful the kilt was used as an all season, multipurpose tool!


Day 3
We set out early on our last day, stopping off to see Ben Nevis (highest mountain in UK), which we couldn’t see the top of, due to weather again! Then we arrived in Glenfinnan, a beautiful loch, surrounded by mountains. We were only intending to stay about 45 minutes for morning tea, however one of the guys on our tour decided to be funny and find out what the emergency engine stop switch did on our bus….So we ended up being stuck there for the next 5 hours! At least we were stuck in a really beautiful place with a café! We ended up waiting for another bus to come up from Edinburgh, while we went for a walk in the rain and also sat waiting soaking up the ever memorable view of beautiful, drizzly Glenfinnan.

Glenfinnan

When our replacement bus finally arrived, we headed towards Edinburgh. We stopped off at some place where we hopped on a ferry to go to a pub for a beer on haggis tours. It was funny to see the guy serving at the bar resemble the Janitor off scrubs!

Cool pub that we caught the ferry to get to

We then headed straight back to Edinburgh passing some of the most spectacular mountains and mirror lochs we’ve ever seen. The scenery is similar to the South Island at home, but the mountains were unusually green compared to the brown tussocky mountains of the South Island. When we got back to Edinburgh we found some dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we had a delicious Scottish cooked breakfast including Haggis and black pudding, giving us plenty of energy to explore Edinburgh castle and the Scottish crown jewels which weren’t nearly as exciting as the English ones – although the castle is pretty cool. We then caught the train back to London.

Bev looking really exvcited about his Scottish Breakfast!

This trip was really cool, and it was so nice to spend some time in the outdoors in wide open spaces, that really do remind us of home! We ended up leaving with some deep scottish love installed in our hearts :o)