Kilts 'n' haggis, arrrr... parrrrt 2

On Wednesday, we did the big drive - all the way around Loch Ness from Spean Bridge and up through Inverness. I took the wheel early on, driving out from Dalwhinnie (with a few tips from Gemma: Drive towards the rainbow!)...

WAHOO, we're in Scotland!

There's an interesting geological faultline running across Scotland, splicing it diagonally and leaving a series of long, thin lochs in a valley known as the Great Glen. We basically drove all around it, going past Loch Lochy to Invergarry,  where we stopped at the famous lookout point over Loch Garry. We also drove past Loch Loyne before getting to Loch Ness.

Taking a water sample at Urquhart Castle

One of the more picturesque castles in Scotland is Urquhart Castle, halfway up on the northwest shore of Loch Ness. It's in ruins now, but not hard to imagine living (and freezing) there on the banks of the lake.




We stopped for a quick picnic lunch (after driving past a slew of sheep with their new lambs), then made it to the Loch Ness visitor's center.



At first we were only going to stop to buy some souvenirs, but we got lured into the exhibition... and we weren't disappointed. Despite being totally cheezy and slightly outdated, it was surprisingly fun and informative.

















Loch Ness, the largest freshwater lake in Britain, probably doesn't have enough biomass to support something huge. The Loch Ness Monster, supposedly first sighted by St. Columba in the 6th century, is probably something else: ripples in the water, optical illusions in the mist, or a floating stick or log. Even maybe something alive - waterfowl, sturgeon, eel, or possibly a plesiosaur? But most likely, the imagination of someone who drank a bit too much whisky. Bummer.

After driving up through Inverness, we stopped at a small pub in Dores for dinner. From there we drove down the eastern shore of Loch Ness - stopping at Foyers for a quick run down to see the Falls of Foyers. It was getting dark, so we only stopped at the upper viewpoint before turning back.

Pretty sure they're feeding that thing with
old copies of Farenheit 451...

On Thursday, we drove back to Inverness to spend the day wandering through the city. Our first stop was an awesome used bookstore, Leakey's Secondhand Books. It's set in a former church, and is packed in an amazing and intimidating jumble of old books. And the scariest thing? Right in the middle of the store is a blazing wood-fire stove. Blazing. Fire. STOVE. In the MIDDLE. Of a used BOOK STORE.








It was also awesome that the books were basically thrown into random categories.

Science fiction books in the front.
Blue and black books in the middle.

I mean, COME ON! This is an awesomeness I cannot properly describe.

After browsing for a while, then having a quick lunch, we decided to walk around Inverness.
Behind Leakey's is the Old High Church, with a proper creepy cemetery.


From behind it, we walked across the Grieg St Bridge and along the banks of the River Ness.  It's a beautiful and easily walkable town, and we even saw rabbits frolicking on the hill under Inverness Castle.

We stopped to browse in a tartan shop, and since we had Scottish history on the mind, we decided to go to Fort George, north of Inverness at the mouth of Moray Firth.












The fort is still an active garrison, built after the Battle of Culloden. It's easy to see from its location why it has never been attacked - surrounded on three sides by water and with a huge wall and 'moat' on the third. It also has a gorgeous view of the water, up to the North Sea.

Fort George also has one of Scotland's only two Dog Cemeteries - the other is in Edinburg Castle, so we saw both on our trip.

Since it was a gorgeous day, we decided to have dinner on the beach. We drove a bit further north to Nairn, where we found a little fish and chips shop to get food. (I've now been indoctrinated to the joy of gravy on my fish and chips... yum.) We took it down to eat on the beach and enjoyed it while the sun set. Not a bad view.

Our last stop for the day on the way back to Dalwhinnie was the Balnuaran of Clava - prehistoric burial cairns built around 3-4,000 years ago.  We were there right around sunset, and it was pretty easy to imagine being sucked back in time like in Outlander!


On our last full day, we spent our time touring Edinburgh. We first drove straight to Edinburgh Castle, overlooking the city from on top of Castle Rock on one end of the Royal Mile.

The Royal Palace

We spent a few hours exploring the castle, visiting the prisons, the Stone of Destiny, and the tiny room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI in 1566.

Scotland's other Dog Cemetery

After returning the rental car, we wandered to the other end of the Royal Mile and toured the Palace of Hollyroodhouse. It's now Queen Elizabeth II's official Scottish residence, but back in the day in one of the rooms, Mary, Queen of Scots saw her private secretary David Rizzo murdered by her jealous husband Lord Darnley.

 There's also a ruined abbey and gardens behind the palace.

Behind Holyroodhouse is Arthur's Seat, and we took the long way around to climb it. 

Almost there...!

Windy at the top!

Arthur's Seat is at the top of an extinct volcano, and from it you can pretend to be King Arthur, looking out at your domain. Which I totally did.

Made it to Arthur's Seat!

That night, we had 9PM reservations to tour the Real Mary King's Close. A close is just a small street or alleyway, and back in the day hundreds of families lived in cramped quarters in closes around the city. There was little to no sanitation and several families living in one room, so it's not hard to see why in the 1600's, the plague swept through this area of the city. When the Royal Exchange was built in the mid 1700's, they leveled the streets (ie. the streets were built up over those downhill) so Mary King's Close and several other closes around it were essentially buried underground. 

It's now supposedly haunted, and there definitely is something creepy about being in a place where you know hundreds of people died. Plus, there's a small room where people bring toys and dolls for the ghost of a young girl, and there's a huge mound of offerings piled up. 

The view from Camera Obscura

During our last few hours in Scotland, we wandered back down the Royal Mile. We started at the Camera Obscura, on the hill near Edinburgh Castle. From there Lizzie and I went into St. Gile Cathedral and John Knox House, a well preserved home of the Protestant reformer John Knox from the mid 16th century. The rest of the morning we wandered around the city before catching our train back to Cambridge.

John Knox House

The many-leveled streets of Edinburgh

Adam Smith statue in front of
St Giles Cathedral

Greyfriars Bobby, the terrier who supposedly
guarded his master's grave for 14 years.

Overall, another great Spring Break and another amazing trip!!

Haggis 'n' kilts, arrrrrr! (Part 1)

After watching Highlander, Outlander, Braveheart-lander, and Skyfall-lander, we decided our next destination had to be... Scotland! So for Spring Break, I packed up my waterproof gear and headed back across the pond to meet the Cambridge Troops.

An early morning train ride from Cambridge took us to Edinburgh. It's a gorgeous trip up, with rolling green fields and flocks of sheep dotting the landscape. First thing we see from the cab ride to the rental car?  A kilted bagpiper, naturally!!

Drove right past Birnham Woods!

We immediately drove out of the big city and up into the Scottish Highlands. For no particular reason, we decided to spend the week in a tiny town called Dalwhinnie - famous for its distillery. It's also on the edge of Cairngorm National Park, and since there is basically NOTHING in Dalwhinnie, we used it as a jumping off place for our expeditions.

Boyband Pose, after our fish 'n' chips lunch in Pitlochry

On our way up, we stopped in a small village called Pitlochry, where we found the best fish and chips I've ever had. Excellent with mushy peas and gravy!!

Also stopped in Pitlochry for groceries, and loved that we saw a brawny, full-sleeve tattooed guy wearing a kilt (and t-shirt) coming out of the shop. So yes, kilts are still worn in daily life! And meanwhile, I'm in my long, down jacket with hat, scarf, and gloves.

I'd never have survived Outlander...


On Monday, we drove into the Cairngorms. There are about a million hikes around there, so we started by going up Glenmore Mountain to see the reindeer herd. Although reindeer had been hunted to extinction in Scotland about 800 years ago, they were reintroduced in the 1950s and now roam freely in the Cairngorms. The herd is technically privately owned, and we could go up and feed and pet them.

Feeding the reindeer

Getting water samples

While up on the mountain, I decided to take advantage of the Foldscope that I'd brought. After examining the water sample that I took up on Glenmore Mountain, all I gotta say is, ".... ew."

We took the funicular up to the Top Station. From there we could see across the Cairngorm National Park. The sad thing was that normally in early April there should be plenty of snow, but this year is was relatively warm*.

* if by warm you mean windy and freezing...

The view from the top of Glenmore Mountain, across the Gairngorms

Back down the mountain, we decided to take a hike around Loch Morlich. It's a smaller lake, and a nice easy path around it. We even spent some time doing a few geocaches!

Dinner was spent picnicking by the lake, and that evening we had our first try (of many failed attempts) at building a fire.

 

The next day, we drove up to Culloden to visit the battlefield site that ended the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. This was a fascinating look at Scottish history - when Bonny Prince Charlie and the Scottish Jacobites (the side of the House of Stuart, Scottish clansmen, and the Catholics) were soundly defeated by the Duke of Cumberland and the British loyalists (House of Hanover, Protestants). Something like 2,000 Jacobites were killed, compared to around 50 of the British, during the battle that lasted around half an hour. After the war, tartans, kilts, and clans were all banned.

The battlefield at Culloden

The memorial cairn

Mass grave memorial, Clan Fraser

From Culloden, we drove to Tomatin to visit one of the famed Highland Distilleries. Scotch whisky is pretty heavily regulated in Scotland, with a bunch of rules and regulations that I didn't totally get. But basically, you take some malted (germinated) barley and roast it, ferment it, distill it, and age it. Roasting barley means you need a fire, so some distilleries burn peat (giving the whisky a smoky flavor). You also have to age the whisky, and the barrels that distilleries use are generally oak barrels that have been used for other alcohols (wine, bourbon, sherry, etc), giving them distinct flavors.

The casks at Tomatin

Stills for distilling 

We did a whisky tasting at Tomatin (a 12-year single malt scotch, aged in bourbon and sherry casks)... as a non-drinker, it was like liquid fire that disappeared before I had a chance to swallow. Can't say I liked it, but I also can't say I hated it. What I did learn was that adding water to whisky causes a chemical reaction that breaks apart some whatever molecules and releases more flavor. Or whatever. But you can't add too much water or it will dilute your alcohol (a bad thing, or so I hear), so you only add about two or three DROPS in each dram. So no, you aren't supposed to have whisky on the rocks... way too much water!

With a few more hours of sunlight left, we decided to find a small hike. We ended up in Glencharnoch Woods, in Carrbridge. We hiked through Ellan Woods, (forests and bogs) and even did a bit of geocaching. We ended the day at the actual bridge of Carrbridge - an old packhorse bridge built in 1717.