A Total Katastrophe: 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 Despite being totally cheezy and slightly outdated, it was surprisingly fun and informative.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.