Month: March 2018

Once nicknamed “Athens of the North”, Edinburgh was built on seven hills, which are extinct volcanos. The big three are Castle Rock (where Edinburgh Castle is located), Calton Hill (mainly a park with some monuments), and Arthur’s Seat (a windswept crag that has evidence of Iron Age and Bronze Age settlements and is still essentially wild). A fourth is called Corstorphine Hill and was where our hotel was located for this visit.

Due to a mix-up, the hotel had decided that my mom and I were one person instead of two and had given us a small room with a twin bed. They were all booked up and so didn’t have any other rooms. Our tour director switched with us since his room was large enough to add a rollaway bed – sort of. I needed to climb across Mom’s bed to get to the rollaway, but we were only staying for two nights. We had been in close quarters together before and survived, so we figured we could make it through this too.

The central part of Edinburgh is divided into two sections – the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town is mainly along the trail of lava that flowed down from Castle Rock to where Holyrood Palace (the Queen’s official residence when she is in Edinburgh) is located. The group of roads that follow the flow is called The Royal Mile. The Old Town is mostly medieval and has tall buildings (six to eight stories) that were built prior to the invention of lifts (elevators). Depending upon where the building is located, you can go in one door and actually be on the fourth floor, with the ground floor accessed from another street on another side of the building (that happened with a hotel in which I stayed on a later trip).

The New Town is Georgian and was built mostly on the flat ground on the other side of a loch (that was then drained). It is a very unique city. I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced another place quite like it.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, it was considered to be quite intellectual, which was when it acquired the nickname “Athens of the North”. There are several universities and private schools plus loads of museums. Edinburgh has been home to several authors, including Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Rankin, and J. K. Rowling. Numerous philosophers,  artists, scientists (such as Charles Darwin), physicians, inventors (such as Alexander Graham Bell), architects, and engineers have also called Edinburgh home.

Just the other side of Arthur’s Seat from Holyrood Palace is a very old, tiny village called Duddingston. It has been settled for several centuries and has a pub called the Sheep Heid Inn that dates back to 1360. That was where we went for dinner on our first night in Edinburgh. The place also has a skittles alley. Skittles is a much older variety of, and forerunner to, bowling.

On this trip, we were taken around town the next morning and then dropped off at Edinburgh Castle. We had a ticket for admission, but not a guided tour, so we could explore at our own pace. Then, the rest of the day was free until we were to be picked up in the late afternoon in front of the Hard Rock Café on George Street in the New Town. Edinburgh was the one location on this particular tour where we had plenty of time to explore.

Since Mom and I had been to Edinburgh Castle before, we didn’t spend a lot of extra time there. But we definitely wanted to see the Scottish Crown Jewels as well as the Stone of Scone (which had finally been returned to Scotland in 1996 after King Edward I had taken it in 1296. It had spent 700 years under the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, where we had last seen it). We had the entire Royal Mile as well as Holyrood Palace to see. So we did the royal apartments (which included the Crown Jewels) and St Margaret’s Chapel and headed down the road.

Our first stop was Gladstone’s Land. This had been the home of a 17^th century merchant. So, a roughly middle class person. It was fun to see. The turnpike stairs were very narrow (and the house six stories in height). It seemed to be a quite accurate portrayal of Edinburgh life in the early 1600s. They had these things to fit over one’s shoes call pattens, the purpose of which was to be able to keep your feet above the filth found in the streets. This was in the time of the contents of chamber pots being pitched out of the windows.

Our next stop was lunch, followed by visits to St Giles’ Cathedral (where John Knox preached) and John Knox’s House (where he died). In between was Deacon Brodie’s Tavern. Deacon Brodie was Robert Louis Stevenson’s model for “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde”. He actually ended up being hanged on a scaffold that he had designed.

Holyrood began with a legend. King David I of Scotland had a vision of the cross (or Holy Rood) and built Holyrood Abbey on the spot where the vision led him in 1128. The ruins are still there. In the early 1500s, King James IV of Scotland (grandfather of Mary, Queen of Scots), built a palace next door to the Abbey.

Mary, Queen of Scots had her residence there when, in 1566, her private secretary, David Rizzio, was dragged from the Queen’s private supper room (next to her bedchamber) and murdered in front of the Queen and her ladies by the Queen’s husband, Lord Darnley, and several of his cronies. Darnley was not the brightest bulb in the fixture and was also likely drunk at the time. He ended up being murdered a few years later himself. After Rizzio’s murder (he was stabbed 56 times), Mary fled to Edinburgh Castle to await the birth of her son, James. The room in which he was born is so tiny that there is barely enough room to take a photo (or a decent selfie). He became James VI of Scotland and followed Elizabeth I to the throne of England as James I. He was the fella who commissioned the King James Bible.

After James VI became James I, the palace wasn’t used much as he spent most of his time in London. Once James’ son, Charles I, was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell took over, part of the palace (not the part with Mary’s rooms) was burned down and the rest of the place was not exactly treated with respect. In 1671, after Charles II was restored to the throne, he had Holyrood Palace rebuilt, keeping the tower containing Mary’s rooms intact.

The entire palace is wonderful to visit and I do so every time I am in Edinburgh. In addition to the apartments that had belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, I especially enjoy the Gallery. This is because it is lined with portraits of every monarch Scotland has ever had, back to ancient times. Since most of these people never had a likeness made when they were alive, there is no way of knowing what they actually looked like. The artist apparently used the same model a lot as most of the early portraits look alike. I understand the sentiment behind all of those portraits. But I find it quite amusing.

I also like the bed in the King’s Bedchamber. In the Victorian era, it was displayed in Mary, Queen of Scots bedchamber. Tourists were told that it had been Mary’s bed. The reality is that the bed was made nearly 100 years after Mary was executed. It was the correct time period for the bedchamber that had been created by Charles II in the 1670s, however, so it was moved there. That also gives me a chuckle. So glad that present day historians are a little more accurate regarding their facts. The current bed in Mary’s bedchamber wasn’t hers either, but at least it is from the right time period.

Photos are not allowed inside Holyrood Palace, which just irritates me to no end. But, what are you going to do? Those are the rules. Fortunately, these days, there are plenty of professional photos on the internet, plus I bought some books with photos back when I was there. Oh, and there is a ghost too. What decent castle or palace doesn’t have at least one ghost?

Getting from Holyrood Palace to the Hard Rock Café on George Street looked so easy on the map. But that wasn’t taking into account that Edinburgh isn’t all on one level. We ended up on some streets that were a couple stories beneath where we wanted to be. It took some reconnoitering and a few flights of stairs to correct the situation. Where we ended up was actually pretty interesting and was very, very old. I think it is included in some of the “haunted Edinburgh” tours.

Once we got to the Hard Rock Café, we still had enough time to sit at one of the outdoor tables and have some ice cream before the tour bus arrived to take us back to the hotel. Some of the other members of our tour group who made it there with time to spare, joined us. The latecomers seemed rather envious when they arrived as we finished our ice cream and the bus was loading up.

When we got back to the hotel, we found that some folks had checked out that day and that we had been upgraded to a Superior Room for the night (What? No suites?). We weren’t going to be in the room much, however, since we had signed up for the Scottish Night option. Nearly every tour to Edinburgh includes this option. An entire ballroom at the hotel where they had it was used and packed to the gills. It was a dinner with Scottish music, both instrumental and vocal, plus some special Scottish dancing and an emcee who was a comedian who’s main line of jokes involved what was or wasn’t worn under the kilt. The music and dancing were good; the food okay; the comedy bleh. It was worth doing the once, but it hasn’t been a repeat experience for me. We did get to try some haggis, which I actually liked and have had a few times since in Scottish restaurants.

The following day, we headed back to Glasgow, making some stops along the way. The first stop was Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce trounced the English army, led by King Edward II, in 1314. Although his father, Edward I, had been quite the soldier and nicknamed “the hammer of the Scots”, Edward II not so much. In the aftermath, England had to recognize Scottish sovereignty and Robert the Bruce as the Scottish king. The two countries remained separate (although the Stone of Scone remained at Westminster Abbey) until James VI of Scotland took the throne as James I of England in 1603.

Although Bannockburn was where Scotland won its independence, it was where I managed to catch a chill that led to a doozy of a cold. It was a cold, dark, blustery day up on that hill where the monument to the Battle of Bannockburn resides. While we were there, it began to rain – in torrents. We headed towards Stirling, but bypassed the town, seeing the castle from a distance. Then we headed west to Aberfoyle – Rob Roy country.

We had lunch in Aberfoyle and watched some sheep dog trials. Those dogs are amazing. Next to where they had the sheep dog trials, they had several birds of prey. They had falconz, hawks and eagles of different types, plus several owls. There was this one, tiny little owl who was dancing to some music only he could hear. He was adorable. I didn’t yet own a video camera, so I couldn’t record him doing his thing, but I did get a photo.

By the time we arrived in Glasgow, I was very ill. We were having a group dinner that night. So I got everything ready for the next day, went and had dinner and came back to the room as early as possible. I did sleep a lot on the plane on the way home. We had to switch again in Amsterdam, but then I had hours before we reached Minneapolis. The flight attendants took pity on me, as they could tell I was quite feverish, and kept pouring liquids down me. Fortunately, we were right next to a lavatory.

Glenfinnan, on the shores of Loch Shiel, is significant as the location of Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films. Harry Potter fans will also recognize the viaduct of the West Highland Railway, which the Hogwarts Express takes to get to the school (and under which Ron and Harry drove a flying car). But Glenfinnan is also historically significant as the location where Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prince Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the exiled King James II), and the clansmen he gathered (known as the Jacobites), raised his standard in 1745 – ultimately leading to the Battle of Culloden and his retreat to France, never to return.

I took photos of both the monument to the Prince, as well as the distant location of Hogwarts on the edge of the loch, and the viaduct. I still haven’t ridden the train, but I did get it chugging along, blowing its whistle and belching out steam, on video on a later trip.

Close to the Isle of Skye, three sea lochs – Loch Duich, Loch Long, and Loch Alsh – meet at a little island called Eilean Donan. On the island is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland. The castle was originally founded in the 13^th century by the Mackenzies and was destroyed by government ships in 1719 due to the owner’s involvement in the Jacobite rebellions. Between 1919 and 1932, the castle was restored and has been open to the public since 1955. We didn’t get to tour it on this trip, but I did a few years later. Loved it! It has been used in several films, most notably in “Highlander”.

Further north, the waters of Loch Maree were once thought to have curative powers – as a cure for lunacy. I can just hear my friends and family who are reading this saying, “Did you have your swimsuit with you?” Due to its remote location, it doesn’t get a lot of tourists. But it is beautiful.

On the shores of Loch Ness are the remains of Urquhart Castle. Nessie is rumored to hide out in an underwater cavern beneath the castle. The present castle ruins date from the 13^th to the 16^th centuries and was built over the ruins of a medieval castle. It is now one of the most visited castles in Scotland and is one of the largest in area.

After a photo stop at Urquhart, we went on to the Loch Ness Centre & Exhibition at Drumnadrochit. It was an interesting collection of items, photos, etcetera of Nessie through the years, beginning with a reported encounter between St Columba (the guy who founded the monastery on Iona) and the monster in 565. Just outside (after an extensive gift shop) is a replica of what Nessie is thought to look like in a pond. Then we boarded boats for a ride on the loch.

I love to go for boats rides, so was perfectly happy to go out on the loch and look for Nessie. It was a beautiful, calm day with very little wind, so the water was as smooth as glass. The water is quite murky because of the high content of peat, so any rolling water looks black and looks like there could be something large and black moving just below the surface. The wake of the boat frequently looked like something could be following us. Add to this the fact that the loch is exceptionally deep. The entire Eiffel Tower could be upended and immersed in Loch Ness with room to spare.

It is really quite a pretty place. Due to the Loch Ness Monster legend, however, over the years the loch and the area around it, has attracted all sorts of people looking for monsters, or practicing witchcraft and/or other dark arts. They had a fairly prominent warlock (male witch) living on the shore in a pretty good-sized house and estate back in the late 1800s. I seem to remember them saying that he met a rather odd end — something to do with a kelpie (a legendary water horse, prevalent in Scotland, that likes to drown people).

We stayed the night in an old Victorian hotel just across the river from Inverness Castle (which is where the government offices are located). We really enjoyed the hotel’s atmosphere, food and location. After dinner, we went for a walk along the river and over the bridge to the other side and back. It was in the river where St. Columba had his encounter with the Loch Ness Monster, which was supposedly why it fled the river to the loch.

Our next stop was the Culloden Battlefield. The date was 9/11 in 2003 and was raining hard when we got there. They didn’t yet have much for visitors to see (now there is plenty to see and do, including a wonderful visitor center) and we hiked quite a ways in the mud to get to what little could be seen. But the tour director led us in a moment of silence and prayer once we got to the small memorial they had at the time.

In 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s followers, who were mostly Scottish Highland Clansmen, faced down a much larger force of the British Army and some Scots who weren’t interested in backing the Stuart claim to the throne. The battle itself didn’t last long. Those Jacobites who backed Bonnie Prince Charlie who weren’t killed outright, we either slaughtered in the aftermath or taken as prisoners to Carlisle or the Tower of London. Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped and fled to the Isle of Skye (where the whole story of Flora McDonald comes in) and on to France.

The kilt, bagpipes, tartan in general, the Scots Gaelic language – basically anything really Scottish – were outlawed. No Scotsman could own a weapon of any kind and large numbers of entire Scottish families fled to Australia, Canada, and the American Colonies (which is one reason, along with the later Highland Clearances, why so many Scots ended up in places other than Scotland). The song “Auld Lang Syne” that everybody sings on New Year’s Eve was written about the “Days Long Ago” before all of this happened. The British National Anthem, “God Save the King/Queen”, was appropriated from the song that had been used by the Jacobites and made its debute four months after the battle. It wasn’t until King George IV made a visit to Scotland in 1822, wearing a kilt, that it started to become okay to be Scottish and keep Scottish traditions again. Later, Queen Victoria’s love of Scotland, and all things Scottish, made it very popular.

After Culloden, we visited a distillery and learned how Scotch whiskey was made. We also found that one of the byproducts of the whiskey distillation process is a cattle feed that is given to the cattle in Scotland. This feed kept them free of the mad cow disease that plagued so much of the rest of Britain. The feed also produces a very tasty meat.

Many of the roads in the Highlands of Scotland are what they call “single track”. This is a single lane road, but with small areas to pull over should you meet someone coming from the opposite direction. The idea is that, whoever is closest to a passing place, pulls over and lets the other party drive past. We were in Braemar and nearing Balmoral when we passed by a fella who had pulled over for us. We found that it was Prince Phillip. He gave us a wave as we went by.

A while later, we stopped in a lovely village for lunch at a pub there. A couple of dogs called the pub home. They walked around and greeted everybody who came in, then found a spot to lie down and keep an eye on everyone. I was missing my dog by that point. They allowed for some petting upon arrival, but then they had a job to do. The pub was very old with lots of dark wood and stone. Very cozy. After lunch, we needed to get across a hump-backed bridge about a mile down the road, so we all got off the bus and walked across to lighten the load.

We turned south near Dundee and arrived in St Andrews for an afternoon break. Most of the people on the tour were interested in the Old Course and the Museum of Golf. The tour coach parked next to the museum. Mom and I were interested in the castle and the cathedral, even though they were in ruins. We nearly flew down the road to get to the castle and maybe see a little of it before we needed to head back to the coach. Unfortunately, the person in front of me in the shop (which was where you also bought the tickets) had loads and loads of questions. So we ended up spending our entire time standing behind this guy, looking at our watches. Our time was up before the other person was finished, so we sighed and headed for the exit. The person behind the register said, “I’ll be with you in a minute.” But we had to respond, “Our time is up. We’re on a tour.”

That can be one problem with a tour – limited time in a location where you’d love to stay longer. But I recently had lunch and an entire afternoon in St. Andrews, which was also on a tour. This tour in 2003 was a short (nine days) introductory tour of Scotland. So all of our visits were fairly short. On longer tours I have had much longer periods of time to see what I want to see. But in 2003, I was just getting a taste of all that Scotland had to offer, which is a lot.

From St Andrews, we continued down to Edinburgh, the topic of the next post.

At the time of Clan MacDougall’s inception in the late 12^th century, they held most of the area of Scotland known as Argyll, plus Mull and most of the southern western isles. Clan Campbell came along about a hundred years later and came into conflict with the MacDougall clan over whose territory Argyll should be. Then came Robert the Bruce, who murdered John Comyn in 1306 because he felt Comyn was too strong of a rival for the Scottish throne. The MacDougalls were kinsmen of Comyn, so they met Bruce at the Brander Pass, were ambushed by him, and lost — badly. Because the Campbells had backed Bruce, he gave them all of Argyll. This was the territory we came into as we left Glasgow and entered the Highlands.

After leaving Glasgow, we passed Dumbarton, which has a castle on Dumbarton Rock where Mary, Queen of Scots once stayed. Our first actual stop was the village of Luss on the western shore of Loch Lomond (a fresh water loch — Scottish for “lake”). It is a picturesque village with cute little cottages and loads of flowers. The loch is considered to be the boundary between the lowlands and the highlands of Scotland and is the largest inland body of water in Great Britain.

The song “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond” was supposedly written by a Scotsman who was imprisoned in Carlisle Castle (just across the border into England) on sentence of death after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The “high road” was for one who was living and the “low road” was for one who was dead.

A very steep climb out of a glen when heading further west from Loch Lomond peaks at a very appropriately named spot called Rest and Be Thankful. The road and the name were created in the 1700s when travel was by foot or horse. Although the tour bus didn’t have quite the strain to get up the mountain as a horse or a person, we did stop and get out just to look at the beautiful views.

Our next stop was the town of Inverary on Loch Fyne, which is a sea loch. The area is heavily engaged in the business of oysters and herring. This was where we had lunch that day.

The town had been rebuilt on its present location in 1770 when the Duke of Argyll (chief of Clan Campbell) decided that where the town was originally located was a perfect place for him to build a new castle. So the Duke had a new town built, moved everyone into it, tore down the old town, and built his castle. Fans of “Downton Abbey” would recognize the castle from the 2012 Christmas episode when the Granthams visited their Scottish cousins. We didn’t have time to tour the castle on this trip (we did a couple years later), but we ran as fast as we could to get as close to it as we could to take a decent photo.

Continuing west, we reached Loch Awe and the ruins of Kilchurn Castle. Loch Awe is a fresh water loch known for trout fishing. It has several ruined castles sitting on islands. The most spectacular is the 15^th century Kilchurn Castle. It was a Campbell stronghold which was struck by lightning in 1760. Its setting is also spectacular, so photos of it are gorgeous without much effort on the part of the photographer.  It was a short trip through the Pass of Brander from there to Oban, with the remains of two MacDougall castles – Dunollie and Dunstaffnage.

Dunstaffnage is partially ruined and dates to the 13^th century. After the Battle of the Pass of Brander (1308 or 1309), it became a crown property, held by the King of Scotland. In the 15^th century, the King gave it to the Campbells. Prior to the existence of Dunstaffnage, there was an earlier Dál Riatan castle on the site from about the 7^th century. The Dál Riatans were the people known as the Scots (or Scoti) after whom Scotland would eventually be named when one of their kings (Kenneth MacAlpin) became the king of the entire country.

Dunollie Castle, originally called “Dun Ollaigh”, was also an ancient fortress of the Dál Riatan kings. Nobody is certain how old it really is, but it was burned down a few times in the 7^th and 8^th centuries and could date back as far as the 5^th (when the Dál Riatan Scots first arrived in the area) or the 6^th century. It was refortified with an earthwork castle in the 12^th or 13^th century.

After the Battle of the Pass of Brander, the castle was given to the Campbells, but was regained by the MacDougalls later in the 14^th century. In the 15^th century, it was rebuilt. The ruins that you see today are mostly from that time. But by 1745, the castle was abandoned and Dunollie House was built just downhill from the ruins.

The MacDougalls (from whom I have some ancestry on my father’s side) are the Lords of Lorne (the Dál Riatan Kingdom of Lorn) and are mainly descendents of the Dál Riatan Scots (a Celtic race originally from what is now Northern Ireland) with a fair amount of Norse Orcadian thrown in.

In Oban, we found that our hotel was just down the road from Dunollie Castle. So we walked to the castle. It was too late in the day for a tour, but we got a pretty decent look at the outside.

Just before dinner that night, I was introduced to the Scottish way of drinking Bailey’s Irish Cream – with milk, no ice. I was also introduced to a Scottish version of Bailey’s that had heather in it. Both were pretty tasty. I still have Bailey’s with milk upon occasion at home.

Cullen Skink, Plaice, Neeps & Tatties, and Banoffee Pie were served for dinner. Cullen Skink is a cream soup with smoked haddock, potatoes and onions. Plaice is a type of fish caught in the North Sea. Neeps & Tatties are just turnips and potatoes. In this case they were diced and mixed together. Banoffee Pie is made of bananas and caramel with a whipped cream topping. By the time we were done with that meal, we were beginning to have Scottish accents ourselves.

The next day, we took the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry to the Isle of Mull. This had also once been a MacDougall possession. Our purpose on this trip was to drive the long way across the island to take the ferry to Iona and visit the Abbey there. Mull was where I encountered my first Highland Cow and had my first taste of Irn Bru (a bright orange soft drink that tastes like a cross between an orange Crush and a cream soda). Our tour director told us that we didn’t want to get too close to the “hairy coos” as they could be rather dangerous because of their horns and their weight and that we wanted to stay up wind of them as they could be “a wee wiffy” (rather stinky). They are mighty cute, however, with their short stature and long red fur that tends to spend most of its time in their eyes. They come in black, white or yellow too.

When we got to Iona, we found that we were in the middle of a “rush hour” (although there are no cars on the island). It seemed that everyone else had picked that same time to be there. Mom and I decided to get something to eat and then head for the abbey. Bad idea. The cafeteria was crammed with people. It took forever to get food, find a place to sit and eat it, use the facilities and head out. By that point, we had limited time on the island. The abbey was still crowded with people, was fenced off, charged a fee, and wasn’t letting anyone in at the moment because there were so many people. That left us with exploring the small chapel and cemetery outside of the abbey itself. Supposedly I have some ancestors buried in that cemetery. Once again, though, the grave stones were so old that most of them were barely decipherable, plus many of them have been moved inside of the Abbey Museum to protect them from further erosion. So I couldn’t find anybody specifically. It is a great location with the sea lapping on the shore just below the cemetery. Not at all a bad spot for one’s relations to come and visit one’s grave.

Iona was part of the Dál Riatan kingdom. In roughly 563, St Columba, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland, much in the same way that St Patrick brought it to Ireland, founded a monastery on Iona. The Celtic Cross is considered to have originated on Iona. The Book of Kells was begun on Iona and moved to Kells when the Vikings kept raiding the island and killing off several of the monks. The monastery was finally abandoned in the 9^th century.

Somerled (the fella whose sons originated both the MacDougall and MacDonald clans) led a raid of Iona in the late 12^th century that freed it from its Norse hold. It became a holy site again. The Abbey was built in 1203 and a convent (led by Somerled’s daughter, Bethoc) was established in 1208. Somerled is thought to have built the small chapel in the cemetery.

In a later trip, when I was able to return to Iona, I grabbed a sandwich at a small shop, which I ate on the way to the abbey, which was no longer fenced off or charging a fee (there were fees to see various parts of it, but no fee just to get inside), plus we were there at a time when there were fewer people. Once again, timing was all.