When the tour group reached Loch Lomond, there was a kilted piper playing “Amazing Grace”. I pulled out my video camera and began filming. Since I was new to this, I wasn’t yet paying strong enough attention to what was happening in the periphery and didn’t notice two women converging from the left and the right until they were right in front of me – between my camera and the piper. I let out a four-letter word that has been captured on video for all posterity.
Our Tour Director, in addition to being a free spirit, was also quite a looker. Many (most actually) of the women on the tour were flirting quite openly with him. Once in a blue moon, a male tour director or a driver has been quite interested in establishing a liaison with at least one lady on the tour (I once had a driver pursuing me fairly aggressively). But this was not one of those times. It wasn’t long before he was seeking refuge with Mom and me. We were about the only women not vying for his attention. We both had boyfriends at the time and neither one of us has ever been the “one-night-stand” type. We definitely had more fun with him than any of the others as he relaxed and shared his humor and knowledge with us.
When I was a kid, I had read Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped”. The main character in that novel, David Balfour, is sold by his uncle to a ship’s captain who is supposed to take him to the American Colonies. This is because his uncle wants David’s inheritance. The ship gets shipwrecked near the Isle of Mull and David escapes, along with Alan Breck Stewart (who was a real, historical figure). They get separated for a bit and then get reunited to flee across Rannoch Moor, as suspects in a murder (for which, in real life, Stewart was a suspect). Rannoch Moor is quite bleak and haunting.
From Rannoch Moor, we went to Glen Coe. This was a glen formed by volcanoes. In 1692, some of the Campbells and some English forces massacred several of the clan MacDonald after being given hospitality for the night by the MacDonalds. It was unheard of to harm anyone who provides Highland hospitality. So most of Scotland was up-in-arms over this. It was supposedly punishment for not swearing loyalty to the new King and Queen (William and Mary) of England by the imposed deadline. Despite this horrendous massacre, it is a beautiful area, with a three peaked mountain called the Three Sisters.
From Glen Coe, we traveled up the Great Glen, which includes Loch Linnhe, Loch Lochy and Loch Ness, stopping off at Fort William. Fort William is where you can catch the “Hogwarts Express” out to Mallaig. We also stopped off at a World War II Memorial near Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in the British Isles). It too was once a volcano.
After a quick visit to Loch Ness, we continued on to Culloden Moor. This time the battlefield was in the process of being cleared so that the clan graves could be seen. The memorial was in pretty good shape by this point and it was easy to get to it. They had a small visitor center where we were able to watch a video about the battle. They included a visit inside of a small cottage on the moor where twelve clanswomen were trapped and burned by the soldiers. This visit was the only time I saw that. They were looking for contributions towards creating a state-of-the-art visitor center and refurbishing the entire battlefield. I took one of their brochures and sent them some money – not a lot, but something to help at least a little.
That night, we stayed at a really lovely Victorian hotel outside of Grantown-on-Spey. It had once been a group of houses that ended up being connected together and turned into a hotel. Mom and I took a walk to the river and had a lovely time out in the Highland countryside.
