6/20/11 Isle of Skye

We crossed the bridge to get onto the Isle of Skye, population 10,000. On Monday we drove to Dunvegan Castle - home of the clan McLeod.  Beautful scenery on the way

 

 Typical scene, area of water with some grassland and rugged hills towering beyond.

Dunvegan castle from the front.  Some places are called castles because they were built on the foundations of ancient castles and not because they are true castles (fortesses for military control of specific areas).  This is more of a very old stone mansion.  No pictures allowed inside.

Dunvegan Castle from the side.  We are standibng on the lower battlements where cannon controlled the crossing points of two lochs and one sea inlet.

There  are beautiful gardens at the back of the castle.  There is a 200 year old Monkey Puzzle Tree in the garden that originates from Chile.  Very interesting, somewhat like a pine tree.

Actual branches of the Monkey Puzzle Tree.  The tree was a puzzle to us until we were told what it was from one of our fellow travelers.

The McLeod fairy bridge - One of the clan chiefs was married to a fairy who was called back to her family.  When she crossed the fairy bridge, she dropped a flag  for the McLeod clan which she said could be unfurled twice in time of need, but to beware of unfurling it the third time.  It is said to have been unfurled twice. Once during an epidemic, and once during an attack from the MacDonald's.  Both times it  stopped the disasters from happening.

Eilean Donan Castle - a castle completely surrounded by water at high tide.  Although there is a land entrance now, when it was built, there was only a water entrance for around two hundred years.

Ariel view of Eileen Donan. It was never captured by force while the Scots held it.  During the rising of 1745 it was garrisoned by the Spanish while the Scots gathered at the orders of "Bonnie Prince Charlie".  The Spaniards surrendered it to the Campbells (who were fighting for the English) who promptly blew it sky high when they found hundreds of tons of gunpowder stored in it.  It was restored during the early 1900's.

Scene for a local mountaintop.

Our tour director, Geoff Cordwell. He was fantastic. Really sanguine and really into what he was presenting. Got Barb into the singing and clapping of various songs.  He had a different tie for each day representing different countries.

The coach driver, Mark.  He did an awesome job of negotiating sharp turns, very narrow roads and oncoming traffic, plus dodging sheep that were on the road.

This was the "sunset" view from our hotel window on the Isle of Skye. Taken around 11:30 PM (I couldn't sleep until very late on a number of evenings.)  But the sun really never sets all the way this far north at this time of the year.  It was beautiful.

A bit about our tour group.  Of the 43 people on the tour 2 are Canadian,  20 are American and 21 are from Australia.  It has been a very good group and we have met some wonderful people.  The Australians seem to travel a lot as most were in Europe before this tour or are staying several more weeks after this tour. A discusion on Vegamite will come later.

6/19/11 - northwest coast

Sunday morning we left for the long trip around the northwest corner of Scotland and down the west coast to the Isle of Skye.  The road is one lane for about 75 miles, with "passing places" about every 300 yards where one car can pull over while the other passes.

All houses are either made of stone or have a concrete like stucco on the outside.

The pictures do not do justice to the beautiful hills in the highlands

The grooves in the hill are where water has worn a pathway down the hills

Steve & I on a pier behind our hotel on the Isle of Skye. The tide is low here, at high tide the water comes within 10 feet of the hotel and our room window looks out over the water

6/18/11 The Orkney Islands

The Orkney Islands are 7-14 miles off the northeast corner of Scotland.  We took a ferry out to the islands.  Once there you feel as if you are still on the mainland, as it is rolling hills and mainly agricultural.

World war II Italian prisoners were housed at  the Orkney Islands.  They built a beautiful chapel out of  scrap materials using their masonry, painting and ironwork skills.

Brodgar is the Scottish equivalent of England's Stonehenge.  The stones complete a full circle about 200 yards in diameter

Scara Brae is a 5000 year old circle os stone dweeling undcovered by a storm

Stone beds would be a bit hard to sleep on!!

6/17/11 - Thurso - an evening ceili

Ceili(kaylee) means a small gathering.  In our case we all went to the Old Smiddy for a small gathering with Raymon Bremnar, who told /Scottish stories and sang gaelic songs for the evening

the small stone room was about 15x15 and packed with about 35 people from our group

bagpipes played by a young man

Inverness-Thurso Dunrobin castle

Dunrobin castle is not so much a castle as home to the Duke of Sutherland.  True castles were built first as fortifications, second as living quarters.  This is a palace with stone walls.  It has too many weak points to seriously oppose an attacking army.

This is a part of the gardens behind the castle.  This is the norm for high class gardening behind castles and palaces.

The falconry presentation was awesome.  He used both falcons and owls.  Rabbits run at 30 - 35 miles per hour.  Falcons dive at 40 miles per hour.  If the rabbit is too far from cover, too bad. 

One hoot staring at another.

This is a statue remembering the Scottish peasents who were forced off the land when their leases ended.  Called "the clearences", the land lords set fire to their roofs so they couldn't return and they wouldn't have to pay tax for a dwellable structure.  Over 15,000 lost their homes and livelihoods starting in the 1820's.  The landlords wnated to use the land to raise sheep, which brought them more income.

Culloden battle, Cawdor Castle & Loch Ness

The Battle of Culloden in 1746 lasted only about an hour.  It was the attempt of Bonnie Prince Charlie to rally the Highland clans around him, to fight the English  and set up Scottish rule again.

It was Scottish highlanders with swords and claymores and a few muskets against English troops with mortar, guns and bayonets!  The highlanders were defeated and Bonnie Prince Charlie retreated and fled to France.  he above is the cairn in memory of the Highlanders who died there.

Above is the battle field which is totally flat and covered with heather.

Cawdor Castle

Cawdor Castle is the castle setting in MacBeth.  We toured the open part of the castle, while part of it is still lived in by the Dowager(widow) Countess Cawdor.

There are huge tapestries on the walls, hard to imagine actually living there.  They had a wall garden and formal garden both were beautiful!

Loch Ness

Loch Ness is the largest inland lake in all the United Kingdom. It is 24 miles long and one mile wide in some parts.  We took an hour boat ride on the Loch, very beautiful and relaxing.  We viewed an old castle from the water.  We had a few ducks landing on the edge of the boat and pecking at us for food, but no sight of Nessie.

Oh wait! There she is!!!  Took the picture after Steve fainted!

Edinborough and countryside

 

The symbols of Scotland:  the unicorn, the thistle plant, and ther red on yellow coat of arms.

Holyrood house

The outer courtyard area.  The picture shows the main entry way into this 247 room palace.  The Queen and family will be here in several weeks and then it will be closed to the public.  Being very security conscious, no pictures are allowed inside the building.

This is part of the ruins of the abbey located next to Holyrood (Holy Cross) palace. 

Edinborough castle

This the walkway leading up to Edinburgh Castle.  The lower outer walls are British built in the early 1800's and are of different stone and cut.  The inner walls date from much earlier, with the inner chapel going back to the 1200's.

This is a part of the main  battlements guarding the main gate.  The guns were placed here to stop the expected Napoleonic invasion.  The walls are up to 10 feet thick solid stone.

This is the entryway into the War Memorial.  Inside are volumes listing the KIA of wars over centuries.  We found about 5 McVeigh's listed, most during W.W.II.  No pictures allowed inside.

Richard, our tour guide, was excellent in knowlege and explaining all we saw.

The great hall, used for huge banquests, is filled with military weapons and armor from the Middle Ages into the 1700's.

View from the castle wall overlooking  part of New city section of Edinburgh.

Streets of Edinborough leaving the castle.  It is all downhill back to our hotel.  We saw a young man demonstrating sword play and defensive moves.  Very interesting but I didn't think to take a picutre.

Edinburgh countryside going north.  This is the top of an extinct volcano.  Edinburgh is built on top of six massive volcanic plugs.  I never thought of Scotland having volcanic action before.

Traveling north from Edinburgh.  Plowed farmland is scarce in this country.

Mick what is this?  St. Andrews golf course:  the 18th green.

Typical rural scenery going north:  sheep in green fields with hills in the background.

The rough looking area in front is actually heather; which is a low very thick bush hard to move through.  This is all over the place.