Day 6: Isle of Skye September 4

Again, bags out at 7, breakfast at 7, and on the road at 8:00 with our first destination: Loch Ness. 

I think everyone has heard of Nessie, or the Loch Ness Monster, especially those of us near Lake Champlain with our equivalent Champ. Though I searched in vain for Nessie, she didn't appear as we drove the length of Loch Ness. We did stop to take some pictures above the loch.

No sign of Nessie!

Blackberries? I don't think they are big or long enough to be "Tay Berries" a Scottish berry used the same way we use blackberries and raspberries.

Loch Ness

From our picture stop we could just barely see Urquhart Castle, but we didn't stop to visit this one.

Urquhart Castle from Loch Ness photo stop

Urquhart Castle from the bus

Pastured next to the parking lot at our rest stop were some Highland Cows, or, as the Scottish say, "Heeland Coos." Our guide assured us (again) that these cows like to come up to the fence and pose for pictures. Again, he lied, though I did see him try to get their attention! They barely tweaked their ears. Some were even rude and kept their backs to us the whole time.

The baby was very cute, but ignored us, too!

Random nice picture of Bob at the rest stop!

Many of my notes and memories from the drive this day are a blur - literally - several blurred snapshots taken through the bus window. Our tour guide gave us a dialogue about the Battle of Culloden, Jacobite uprisings, and Bonnie Prince Charlie which you can read about by clicking on the link. I can't begin to recreate all of the Scottish history we heard.

Some of the interesting facts I can share from my sketchy notes are these:

• The Scottish Highlands tend to be a favorite "holiday" spot. (The word holiday is used as we use the word "vacation.") We saw a small castle across one of the lochs that can be rented out by a group of 18 to 20 people. My notes don't include the name, nor have I found it online. It is common for people to rent out similar facilities in the Scottish Highlands to fish, cycle, hike, or just relax in the country. Here is a blurry picture of one we saw:

• Schools in Scotland have a break in mid-October which is still often referred to as "Tattie Holidays," so named because this time off from school was originally intended for the children to help gather potatoes. Teachers may be interested in this blog post by a teacher from the Scottish Highlands (I"m going to go back to her blog to get some recipes!). Or, if you are interested in the history of Tattie Holidays and what it was like for children back when it was really a holiday for picking "tatties" here is another link.
• Our tour guide informed us that Scottish people honor the dead by taking great care of cemeteries. This was obvious to us wherever we traveled through Scotland and Ireland. After spending some time wandering graveyards in NNY over the past few years to get family background history, and seeing how decrepit one of my family graveyards appeared this past summer, I was amazed at how well preserved the stones are and how nice the graveyards look in Scotland and Ireland. I'm sure the weather has much to do with stone preservation (winters aren't as harsh as NNY), and that the rain keeps the grass green and lovely, but it was evident that these graveyards receive loving care.
• The Isle of Skye is composed of some of the oldest rocks in the world. The mountain range is called the Cullin, distinguished as Red Cullin and Black Cullin. The Red Cullin mountains are more rounded and composed of rose quartz and feldspar granite, giving them a reddish appearance. The Black Cullin mountains are jagged and sharp looking, composed of gabbra, a very abrasive rock. 
• Though we heard this from Forbes way back on our second day in Scotland, it was also mentioned by our guide that hikers, or "walkers," aspire to hike all of the Munros to earn the title of "compleater," similar to becoming an Adirondack 46er. Having once aspired to hike the 46 high peaks in the ADKs, I was very interested in this topic, learning that there are 282 (or 283?) mountains over 3000 feet high, named Munros after Sir Hugh Munro who listed them in the 1800s. A few more to climb than in the Adirondacks!

Our first stop on the Isle of Skye was a rest stop at the Eilean Donan Castle. This was a quick stop with no time to tour the castle, but we did have time to wander around, stretch our legs and breathe in the fresh highland air.

Eilean Donan Castle

Spotted in the parking lot. No, I don't have permission to post this and
failed at blurring out the faces.
I will gladly take it down if the people in the picture contact me. 

Next stop: Clan Donald Skye and Armadale Castle. This was a lovely stop with time to eat lunch and wander the grounds. I think we finally figured out how to plan our allotted time and really enjoyed the outdoors on this stop. The grounds and gardens are astonishingly beautiful. The Clan Donald center had a lot of information on emigration from the time period my ancestors would have left Scotland. I took lots of pictures of placards to review at a later time.

Armadale Castle - I've always loved old ruins.

Some snapshots around the grounds of Clan Donald Skye.

Back on the bus, we drove to the Mallaig ferry, sailed across to the mainland, and entered an area of Scotland where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. A short stop at the Glenfinnan Monument and Visitor's Center gave us a chance to snap a couple photos, but we didn't climb the steep hill for a view of the viaduct from the Harry Potter films. We did catch a glimpse of it a bit later from the bus.

Glenfinnan Monument

Glenfinnan Viaduct filmed in Harry Potter movies

On the way to our hotel we drove past Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 4,408 feet above sea level. Many clouds and fog covered the mountain so we didn't have good views.

We were greeted at the Isles of Glencoe Hotel, with a beautiful rainbow over Loch Leven.

Some of our traveling companions were not especially pleased with our "remote" location, but it was a perfect respite from the cities we'd visited and long days on the bus. On a lake, surrounded by mountains, fresh country air, no traffic - what more could you want for a peaceful evening after a busy day? A short walk from our hotel was an old slate quarry where we wandered around for a while and then stopped at a small grocery store to stock up on drinks and snacks.

Another view from our hotel grounds.

Views around the slate quarry

Today's surprises, cool things:

• Ben and Jerry's for sale in the small, local store. Picture too blurry to share.
• Rhododendron is a weed in Scotland (and Ireland), and very invasive. More on that again later. 
• None of my pictures of heather show the true color or amazing the purple hue that washes across the countryside.  
• I don't know why I'm so fascinated with weeds!