The Road Trip North to Scotland

It's north to Carlisle and further north to skirt around Glasgow and now we stop at a place you probably have heard of, Loch Lomond.

Now this is not just any random pic of a nameless bay on a really big loch. See that island dead ahead? You are looking at Monks Island and in front of it is Bandry Bay. There was once a monastery out on that island in the 1700's and it is believed that Saint Kessog was killed here. Saint Who?

Kessog was the patron saint of Scotland before St. Andrew. Of course that means that back then, when Scots went into battle they yelled his name. Saint Kessog goes way back. He died in 560. It is said that from an early age he performed many miracles.

Right across the street from this view, was quite another view:

I think Charlotte liked it here. She fed the ducks all the food we had

I'd like to give you a sense of some of the beautiful open spaces of Scotland. We sometimes drove on one lane roads for many miles without seeing a building or fence.

A still moment at a small loch near Bridge of Orchy

An old castle south of Fort William. In the background is the mountain chain containing the highest point on the entire United Kingdom, Ben Nevis. Check out the webcam from up on the mountain  http://www.visit-fortwilliam.co.uk/webcam/
 

That night we stayed at the Clan McDuff Hotel just south of Fort William. It was really reasonably priced. The catch was that there were no places to eat anywhere near there and their dining room prices were over the top. We drove to Form William to eat.

Here is the great view of Lock Linnhe from their dining room

We learned there is a train that departs from Fort William that was used in the Harry Potter movies. Here is that website http://www.westcoastrailway.co.uk/ (cool steam engine sound effects)

Here we are making our way toward the Isle of Sky. We are way up in the northern part of Scotland where very few people live. There is just lots and lots of wilderness areas here.

As we get closer to the Isle of Sky we come across one of Scotlands more famous castles. The Eilean Donan Castle near Dornie. This is the central area for the clans of the MacRaes and MacKenzies.

Most of the castles in Scotland were destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. For hundreds of years the clans all seemed to fight each other. There would be alliances, then something would happen and that would fall apart and they would realign their loyalties and fight again. Over and over.

And you haven't been to Scotland if you haven't gotten up close to some sheep

We're out on the Isle of Sky now. Way on the northern end on a one lane road. Charlotte remembered these cliffs form a previous visit. Back then there was really no one around. No fences. Now there are fences. The weather on this day changed about every five minutes. We got out of the car and it started raining like the dickens. The wind kicked up and made a really eerie howling noise on the guard rail pipes.

And then the weather changed again...

Charlotte, still soaked from the cliff rainstorm, just had to sit in some heather

There were whole hillsides of heather

Baaaa

With all the changes it weather, it was really cool to see this rainbow as we were leaving the Isle of Sky

I grew up with a mountain ash tree right outside my back door. There were groves of them here.

We are now headed to the very northern tip of Scotland. Not many people make it this far out. The castle ruins get pretty sparse.

Ok. Here is what a typical Scottish one lane road looks like. At the top right you can see one of the frequent widenings that are used to pass oncoming traffic.

We've made it to the total far north. This is a small place called Durness. This is the North Sea.

The land just ends and then its all ocean...

You have to wonder, why did Charlotte so want to go all the way out here. We got a clue. There were only a few buildings in Durness. And this was the biggest one.

You did know that Charlotte's maiden name is McKay. The old pronunciation was like McKhi. So it gets you thinking. Where do you think the clan MacKay was based? Here's a map to help you with that question.

That's right. Durness is smack dab right in clan MacKay land.  Charlotte has Clan Princess instincts!!!

Continue on to Scotland from North to South...