Scotland: The Highlander Caledonian Canal Barge Trip
(The Gang on their first Night together)
This is the part of our Scotland trip that Sandee truly enjoyed and wants me to consider as a template for future trips.
The Highlander barge has 4 cabins and thus we were traveling with 6 other passengers. Two Westcoast sisters with their husbands: Ed and Ellen and Phil and Sally often travel together and then there was a couple: Al and Lauren, celebrating an umpteenth wedding day.
(Sailing can be a cool affair)
(Our floating hotel)
We will describe the day to day program, we were chauffeured to. Of course each day we enjoyed breakfast and lunch and drinks and dinners together. We started in Inverness and six nights later we reached Banavie, a harbor area near Ft William, from where we were transported back to our cars in Inverness.
(Annemarie prepping the luncheon table)
(Chef Mike explaining his secrets: working in small galleys)
Life on a barge is a relaxed way of seeing this part of the world with cabins being refreshed each day, with chef Mike providing almost Michelin Star quality meals, where hostess Annemarie is lavishing us with drinks and bites between meals and then there is guide Graham with a van bringing us to whatever is on that day’s program.
(Returning after a good days exploring with Graham and ready for a Scotch)
We all waited at a hotel in Inverness for various vans that ferry their customers to different locations for different trips. Thus the eight of us got to meet each other for the first time in our assigned van and subsequently at our barge, where we enjoyed our champagne welcome, and then settled in our cabins. Al and Lauren had the much envied suite, but then again it was their umpteenth wedding “week”.
(Graham on the dock waiting for us to go on new trip)
(Entering a lock where the crowds await the mooring entertainment I provide)
The Caledonian canal is for 2/3rd natural lochs and for the rest a dug canal, with 29 locks reaching 106 ft/32m above sea level. The project started in 1804 and finished in 1822, 12 years over budget. (That is another way of explaining why it was more costly than anticipated). The famous Loch Ness is part of the Caledonian Canal and thus part of this wonderful trip but did not reveal Nessie to us. Maybe we did not look hard enough for it.
(Our evening entertainment in the saloon after others went to bed)
(The Caledonian Canal has narrow parts)
We were moored and slept that first night at the Muirtown Locks and every day enjoyed breakfast at different times, as some of us sleep longer than others. That first night on board we shared our “bios” and some of us our “bias” on the various travel modes we have experienced in the past. This writer needs to state here, that the week was spent in harmony among strangers who found that they liked each other. (Of course 4 of us knew each other for eons already).
(Graham in Culloden behind his Clan’s memorial stone)
(The Leanach farm workers cottage most likely used as British hospital
is location C on below map)
(You may need a magnifying glass to read the details)
After lunch that first day Graham herded us in his van and we visited the famous Culloden battlefield, where in 1736 Augustus William, Duke of Cumberland, the 3rd son of King George II commanding battle-hardened English troops, who had successfully fought the French in Flanders, in less than an hour defeated the Scottish clans and then rounded them up and executed as many as he possibly could. That battle ended Bonnie Prince Charles hopes to return his dynasty to the British throne securing a lasting British Hanover Dynasty, presently reigned over by King Charles III.
(My hommage to writer Diana Gabaldon)
(Sandee looking for picture options)
And Scottish aspirations of independence ended there too, despite past Scottish prime minister Nicola Sturgeon political efforts. The gloomy overcast weather presented a perfect background for our imaginations.
I could almost hear the clans battlecries and the booming of the British cannons on the slight bluff overlooking the muddy moor that James Frasier (Outlander) and his clan mates yelling at the top of their lungs stormed forward.
(The sun entrance to the cairn)
(Stone circles everywhere are still mysteries)
(Most likely a burial ground for chiefs)
Afterwards the visit to the Clava Cairns was also a sobering visit, burial grounds at least 4000 years old, where pagan rituals were performed by the Pict priests who lived in the area in those days. Like the Stone Henges in Salisbury and on Orkney, early people’s religious belief systems concentrated on earth, sun and seasons in ways scientists are still speculating on. One, to me intriguing speculation is, that, for example, in Clava Cairns, the sun entered the “womb-like” cairns as the “magical phallus of the sun god”, impregnating the female earth deity, birthing abundance to the tribes, which the priests during the pagan festivals had prayed for.
(Cawdor Castle supposedly built around a long gone holly tree)
(The Cawdor clan belongs to the Campbell clan but have
A swan in their crest instead of the Campbell Boar head.
Swans are associated with elegance and music and they underlined
that sense with the motto: Be Mindful)
(The kitchen area with unused copper all around)
(The Countess bedroom)
The next day we visited Cawdor Castle used as background by Shakespeare in MacBeth, still occupied by the Dowager Countess of Cawdor as her residence. The surrounding gardens were beautiful and during our visit highlighted by an abundance of sun (not a common phenomena in Scotland).
(Castle Gardens full with sculptures)
(There is even a labyrinth closed to the public)
But the story of MacBeth is being overshadowed by the story of the present Dowager Countess Angelika. The read of this present day tawdry tale is best described in the newspaper article by the Independent. We saw a glimpse of Lady Angelika as she drove in while we left the premises. Mind you the story is from 2006. But since that year nothing has changed to the “ownership” of Cawdor. Enjoy below read:
Life on board was very pleasant, the open bar had many among us sample the wide range of Scotches on a regular basis. And our Annemarie honored any wish we might have had. Our captain only moved during the day and the evenings were filled with extra guest appearances, such as 2 Scottish lads that performed their lyrics. We found out that they were on Spotify. You can hear them as the Calum MacPhail duo. They also have their own website
www.calummacphail.com.
(Calum sits on the left)
(Al wearing a sheep’s woolen cloak)
(Medieval shift with Tartan plaids as shawl)
We had another evening a gentleman, a kilt maker telling us about Scottish Clan patterns and materials and used one of us as mannequin to show how to properly drape yourself in the medieval dress code using the many yards of the luscious weaves.
(Surprise bagpiper, discovered by us because
of the sounds emerging from the forest)
(We all filed out to listen to his “concert”)
Not to forget the gentleman walking out of the woods toward our landing spot in full regalia, piping his bagpipe. I believe he is a member of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.
(Al trying to get a peep out)
These evenings were a relaxed affair with many questions being peppered at our guests. Some of us tried to get sound out of the bagpipe, with mixed and definitely unmelodious results.
(Afternoon drinks while lazily floating by)
A Scottish tale teller had us spellbound one evening, as Scottish lore is well served in an original country setting as the wind whips the shutters of our barge.
(Meeting the sister barge in a lock)
Our barge with captain Mick at the wheel, seconded by his wife as mate, who often shooed me away as I was trying to be of misguided help while entering or leaving locks, entertained us the final evening at the captains table.
A highlight of the trip was at the grounds of a Benedictine monastery in the little town of Kytra where we a treated to a private Falconry and Birds of Prey demonstration, where we had the opportunity to hold various beautiful birds on our arms. The pictures really tell the story best. It was a best day for me to be able to have a Bald Eagle looking straight past me, a few inches from my face.
Our Guide Graham feasted with us at a farewell dinner, while celebrating his years of being the barge’s guide, as he and his wife are retiring to a hamlet in France after our trip. The restaurant thanked him for his years of patronage with dessert and the proverbial candle to blow.
And during our days of driving the highlands surrounding the Caledonian Canal we had to of course visit the likely most photographed castle in all of Scotland: Eilean Donan, featured in many movies including a James Bond movie.
(Most romantic location: Eilean Donan
at the corner of 3 lochs)
(A little more realistic picture from nearby)
The last day we toured from our final mooring place Banavie the famous nine lock Neptune’s staircase, ending with a tasting at the Ben Nevis distillery and getting the tour, disclosing all the gory details that make the distinctive Scottish whiskeys different from other countries dabblings in this field.
(Ben Nevis distiller tank holding 2000 liter)
All in all I will admit that this type of professional form of learning and enjoying of this part of the world was a welcome addition to my amateurish efforts in world exploration tinkerings.
Here a smattering of pictures taken during our trip:
Thanks, Erik! Great memories…
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