Scotland Highlands, brooding and full of lore
(Typical Highland picture of castle ruins and a few visitors)
There is a Scottish saying, that Scotland has two seasons, June and winter.
We visited the highlands in September for a month and found the weather added mystique to the lonesome places we visited. We were prepared for cold weather and infrequent rain, but the low clouds hovering over mountain ranges and driving through areas where 1.9 person lived within a square mile on roads that were narrow and winding, added a sense of forlornness to the trip.
(Our Commodore Suite for the overnight ferry to New Castle UK)
(IJmuiden our departure harbor not too far from Amsterdam)
Let’s start at the beginning:
Sept 5, a taxi dropped us off in the Dutch harbor of IJmuiden, where we boarded the ferry to Newcastle upon Tyne, an overnight affair in a spacious cabin with reservations for dinner away from the buffet elsewhere, where most passengers seem to flock to.
Next morning we found our car rental agency downtown and started our first day in a Skoda Octavia, a car that served us well during this trip, but often seemed to big for the roads we travelled on. About that much later in this blog.
(This is one of the much maligned single track
Scottish Highway roads mentioned in the blog)
(Sometimes driving in slippery wet conditions,
praying not to have oncoming traffic)
Personally, my attraction to Scotland like many other visitors is based on tv series and movies about the centuries before when Scots were pitted against each other by warring clans or against the English as long ago as when the Romans controlled England. On our way up from Newcastle we passed the famous Hadrian Wall and hikers, who follow the remnants of the Wall while learning all about the skirmishes with the barbarians in “skirts” from the North.
(Remnants of the Hadrian Wall, the Roman way to keep the barbarian Scotts out of their empire)
As a devotee of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series I was especially interested in finding places where characters of her books roamed and castles that bring those stories to live. Our first day was a long ride to get straight into Cairngorms National Park, to the town of Banchory not too far from Balmoral Castle where Queen Elizabeth was in residence as she did every September month. We spent 2 nights there and were at Her Majesty’s Castle 2 hours before her death with a handful of other visitors lurking around the gated area. The only difference was a camera crew who for some reason was waiting for something that “might”, “could” happen.
(Royal Gates at Balmoral, closed to people like us)
(The guard house at Balmoral)
(A war memorial near the gate at Balmoral with to me an interesting self explanatory stone about it)
That day we saw several castles and enjoyed the rolling landscape at an easy pace, as it was our first day in the Highlands. Let the pictures do the talking.
(A few of the Neighborhood Castles to Balmoral)
Sept 8: The next day we packed our belongings and drove toward the coast just below Aberdeen, where we lingered around, visiting the imposing 13th century ruins of Dunnottar Castle, impregnable in its time, with first found remnants of Pict artifacts, who seem to have been protecting themselves there between 5000BC and 700AD. Vikings stormed it in 900 and killed the residing king Donald.
(Dunnotar Castle - Gaelic meaning: Fort on the shelving slope)
Famous Scottish William Wallace took the castle from the English forces, leaving no survivors in 1297, only to lose it to English forces again in 1336.
The Scottish King James II bestowed in 1458 Sir William Keith the hereditary title of First Earl of Marischal and the Dunnottar Castle. Mary Queen of Scots visited, and the 5th Earl of Marischal founded Marischal College in Aberdeen, the second university in Scotland. When Cromwell’s army tried to take the Castle all Scottish crown jewels we hidden in the castle. Luckily he did not succeed. There are many more stories. Today it is one of the most visited castles in Scotland.
(Kirkwall main drag before the cruiseschip unloads)
(View from our hotel balcony towards the North and view Eastward)
Early evening we took the ferry to Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkney Islands, arriving there around midnight, finding our way in a town already asleep.
If it wasn’t for 2 half drunken girls on their way home we would not have found our lodging, where a young lady sitting behind the reception desk was happy to provide us with the key and directions to the elevator, while closing up to go to bed herself, as she had been sitting there for several hours solely waiting for us knowing when the ferry would arrive.
(Orkney is in general flat and graast with sheep and cattle farms)
(But with a high bluff overlooking the
North Sea direction Faroe Islands)
(In the distance the lone Lord Kitchener
Memorial on the highest part of the bluff.
More about him further down in the blog)
Sept 9: we are in Orkney 4 nights as these islands are unique in so many ways.
These islands have been inhabited for at least 8500 years by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes followed by PICTs and Annexed by the Kingdom of Norway in 875. The name Orkney is an Old Norse word for Seal Islands.
Nowadays 22000 residents call it home, 9000 of them live in Kirkwall and many spend their days farming, (cattle and pork as well as sheep) or fishing. Almost everyday in the season one or two cruise ships unload their passengers on the main island, crowding the few streets downtown with a thousand plus gawking people, destroying the true atmosphere of a very small ancient cobblestoned township.
(St Magnus Cathedral and it’s surrounding Graveyard)
Most people visit the St. Magnus Cathedral, surrounded by the traditional very full graveyard you cannot be buried in anymore. Offshore oil drilling is serviced from Kirkwall too. And the islands produce 130% of their energy needs the green way, working on a plan to export that growing excess to the mainland.
(Stromness is not only a ferry port brutalist a main fishing village)
We toured that first day for several hours the main island where 17000 people live. (Orkney Archipelago counts 71 islands, but only 21 are inhabited) and organized a guide for the next day to get more details and visit the main historic sites.
Sandee and I made a special trip to the Ring of Brodgar late afternoon to get sunset pictures of these holy grounds for people living here more than 5000 years ago (older than Stonehenge)
There is an eerie feeling when at dusk against the setting Sun you walk an ancient temple like environment, where the stillness brings feelings of fire and offerings to mind.
The other top sights we visited in Orkney were Skara Brea Prehistoric Village and the farm on which land this village was discovered. (Actually by the farmer himself, who according to archeologists did more damage than good, until they got involved.) A seawall now protects this 5000 plus year Neolithic UNESCO Heritage site, from disappearing in the sea.
(This Neolithic settlement is older than the Pyramids, inhabited for more than 600 years by 50 to a 100 people living as equals as all homes are identical in size and structure)
(Each stone house had a similar layout, a single room, a central hearth, a dresser, built in storage area and beds)
The Italian chapel has a nice historic charm: the British prisoners of war were sent here to create sea barriers to stop German U boats from entering Scapa Flow, where the British fleet was anchored when not on a mission.
(550 Italian prisoners of war were allowed to build the chapel as per the request of the camp priest)
Well German Captain Prien did exactly that in the early months of World War II, before Winston Churchill sent in his Italian prisoners of war to plug the possible entrances to Scapa Flow with boulders. A nice read is here:
The Italians were allowed to build their own Catholic chapel in their “free time” and apparently had among them able craftsmen as the chapel turned out to be a beauty.
(2 Nissen huts joined together were transformed into this beautiful chapel)
(Typical view of undulating farmland on Orkney)
A nice walk uphill through green farmland where numerous rabbits were hopping around (I was told that their capacity to procreate is becoming a problem) we reached the cliffs of Marwick Head, where in season the puffins would house by the thousands, now we saw a few skuas who nest there yearround. A lonesome tower dominates the view here: Lord Kitchener Memorial. Lord Kitchener was in 1916’s World War I the British minister of war, and on Monday June 5, he set off from Scapa Flow on HMS Hampshire for Russia to have secret negotiations with the Tsar. The ship sank under mysterious circumstances in the waters we were scanning high up there on the cliffs besides the Memorial Tower.
(Sun setting in Orkney)
(Our Ferry back to the Mainland)
We left via Stromness by ferry these beautiful, during our stay, sunny islands back to the mainland to drive the wildest part of the Scottish Highlands, the northwest part where the population denseness is 8 people per sq km or 21 people per sq mile. The road meanders through valleys and mountains, dotted with little lakes or streams, while the vegetation is gradually changing colors.
(Once back on the mainland you realize quickly that we are in the least populated part of Scotland - the western Highlands)
The stillness is only broken by the few passing vehicles during the four hours we travelled to the town Kylesku, our first finding of a population in these parts of the world. To be truthful we lunched in a reasonably populated coastal village called Bettyhill early on, before turning inland where an occasional farm indicated unseen human presence.
(Interesting threat to the uninformed traveller)
(The first hotel driving southwards on the western side of the Highlands)
The overnight in the Kylesku hotel outside of town overlooking a connecting water between 2 lochs, where in the past the ferry would have brought us across, being the sole reason for the hotel’s location, but now being sidelined as half a mile away a new bridge replaced the ferry. The hotel was pleasant and the food was excellent. Nowadays signs direct you off the main road downhill to the hotel,
(Somewhere in nowhere we are warned for
crossing frogs)
Our next stay was planned at the edge of this wild northwest highland area for 4 nights to allow us to explore this Wild West part of Scotland: Summer Isles Achiltibuie, a very isolated 4 star hotel with breakfast lunch and dinner, because there is nothing else around to feed us. It is said Queen Elizabeth in her younger days specifically liked the Summer Isles to visit by boat and have a picnic ashore of one of those islands on a regular basis while in Scotland.
(We were tempted to rent this lighthouse as offered but it would screw up our travel plans)
(Westward of the lighthouse the remains of a Croft house. Crofting is an agricultural landholding system unique to Scotland since the law of 1886. It is worth reading about)
Well, arriving at the hotel around lunchtime we were told that because the season was over and staffing problems besieged them as so many other establishments there was no lunch service anymore. The village store sold sandwiches we were told.
(Summer Isles Hotel)
The route towards this part of Scotland exposed Sandee our “preferred driver” for the first time to single lane two way traffic. (She had to study using Google the driving etiquette of these narrow often in disrepair routes). Her driving style changed from precise to overhyped, a headache creating mode.
(Welcome sign to Summer Isles)
(Next day this brooding “go away” message)
So at last arriving at the hotel and denied the relaxing luncheon she had looked forward to did not improve her mood. As we now had 4 such days to look forward to and the days turning into rainy ones, the only highlight of the day was hibernating in our room where there was a real well wood stocked fireplace to read by. The evening cocktails with other guests (and every night there were quite a few) and very well prepared dinners made the stay during those hours pleasant.
The second day we were told by the staff that about 30 minutes driving from our place a bar, Fuaran Bar, served nice luncheons, thus that became our daily trip, rain or shine.
(Our little tour boat around the 20 Summer Isles Archipelago)
We took a 3 hour boat trip around the Summer Isles on a day that the sun shone, but had to race to the Fuaran Bar to be there 5 minutes after lunch closed. The chef was kind enough since we were almost regulars to allow us to choose from his leftover options for that day.
(Some with human habitation)
(Others with Seals)
During our boat trip we learned about one island Tanera Mor, that had been bought by a London private fund manager, Ian Wace and was being built up not only for his friends and clients to visit for fundraising purposes, but also to rehabilitate soldiers with PTSD.
(Tanera Mor fixer upper)
(And another ongoing project)
Our, or should I say my, next destination was Scotland's scariest single lane road across a mountain range to the isolated village of Applecross, another seaside village eyeing the Isle of Skye on a good day. We had reasonable weather so Sandee survived the trip, constantly gripping the steering wheel as if it needed pulverizing.
(This is the famous crossing to Applecross)
We waited about 20 minutes looking at a caravan and an SUV trying to pass each other in a bend where they seemed to become one vehicle in their efforts to pass each other. Passengers of both vehicles alighted and shouted controversial instructions. It did not improve her mood, but I had fun watching the scene.
On Sunday we found a Presbyterian church with 12 worshippers and a traveling minister in the next village past Applecross, who had a decent sermon. The announced invitation for tea afterwards must have been elsewhere because everybody left.
(View from our hotel window for 4 nights- could have spent those elsewhere)
(The church in Applecross)
As you must have gleamed by now from this epistle, this part of our month in Scotland had mixed reviews from my beloved, who for the first time during our decades of travel, had some critical opinions about my travel planning skills hereto. I therefor will write a second Scotland blog about the part of the trip she chose to include: the barge trip of a week on the Caledonian Canal.
(Made a photo from this picture to show the famous route)
(This is the real route with me driving back from Applecross)
As I was privileged to drive the treacherous crossover trip back from Applecross, where she tried, unsuccessfully, to not give me driving lessons, we ventured onto the Isle of Skye, mentioned in the opening song of every Outlander series episode, and drove to the other end of the isle, where we lodged for 4 nights at the Greshornish House in Edinbane, a former country home of clearly wealthy Scots, nicely hidden at the end of a lane frequented by wandering sheep above a wide Loch.
(Access road to Grehornish House)
(Greshornish House and its front lawn)
(Sandee enjoying the fireplace and forgetting about Applecross)
(An example of daily cuisine here)
Places like these offer breakfast lunch and dinner, as there is nothing in the vicinity to be found, unless you wanted to dine at a 2 star Michelin restaurant 40 minutes away in a 20 home one street fishing village, from where we undertook at 6.30 am a full day boat trip to the Island of St Kilda.
(The first house is 2 star Michelin restaurant)
(On our way to St Kilda)
Another adventure that I am welcome to do on my own if such events come up in future trips. But about that a few paragraphs below this one.
(Dunvegan Castle - home of the MacLeods)
This area belongs to the Macleod Clan a famous clan in Scotland, who did not partake in the battle of Culloden but sided politically with the English government. Their castle Dunvegan is stil inhabited by the 30th chief of the clan, Hugh Magnus MacCleod. We took the tour of the castle and watched a video spoken by Hugh Magnus, who at that moment had most likely lunch at the top floor in his private quarters.
(castle visit admiring their rooms)
(Hugh’s office when tourists have left)
That same Hugh is owner of the Island of St Kilda, the remotest part of the British Isles, some 41 miles/66 kilometers west of the Outer Hebrides, all alone in the Atlantic Ocean.
It’s islands has exceptional cliffs and sea stacs, the most important seabird breeding station in northwest Europe, with a famous story of a 1930 evacuation of its native population, bringing to a close an extraordinary story of human survival who inhabited these isles for over 2000 years.
(One of many seastacks surrounding St Kilda)
(These have seasonal birds nesting)
(St Kilda main Island-with researchers as present inhabitants)
(St Kilda info sign written daily by resident researchers)
Here is the Wikipedia story for those who are wanting to know why I needed to go:
I cherished that Wikipedia story even more after I visited and roamed the main island now “scarred” with an ugly research building. The resident scientists live in the original homes of the islanders, so many are not accessible to us tourists.
Our boat had 11 tourist who undertook the 4 hour trip in and then back, allowing us 3 hours to roam the main island. I have pictures galore. During the castle visit my eye caught a picture with thousands of dead birds on the beach of St Kilda.
(The annual catch as rent to the MacCleod Chief)
The Chief of the MacCleod clan sent each year his steward to collect the taxes due, most often he collected thousands of fulmar birds known for their high oil content. I relished this visit roaming between the silent remains of a lost culture.
(Storage shed)
(Remains of original housing, some of them
inside converted to scientist housing)
But as I mentioned Sandee afterwards and during the boat trip told me to please enjoy during any of our future trips certain destinations by myself, allowing her a day of relaxation in reading a book.
*Editors Privilege: it was8 hours of very rough sea crossing in cold wet weather with 3 hours ashore to see an island that was easily toured in one hour.
(Hotel Schloss Roxburghe welcoming committee)
(Our view from hotel room)
Our final 4 days were spent in border area below the Hadrian wall in a beautiful Castle Hotel Schloss Roxburghe on the outskirts of Roxburghe.
(Nearby Kelso Abbey Ruins)
(Town of nearby Jedburgh)
We undertook a few half day trips to neighboring towns and recovered from our “wilder Scotland” travails.As always: May the pictures paint a better story than my spinsels.
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