Jen and Rebecca Find the Crowded Tourist Sites

R: Friday morning we started out at Eilean Donan, as our hotel conveniently overlooked this castle, the most photographed of all in Scotland, some say. But it seems to be a pretty big deal to tout your site as “the most” something, so who knows if this is really true. It is indeed picturesque, but frankly, leaving the western highlands apparently meant we found where all the tourists were hiding. It was pretty crowded, and we rushed across the bridge to beat the tour bus population into the castle. The castle had been rebuilt in the early 20th century as a summer home for the owners, but we also learned about the castle history. A nice castle visit, I think.

J: I did enjoy the castle, but was saddened by the sudden influx of tourists, just the night before we had been the only ones and now I had to share my adventures with a crowd? After Eilean Donan, we had a long drive to central Scotland and Loch Ness. As everyone now knows, I do love the modern sites as much as the historical, so I was very happy when we got to stop at one of the northern points of the Caledonian Canal. We didn’t get to see a large cruise ship move through this time, but we did get to see the swing bridge in motion so that a small boat could sail into the lake.

R: At the canals at Fort Augustus, we got our first glimpse of Loch Ness, but we decided to save our Nessie-watch for after lunch, when we stopped at Urquhart Castle. This was a castle ruin, which in general we have liked a lot on this trip, but this particular ruin was filled with people other than us, which made it a little less exciting. We still wandered through as many inches as we could, watching for Nessie out of our peripheral vision, at least…

Too many tourists at Urqhart Castle

Managed to take a photo without other tourists in the background!

J: We did have a fun photo shoot attempting to eliminate the existence of all other visitors to the castle. I think we succeeded in making it look like we were the only ones there in one or two shots…Once we had finished with all of the fun to be found at Urquhart Castle, we moved up the road to the Loch Ness Visitor Center for a bit of Nessie shopping and site-seeing, but as we over-heard at lunch, she’s on vacation at Manchester, so I wasn’t holding out much hope.

Shaun in search of Nessie

R: Sadly, we didn’t see her, but we left as believers, nonetheless! We continued on our journey with just enough time to have a tasting at the Moniack Winery before it closed (though the shop girls had already gone home for the day, so the nice owner, who doesn’t know how to use the credit card machine, was kind enough to let us in anyway.) We had a few sips of cherry, plum, elderflower, and silver birch wines, plus a few flavored brandies as well—all wines made with primarily Highland ingredients, not from grapes.

J: We didn’t have hotel reservations, so an hour or so and 2 bad moods later we finally found accommodations at the Thistle Hotel. It was an over-priced Holiday Inn, but at that point, we were willing to take what we could get. Our moods did improve after a pint and an order of potato skins, but it was a still an early night with the hopes of a better Saturday.

R: Who knew there would be so many people in Inverness for a late September holiday? I blame it on the shinty tourney happening the next day. Inverness was the only town we didn’t pre-book a hotel and the only place where we didn’t see “vacancy” signs in a lot of B&B windows. Go figure.

Jen and Rebecca Brave the Blustery Winds of the Isle of Skye

R: Thursday was looking to start out lovely, but as in past days, we were fooled into thinking the loveliness would last. During our mile-long drive to our first stop at Dunvegan Castle, it had started to rain yet again. But by the time we got our rain jackets on for the walk to the ticket booth, the rain had stopped. (This pattern repeated itself much of the day as in past days.) The grounds at Dunvegan were very well gardened and nice to walk through, despite a bracing wind, but the attack of the scaffolding struck again. Much of the castle exterior was undergoing renovation. Inside we saw bits of the original 13th century stone castle walls, but also how the McLeod Chiefs of the 18th century renovated the interior to be stylish then. I particularly liked seeing the clan horn from which every male heir to the chiefdom must drink a full horn-full without sitting down or falling over. Apparently the current chief did it in record time.

J: The most painful part of my day came next. That’s right…I let Rebecca take me to a yarn shop. In the middle of nowhere…but oddly…it wasn’t so bad. We met the woman who dyed the wool and she answered all of our silly questions. And now Rebecca has a fun new sweater to make! Our next stop was brief, but also interesting. One of the 3 remaining tanneries in the UK is also located on Skye and they offer tours of the tannery. The guide walked us through the entire process (they do everything in the traditional method) and it really was quite interesting.

R: The yarn was really pretty! I was so excited. And I can’t wait to start knitting my sweater, pattern also purchased at the shop…after I finish the other 20 projects in my knitting queue…Sigh.

R (continued): I was forced to leave the woolly goodness behind. We traveled on to Uig, through more breathtaking scenery, in an attempt to visit the Isle of Skye Brewery. We found it, but they don’t give tours (or samples) and just have a gift shop. So we had lunch at the nearby pub overlooking the Loch Snizort (awesome name) where I was able to buy my own sample of the Cuillin Red (tasty). Clearly I have grown happier with driving here if I was willing to drink a half-pint and then continue driving. We proceeded to explore the scenic route around the Trotternish Peninsula and stopped at the Skye Museum of Island Life, a village of old crofts set up to show historic weaving, blacksmithing, living conditions and the like. I think we would have enjoyed this more if the wind coming off the coast wasn’t blowing us over.

J: Rebecca (and me too) became even happier once we discovered the highland cow by the side of the road. I’ll admit I had become a wee bit fascinated by them since pictures of the animal are all over the guidebooks and they have stuffed ones for sale in gift shops. So, when one was actually close enough to get a good shot of we pulled over for a little photo shoot. I’m sure if the farmer who owned the cow saw us, he would have thought we were nuts. Oddly enough, this wasn’t our last cow photo shoot of the day. Warning signs are posted everywhere for all types of farm animals possibly being in the road, but today, we finally encountered one! A big black cow was taking up half of a single track road. I’m pretty sure I amused the passenger in an oncoming car when I took a shot of his driver trying to maneuver around the animal.

R: The benefit of being on the northern tip of the Isle of Skye is that only one car passed us while engaged in our photo antics, so not too many people saw us look like such idiots. I also realized today how much my Iowa childhood prepared me in the ways of the polite hand-on-steering-wheel finger wave, in this case thanking cars for giving way on the single track roads… Anyhow, our last stop on Skye was another castle ruin at the north end of Trotternish, Duntulm. We might have also stopped along the way for some additional photo ops of the striking mountainous scenery, but we were running behind schedule to get to our next overnight town. Plus some sites, like the Old Man of Stor rock formation, was pretty well covered in the mist after which the isle was named, and therefore not particularly photogenic today. Oh well. It was nice to see in passing.

J: The rest of our trip passed uneventfully, although I suppose that’s a good thing while on vacation, right? We did pass through some stunning scenery, which I’m sure would have been much more striking had it been a clear day. Once we arrived at our hotel for the evening, we discovered that it was, indeed, as promised, right across the road from the Eilean Donan Castle – extremely handy for tomorrow morning! Dornie is a slightly less sleepy town than Dunvegan, so we were able to find an open pub for tonight’s dinner. But, by 9pm, we were the only 2 patrons left in it.

Jen and Rebecca Head for the Heather-Filled Hills of the Hebrides

R: It’s now Wednesday and I’m happy to report that I’ve become comfortable enough with driving on the left with a manual transmission on crazy hilly, curvy roads that I actually passed two cars today. I’m still struggling to find comfort with single-track roads and getting to the reverse gear, but I guess you can’t win them all, right? Today’s route involved a lot of scenic driving that I could only glimpse briefly through my peripheral vision so as not to run us off the road or into oncoming traffic. But we stopped a lot so that I could also enjoy the views. We started just outside Fort William at yet another castle ruin. (I think I like the ruins better than the refurbished castles anyway, frankly.) Inverlochy Castle was fun to climb around like the other castle ruins we’ve seen.

J: For the science portion of the day, we stopped at Neptune’s Steps – a series of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal. Our visit was made more interesting by the passenger boat undergoing the process of moving through the locks. In total, it takes 90 minutes for a vessel to make it through all 8 locks. We didn’t stay that long, but we did watch it move thru one of the locks. Our next stop was another historical/entertainment stop. We took some photos of the Glennfinnan Monument before heading up to the top of a hill to see the Glennfinnan Viaduct made famous by one of the Harry Potter movies.

R: The Glenfinnan Monument commemorates the raising of the standard by Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites, but I’m guessing most tourists, like me, were more excited about the Harry Potter connection. Jen, however, couldn’t care less about Harry Potter, but I’m happy she indulged me. The route we were taking to Mallaig is also the same basic route the steam train (used as the Hogwarts Express in the movies) takes to transport tourists through the awe-inspiring scenery in this area, so we were on the lookout for it. While we heard its whistle and the chugging sounds in the distance while at Glenfinnan, we didn’t catch up to it until just before arriving at Mallaig where we caught the ferry over to the Isle of Skye.

J: Our first stop on Skye was at the Armadale Castle, once ruled by Clan McDonald. The castle itself is now in a state of ruin, but sadly we weren’t allowed to play in this one. Our visit to the castle visitor center was during one of the sunny periods of the day, so we wandered a wee bit in the gardens before heading into the Clan McDonald Museum. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend much time reading the exhibits because we still had to drive halfway across the island to the Talisker Distillery before it closed for the day!

R: More pretty scenery (and more single-track roads) to get to Talisker, but the visit was worth it. We arrived too late for a tour, but read about the distillery in their mini-museum, plus they gave us each a free dram to try. I liked the smoky Talisker better than Oban, myself, and I think Jen agreed, especially once she added a bit of water.

R (continued): As I kept getting distracted by the pretty views while driving, I spontaneously pulled over at the Dun Beag Broch to get a better look while not driving. We hiked up a steep heather and sheep-filled hill to see this prehistoric stone dwelling overlooking the loch. Despite having to watch our steps to avoid the sheep poo, the views were worth stopping for.

J: We selected the town of Dunvegan for our overnight location, entirely for its location. Neither of us, apparently, looked into anything else about the town because we had no idea just how tiny or sleepy it was. I think the entire town is made up of a castle (awesome – and our planned first stop tomorrow) and a bunch of B&B’s. There are a grand total of 4 restaurants in town: one is closed for a private party, one didn’t have enough staff to wait on the guests staying at the attached hotel, the 3rd just looked scary and the fourth was a gas station café. Guess where we ended up? Needless to say, it’s going to be an early night.

Jen and Rebecca Follow the Random Brown Signs

R: Jen and I were again happy with our hotel choice. While not a free Hilton again, our Oban hotel upgraded us to the family suite, for some reason, so we each had a giant room to ourselves with our own giant TVs and our own nice views of the harbor and town. Plus, as an added bonus, the towel heater in the bathroom worked! Once we tore ourselves away from our awesome rooms and BBC’s morning show, we wandered through Oban where every moment had us guessing about whether it would continue to rain all day or not. Enticed by the brown sign saying that the coliseum-like McCaig’s Tower was only a half-mile away, our steep climb would have been more pleasant without the rain. But the walk back down sans rain psyched us up for a visit to the Oban Chocolate company for hot chocolate.

J: I’d hate to say that the hot chocolate was the highlight of my day, but there is something to be said for cocoa made with fresh chocolate. Today turned into a day of “what does that brown sign say? Want to go there?” It started with an abandoned priory outside of Oban. It offered up some lovely lake views and photos of church ruins. It was only a mildly stressful for Rebecca to drive down a single-track road. She was much happier once we arrived for lunch at a little café overlooking Castle Stalker. And, so was I because I was once again lulled into thinking it had stopped raining again. Silly me.

R: Castles sitting alone on tiny islands are pretty cool. We managed to make the short walk to the castle viewpoint without precipitation, but good thing we didn’t linger!

R: Onward to the village of Glencoe, a one-street town nestled between the monros and hills. We first stopped at the Folk Museum which, as one of the other visiting American tourists noted, looks a lot like an antique shop with its odd collection of old things. But there was a nice display of implements needed to card and then knit wool over the years, plus some old Victorian dresses complete with a description of proper dance etiquette that was pretty interesting too.

J: There was a small display on the Glencoe Massacre at the museum and we followed up our history lesson with a viewing of the Massacre Monument a few minutes later. We finished off our time in Glencoe with a short forest walk around one of the many lochs in the Highlands. We had been debating whether or not to take the short, easy hike (the lake route) or the longer, steeper hike to the top of the mountain, but when it started to pour rain again, we decided that we had, indeed, made the right choice.

R: Seeing another brown sign just down the road, we stopped again for another wee bit of a hike around the old slate quarry in Ballachulish as it continued to rain on us. (Hooray for hoods!) We soon arrived in our overnight town of Fort William where we easily found our B&B conveniently located an easy walk into the town center had some Tex-Mex and cask ales from the Grog and Gruel.

Rainbow over Fort William

J: Another perk of our morning walk through Oban was the purchase of a road atlas. Now that we’re in the Highlands, there are significantly fewer roundabouts and turn options even available, but we feel much more secure with an honest-to-goodness map in the car—plus it includes markers for fun road-side attractions that we’ve already started to add to our agenda for the next several days.

Jen and Rebecca Don’t Let the Weather Stop Them

R: Monday, we woke up to a gloomy day. June at the B&B agreed that the rain was looking to settle in for the entire day. This settled our plans against heading out for an island day-trip, which was a little disappointing, but given the number of other fun things to do, kind of nice to be able to cross one plan off the list. First we headed to the famed Inveraray Jail which taught us all about medieval torture used before imprisonment was en vogue. We also saw the old courthouse with a trial reenactment in progress, learned about some real Inveraray Jail prisoners and saw the barracks they were housed in. I’m glad I had no intention of breaking the law in Inveraray!

J: Next stop: Inveraray Castle, home of the Duke and Duchess of Argyle. We were only allowed into a portion of the home, but we did get to see several hundred years of family history (the current Duke lives with his family in London). As it was still a wee bit rainy, we only spent a short time in the gardens before heading out for our next attraction.

R: Jen was also disappointed that the cows in the Inveraray Castle’s pasture were not Highland cattle. She’s on a mission to see one, and the replica one at the jail was apparently not good enough.

R (continued): Having hit the highlights of tiny Inveraray, we headed out of town and on to a more modern type of site, the Cruachan Hollow Mountain power station. While neither of us really wanted to spend vacation thinking about our respective real-world jobs in the power industry, I thought this might be kind of interesting (and nerdy) and a break from looking at really old things. Plus, as I’ve mentioned, I like underground tours! This hydro plant takes the fast-flowing waters that fall down Ben Cruachan to generate its power in an underground facility. Sadly, the 30-minute tour didn’t really allow you to see anything other than just the turbine tops, so it was a little disappointing. But the tour guide was funny, and I got a little bit of a nap in on the bus ride into the mountain!

J: After the tour ended, and sadly also our break from the rain, we headed back out to find the elusive Kilchurn Castle. I found pictures of it and even knew its general location, but it still took a little help from one of the power company employees. We finally found the unmarked lot and began our rain-soaked hike thru a boggy pasture to the abandoned castle. Based on what I had read in a couple of the guidebooks, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to make it the entire way to the castle without the assistance of a ferry, but we did! And, I must say, wandering alone thru an old abandoned castle is awesome!

R: At least our rain coats were effective, so only our pants and socks got completely soaked through. The walk was definitely worth it—if we let the rain impede all of our plans in Scotland, we’d be spending our whole days in a hotel! On our drive into the coastal town of Oban for the night, we decided to make the day really one to remember by heading to yet a third castle for the day, Dunstaffnage Castle where Flora McDonald was imprisoned after helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to France. This castle was also mostly a ruin, so we did more wandering in the rain. It eventually let up, but still, I failed miserably trying to get this self-timed photo of us in the chapel.

Given the rain, poor Shaun didn’t make much of an appearance today. He enjoyed the castle model, though.

J: We finally made it to Oban, just slightly chilled from our rainy hikes to the castles. But, is there a better way to warm up than by having a spot of whisky? No? We didn’t think so either, so we checked into our hotel and then immediately headed over to the Oban Distillery for a tour. I was a little shocked to learn that my experience with gas plants would help me to understand the distillation process, but it did! I was less shocked to learn that even after discovering how whisky is made, I haven’t garnered a greater appreciation for it. But I did try it, twice! We sampled 10-yr-old whisky straight out of the cask, no water added, and then the distillery’s usual 14-yr-old whisky at the end of the tour.

R: We opted for a seafood dinner as we were directly on the coast and we weren’t disappointed. Another fantastic dinner, mine was scallops, Jen’s was sea bass. We topped of the end of the day with a few pints, a good habit to be in when in Scotland, I think…

Jen and Rebecca Have a Stirling Day

R: Sunday morning, we made the short drive back to Stirling to explore Stirling Castle. Like Edinburgh Castle, it’s perched high atop a hill, but it also afforded great views to the William Wallace Monument that we went to visit later. This castle visit was okay, but I think we’d had so much fun at Linlithgow the day before (or maybe we were too tired from our evening and weren’t yet ready to face more sightseeing), that it wasn’t quite as awesome for me. It could also be that half of it was covered in scaffolding as well! I did enjoy seeing the weavers working on recreated tapestries, some of which are finished and hanging in the chapel.

J: The castle was impressive, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if the actual castle portion of it weren’t under restoration. I’m sure it will be a fantastic site once they’ve restored it to its original grandeur. After we finished our castle tour, we headed across town to the William Wallace Monument. The large tower was built to honor one of Scotland’s greatest heroes – and we happened to visit on the anniversary of one of his greatest victories! We witnessed a re-enactment of his arrest, a little bagpipe music and some folk dancing, all before tackling the 246 steps to the top of the tower (with a few stops for exhibits along the way).

R: To further my disappointment in the day, we stopped at Loch Lomond. I was really looking forward to a nice hike in Trossachs National Park and views of this Loch made famous in song and poem. However, more map misinterpretation in addition to my belief that the Loch Lomond visitor’s centre would actually be a sort of trail head for paths into the park instead of the glorified shopping mall that it was, left me feeling a bit downcast about the experience. To cheer me up, we had milkshakes (which I’m pretty sure made Jen happy too.) Then we found a nice look-out point further along on our drive by the Loch where I got to enjoy a short walk and prettier scenery, so I ended up much happier!

J: Eventually we made it to Inveraray, our final stop of the evening. I had booked hotels/B&B’s for every night of our trip, so we only needed to find the B&B, check-in and then wander about the cute little village for the rest of the evening. However, not everything always goes according to plan. We found the inn without a problem, but it took us nearly 30 minutes to get anyone to answer the door. Finally, June, the proprietor, came out to help us, but insisted that we didn’t have a reservation. They had no bookings, so she let us stay anyway and then finally we were on our way to dinner. We wandered a bit aimlessly around the cute village and then went into the George Inn for a delicious dinner and our first ever Gaelic coffees (coffee with some sort of Scottish whiskey and lots of cream). It tasted a wee bit like cough syrup to me, but Rebecca really enjoyed hers.

Waiting to get in the B&B

R: Loved my fine dinner on the shores of Loch Fyne, the longest sea loch in Scotland. And my hand-pulled cask ale. We are having great luck with tasty dinners on this trip so far. Also with hotels. Despite the mix-up, we had a nice, clean room, and we were the only guests in the inn, so we had plenty of privacy! (This is especially nice when the bathroom is not en suite.) And best of all, June discovered that the missing booking was her fault, not ours, so we were vindicated in the end. I love a good vindication.

Jen and Rebecca Remain Unnaturally Calm and Freak Out, Respectively

R: Sorry for the posting delay. Saturday night we had a wee bit of a problem with alcohol (as in drinking quite a bit of it). Then our computer died and our 1990s-era converters did not allow for a three-pronged computer plug. Once we finally located a converter, we were without internet access at our hotel. And so it’s now Tuesday and we’ve made it to our Fort William B&B, finally with a charged computer AND free wi-fi! But for those of you who are dying to hear the extreme details of all the in-between, we’re backing up to tell you about the days in between, starting, of course, with our departure from Edinburgh.

J: Saturday morning marked our departure from Edinburgh to the Scottish countryside. And, being the little planner (and automatic-only driver) that I am, I had reserved us an automatic car several weeks ago. After breakfast, we headed down to the car rental agency to pick up our automatic hatch-back, only to discover that no automatics can be found in the entire country of Scotland!! Rebecca and I were both immediately dismayed. Me because that means I don’t get to drive at all, Rebecca because she gets to drive all week. At any rate, we picked up our Opal and hit the mean streets of Edinburgh…eventually. It took Rebecca a bit to get out of the rental car parking lot. But, don’t worry; throughout all of our missed turns and scenic byways, I remained calm.

R: Yeah, I “get to” drive all week. I am absolutely shocked that Jen didn’t mention how many times I killed the car (it’s been a long time since I’ve driven stick…ahem), did a curb-check, failed to get the car into the hard-to-get-into-reverse gear, had to backtrack, or missed the correct turn off in the roundabouts. Roundabouts! I essentially panicked every time I hit one, yelling, “Jen, Jen! Which way? Which way?!” This and we forgot to pick up a quality map, so we were working off some Google maps I printed myself. These are not so useful when you are no longer on the proscribed route. But Jen’s calm demeanor and extreme skill reading crappy maps eventually got us to Rossyln Chapel (of The Da Vinci Code fame) south of Edinburgh.

J: Rosslyn Chapel had obviously become a major tourist attraction based on the large number of signs describing all of the sites to be seen in the church. The masonry work throughout the entire church was spectacular. One interesting point of note in the church was the carvings of maize (a North American plant) completed 50 years before Columbus discovered America. Sadly, like most sites in Europe, the chapel was covered in scaffolding and therefore hard to take lovely photos of. After the church tour, we wandered down to the cemetery for some scenic photos of the Scottish countryside.

R: After some further creative navigation through the Scottish countryside, we stopped at Linlithgow Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was born. The castle is in semi-ruins, but was fun to run through when we heard the bagpiper starting to play the recessional at the neighboring church following a wedding. I also engaged in some inspired rock climbing, much to Jen’s amusement this time.

J: I must have spent too much time with engineers over the years, because I really wanted to see the Falkirk wheel. It’s a boat lift that swings boats between the Union and the Forth and Clyde canals. It runs continuously, and lifts boats the equivalent of 11 locks in 15 minutes. Sadly, we didn’t get to see it lift any actual boats, but we did see it in motion.

R: As our last stop on this whirlwind day, we pulled of the main highway to a tiny town called Airth in search of one of those off-the-beaten-path sites that I love. This one, The Pineapple of Dunmore, was actually Jen’s suggestion, and when we realized we didn’t have quality directions to the site, I was determined to keep driving through the tiny town to find it! And am I glad I did, because it caused us no end of laughter in engineering a few silly photos—plus I figured out my camera’s self-timer! Thanks, crazy man from a past century for putting a pineapple on the top of your house.

R (continued): We had another free Hilton night (thanks, Jen and your employer) in Dunblane. The hotel was fancy-looking, but we wanted to escape the hoopla of the wedding going on inside, so we had dinner at the sleepy town’s only restaurant. I actually got Jen to eat Indian food! I was so excited. We wrapped up the evening pub hopping (between the town’s two pubs). Below, Shaun illustrates our level of alertness by the time we got back to the hotel.

Dunblane Doubletree

Poor Shaun