July
29 - August 5, 2000
This holiday
is a little bit special. We're travelling in style - no not
first class on a concord, and not first-class on a train. We'll
be viewing the Scottish countryside through the windscreen of
our hired car.
Leaving
London was a bit of a nightmare; glad it was Gavin driving.
Then we were on the road heading for our first stop, Leeds.
Surprisingly the time passed quickly and we decided not to stop
but go across country via Otley and Skipton to Penrith. The
small villages we passed through were very beautiful. Mostly
stone slate buildings. Penrith could be described as one of
my ancestral homes. It was a very small village with very friendly
people. We found a lovely B&B. Dinner was very enjoyable
at a Spanish restaurant.
30 July
An early
start to the morning meant we were in Glasgow by 11am. Not without
a little side stop at the lovely city of Hamilton. It had a
river and some nice shops but not as pretty as home.
In Glasgow
we shopped and watched an exciting Grand Prix. There's not a
lot to say about Glasgow, seemed very industrial, not much to
see or do. I think it's renowned for it's nightlife. Something
we weren't going to sample as we headed towards Fort William.
The views and scenery started to change with mountains, lochs
and towns filled with cottages. We weren't going to get to fort
William at a reasonable time so we stopped at a gorgeous village
on Loch Lommond, called Luss. I loved the way the houses looked.
Looking across the Loch was stunning. It was very glass-like
as you can see from my reflection photo. We stayed in a small
hotel, which served a nice dinner.
31 July
Today was
castle hunting day. With this in mind we headed to Oban and
along with breath-taking sites around every corner we also saw
ruins of castles all around us.
First stop
was Castle Dunstaffnage. It is unusual in that it was built
on a rock plinth. It dates back to 1260 and is in excellent
condition considering. Unfortunately it started to rain while
we were exploring the castle which had once been captured by
Robert the Bruce. We drove back across Loch Etive and followed
its shores toward Fort William. Our second castle visit for
the day was near Ledaig. Barcladine Castle dates back to 16th
century. A piano-playing ghost apparently haunts it. Ancestors
from the Campbell family still live there today. We were allowed
to look around. It was more like a large stately house than
a castle but I could still have lived there. It was very different
to the practical defence castle Dunstaffnage.
We stopped
at Fort William for lunch and checked out a whiskey store while
we were there. I tired some lovely Heather Cream and couldn't
resist buying a bottle. Loch Ness was our next destination but
before that we had some clouded views of Ben Nevis - the largest
mountains in the UK. It still looked very good with pockets
of snow near its summit. The journey from Fort William to Inverness
takes you along the Great Glen, a natural fault line of Scotland.
We decided to stay at Drumnadrochit - just think of it as a
big word starting with D. It is the capital of Loch Ness monster
hunting. Just before we arrived we saw our final (and most impressive
in my opinion) castle for the day, Ureqhart Castle. I liked
it because of its distinctive colour and magnificent views.
It was built in the 13th and 14th century. It has a long history
of damage and rebuilding but I think that's part of its charm.
It was blown up in 1692 to prevent the Jacobites from using
it and left it in its dramatic present state.
We finally
got to Drumnadrochit and managed to secure our own cottage with
lounge, kitchen downstairs and lovely slop roof bedroom and
bathroom upstairs. I could have set up camp here indefinitely.
B
and B in Drumnadrochit
Click to
enlarge
1 August.
Nessie hunting
was the order of the day. Unfortunately despite a 40 minute
boat trip to the deepest part of the Loch we were unable to
spot the elusive myth. The boat skipper explained that there
are regular sonar readings showing large moving objects below
the dark murky waters. Despite the Nessie standing us up, it
was interesting to learn that the middle - bottom was 700 ft
deep. It drops away very steeply considering the average width
is 1 mile. The official Loch Ness monster exhibition at Drumnadrochit
provided more conflicting information.
Scientists
have proved that there is not enough food to sustain a large
monster. The so called evidence from photos was also discounted
as hoaxes. So what about the sonar readings. Well apparently
the ebbs and flows due to the depths can cause these readings.
Also ridges in the Loch reflect the sonar down and back in such
away that it could appear to be a large moving creature. As
we drove towards Inverness I saw many wave caps which before
they broke looked like black rolling sea monsters.
Inverness
was our lunch spot today. We found a NZ style coffee house and
I enjoyed a cheese and onion toastie.
We headed
north from here with Wick in mind for our night's accommodation.
A whiskey
distillery was high on our list of must sees, so we were lucky
to arrive at Glenmorangie distillery 2 minutes before the last
tour of the afternoon departed. It boasts the highest stills,
which collects only the purest of vapours to be malted. They
were actually Gin distilleries when brought in 1843. The finest
part from the second distillation is poured through this contraption,
the first 20 minutes, known as the head, goes left, the body
pours through the middle flask and the tail is poured into the
right flask. A still man watches the alcohol volume. When it
reaches 60% (check) the still man changes the funnels and the
collection of the body commences. The body will reach up to
72% alcoholic volume before tailing off at 60%. The still man
changes the funnels again and the tail takes the alcohol volume
back down to one. Neither the head nor tail are used in single
malt whiskeys but are sold off to become blended whiskies such
as Johnny Walker. There was a wonderful smell in the barrel
room. The barrels are smoked then used three times to mature
the whiskey. After this they are sold to Garden shops. Whiskies
are matured to different ages but once bottled they no longer
mature. Gavin brought a bottle of whiskey in Inverness, which
was 25 years old, distilled in 1975, and bottled in 2000. It
is destined to become priceless.
Then came
the best part of the tour, the tasting. Surprisingly I really
liked it. We made our purchases and continued North. One detour
on the way lead us past Dunrobin Castle - rather speculator
as you can see from the pamphlet. The eastern coast is rugged
and barren with ruins of small stone croft dotted around. Quite
stunning in a different sort of way. We stayed at Mackay hotel
in Wick and after a three course meal crashed.
2 August
My turn
to drive at last. Not bad at all - only problem is with the
indicator - it turns the windscreen wipers on, and as you'd
expect the windscreen wiper lever indicates. We certainly had
a clean window. Silly English!
Our goal
was to drive across the top of Scotland today. It was excellent
after a few false starts. Both the north east and most northern
points were blanketed in fog with no views at all. We stopped
briefly in Thurso before attempting the single lane winding
roads of the north. The scenery was excellent although often
marred by fog. Sheep wondered freely about. The phrase the top
of the world kept coming to mind. We stopped for a joint photo
opportunity of the highlands. I couldn't get over how silent
it was. It was amazing.
Small croft
ruins dotted all along the coast but none of them suitable for
photos today.
Place names
are certainly inventive. Tongue was our nest stop. We walked
up a hill to castle Varrich. It was a Norse stronghold in 11
century. It looked across Coldbackie bay but again mist ruined
this for us.
Castle
Varrich
Click to
enlarge
With the
weather closing in we headed to Durness. It was a large crofting
community that escaped a lot of the clearances in 1841. This
church dates from 1691. I thought it was a rather romantic ruin.
We have seen many cemeteries like this. Everything is tone.
It is so barren yet so beautiful. Smoo cave hotel provided our
accommodation and meal tonight.
3 August
After an
extremely peaceful night we were awoken by cows this morning.
Makes a change from London's sirens. We made our way up the
road to Smoo Cave. On the hill leading down to the cave, people
had written their names using rocks. It was quite a sight. The
cave has the largest opening in the British isles
We walked
across a small bridge into a side cave where a powerful waterfall
tumbled down. It looked fabulous but unfortunately unable to
be photographed. The smaller caves were flooded so we were unable
to explore it any further.
We continued
to Kylesku. From there we planned to take a boat trip on Loch
to see seals and Eas-Coul Aulin waterfall. However we were 1
hour late and three hours early. Instead of waiting in the non-existent
village we decided to go on a 35 mile hike. Luckily we were
able to take the car. The route was the West Coast from Nedd
to Lochinver. The track masquerading as a road was single lane
with passing opportunities. It was an incredible drive taking
over 1 hour. I think we passed every type of scenery and land
form possible. There were beautiful bays and beaches, barren
scrub covered hills, green forests, valleys and lochs, bush
tracks. There were several small communities and horned highland
cows walking on the road. It was very enjoyable even if at times
the road seemed to disappear.
We drove
back to Kylesku and had lunch before boarding our boat. The
captain was great. He took us really close to the seal colonies
on the loch. This seal is in calf and is an Atlantic grey seal.
She's just feeding on salmon before heading out to the north
coast to have her calf. Atlantic calves cannot swim straight
away and many don't survive because of this. The other seals
were Common seals. They are multicoloured but all turn black
when the enter the water. They seemed very disinterested in
us and content to let us stare at them. We continued down the
loch and saw several other groups of seals. These were more
wary of us, but only one went back into the water. Then it was
on the highest waterfall in Britain. It is higher than Niagara
Falls. It also could be the skinniest waterfall in the UK due
to reduced rainfall over the years. It was still quite a sight.
We had to view it from this distance because the fall of the
land meant the closer you got the less you could see of it.
The captain pointed out a flying dot and informed us that it
was one of the great eagles that had been introduced to the
area in the past ten years. We had to take his word for it.
We sailed back down the other side of the loch past the sedimentary
rock and pink cliffs. It was very obvious where rock movements
have occurred. It looked like stacked slate.
Once we
were back on land we headed towards XXX on another single lane
road with the same hazards of sheep and cars coming the other
way. Gavin wanted to stay in a remote Lodge so we found XXXXX.
It was pricey but affordable. It seemed quite nice, very quiet.
Then we went to dinner. Everyone else was wearing a dinner jacket
and tie, and we were easily the youngest by 20 -30 years. It
was a bit uncomfortable. Something that really bugs me is when
in a smorgasbord there is just enough food. Really in this case
there wasn't, as you had to consider those who hadn't got their
food yet. The food was lovely however.
4 August
One more
meal to face at this pompous fishing lodge and there wasn't
even a place set for us. Again I was not impressed. There was
hardly any food left either. For the amount we paid it was by
far the poorest service and value we had experienced.
The rest
of the day could only get better, and it did. We went to Dornoch
highland games. I got very excited as we drove in and ushers
parked us in a field. It really felt like the AMP show in Morrinsville.
There were plenty of fairground attractions and rides. The open
competition didn't start until the afternoon. So we watched
a bit of highland dancing and then walked around the fair. We
were lucky to secure good seats for the afternoon's events,
which included an opening by the pipe band. Then the games began.
There was highland dancing, track and field events and the heavy
events. These included shot puts of two different weights, hammer
throws, weight by height, incidentally the guy broke the record
using a 53 pound weight throwing it over a height of 15 ft 10
inches. There was caber throwing as well. It was a great day,
I even got sunburnt.
Rugby dictated
our next destination. The NZ v Australia game was being shown
at 3.30am on sky so we decided that Edinburgh would be our best
bet. As we drove down via XXX the countryside gave way to the
Lochs and mountains again. We arrived in Edinburgh at 9pm and
into a luxury hotel compared to what we had been staying in.
5 August
After getting
up at 3.30am to watch another exciting All Blacks - Wallabies
game it was nice to sleep in until 10 am. After breakfast we
started our long homeward journey. It was an uneventful day
comprising of sleeping, changing drivers and roadside service
stops. It's incredibly easy to drive on the motorway and also
a bit boring. So after completing 1700 miles we were home again
and as always the holiday was not long enough. On the whole
I felt very peaceful and relaxed in Scotland. A lot of the time
I could have been looking at New Zealand countryside as Scotland
is as varied and diverse as that. It was sad to say goodbye
to the car, but I don't think it will be long before we try
that trick again.
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