I didn’t post anything yesterday because we went to visit friends in Bridge of Allan and took no photos. We spent most of the afternoon chatting and weren’t back into Edinburgh until 6.
This morning we were up very early indeed to complete our packing and leave the house by 7.30am so as to be at the pickup for our holiday before 8.15. A little coach picked us up, but there are only 6 of us on this tour, so we shouldn’t feel too crowded.
Our first stop was at Bannockburn, where we went to have the battle experience. This was quite interesting as it was 3D and quite surprising to find knights falling off horses into you and arrows flying around you. We had an explanation of how the battle happened, which I knew already and Paul could neither hear nor understand, so he was not happy. Then we went to see and hear stories from people who took part in the battle, again in 3D, which Paul still couldn’t hear. So he was completely lost. Then we went to re-enact the battle with the help of a computer, which was quite fun, and we changed history because the English won in this case! I contend that this was solely down to my strategy, because I started the battle and everybody else just copied me.
There is a wonderful statue of Robert the Bruce outside
I had to try lots of different angles to get the correct shot that showed the battle axe. Bruce is shown with a battle axe because he was challenged to single combat by Henry de Bohun, an overconfident young man who was the nephew of the Earl of Hereford. In what became a celebrated instance of single combat in front of the two armies, Bruce split de Bohun’s head with his battle axe.
We headed into the highlands proper after that, passing through Loch Lomond National Park, with hills that were high rather than rolling, covered with trees. In some areas there were the remnants of the old Caledonian Forest, but most were non-native trees grown quickly to provide softwood for various purposes. When the trees are harvested, the land is left completely bare and black, looking like the aftermath of a fire or an explosion.
As we left the National Park, the landscape became far more forbidding.
This is a typical scene - cold bare hills.
We crossed Rannoch Moor, an expanse of around 50 square miles of boggy moorland.
The photo above makes it look far too wet to be accurately described as boggy, but I guess that might be a reflection of all the recent rain we have had.
After that, we headed towards Glencoe, scene of the famous massacre in 1692 when more than 30 members of the Clan MacDonald were killed by government forces billeted on them and commanded by Robert Campbell. The MacDonalds were attacked and killed on the grounds that they had been insufficiently prompt in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs William and Mary.
It is a bleak cold place, and very windy
I remember my father saying that it was always gloomy and depressing even at the height of summer, and he felt this was caused by the aura of evil which hung about the place. The village where the massacre took place no longer exists, it became a ruin and the stones were reused for other things so no trace of it remains.
We made a stop at the monument to the dead of the Royal Marine Commando
The monument is in this spot because they train in the area, and the men commemorated must have know the landscape well, so their statues look out over it. The monument mentions those killed in the Second World War, but another circular area nearby has plaques and crosses and stones and wreaths for those who have perished in conflicts since then.
We pressed on into the Great Glen, passing Loch Linnhe, Loch Lochy and Loch Oich before arriving at Fort Augustus and the start of Loch Ness.
Fort Augustus is where the flight of 8 Canal locks known as Neptune’s staircase takes the Caledonian Canal from Loch Ness through Lochs Oich, Lochy and Linnhe, so smallish boats can sail from Inverness in the east to Fort William in the west.
There is a swing bridge which opens for anything too tall to go underneath it.
I was quite fortunate that it began to open just as I was standing there. Several boats went through it, including a yacht with a very tall mast.
Then I walked down to Loch Ness, but there was no sign of the monster,
Loch Ness is 23 miles long, over a mile wide and very deep. The water is very murky indeed due to the high peat content in the surrounding soil. So nobody has ever been able to find the fabled monster in it because you can’t see anything at all, the water visibility being exceptionally low. I watched for the monster all the way as we drove along the side of it, but with no joy.
We arrived in Inverness around 6pm and went straight to our hotel, where are staying only one night. After supper, we took a walk round Inverness. There is a castle, built in 1836, in ‘Scottish Baronial’ style.
Earlier Inverness castles were destroyed, one by Robert the Bruce, and one after the Jacobite rising in 1745. There seem to be few really old buildings that I could see. There was a clock tower, the only remnants of a citadel built by Oliver Cromwell. And there was this building, though I haven’t been able to find the date of it. It looks Scottish Baronial too, so probably Victorian like the castle.
This is referred to as the Town House. It was the venue for the first British Cabinet meeting to be held outside London. David Lloyd George, who was on holiday not far away, called an emergency meeting in September 1921 to discuss the situation in Ireland. This resulted in the Inverness Formula which was the basis of the Anglo-Irish Treaty which provided for the establishment of an Irish Free State.
We walked for a while along the banks of the River Ness, admiring the views along the river Ness.
This far north, it is still quite light long after 10pm. This photo was taken about 9.30pm.
Bed will not be late tonight. We had a short night last night and we are tired.
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