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Published: June 12th 2017
Geo: 56.8188, -5.10966
On our departure from Stirling, we had -- shall we say -- lallygagged a little, and weren't on the road as earlier as we could have been. On this day, we already knew that we had a very ambitious itinerary, with likely more places than time on our schedule. As such, K laid down the law and we all had strict orders as to when we were to be up, dressed, and packed, and all before breakfast. This put a sufficient fear of god into both Jane and Anna, that they were both up even earlier than planned, as neither wanted to be the person not ready on time. Believe me, this was a good thing, as the day ended up being even longer than we'd anticipated.
As if on cue, the clouds cleared as we left Glasgow and began our journey westward. We were beginning our journey in the Scottish Highlands, which involved driving through the extensive Trossachs National Park, the gateway of which is located on Loch Lomand. We'd already been warned of pending snow later in the week, but the sun held for a while. We arrived at the Trossachs Visitors Center before they even opened, which
allowed us to make the search for the nearby castle where Rudolph Hess was held and treated after he made his secret flight to Germany in 1941, ostensibly to negotiate peace with Britain ahead of the Germany invasion of the Soviet Union. After some searching, we found a castle, on the shores of Loch Lomand, which we believed as our sought-after Buchanan Castle. Only after we left -- with lots of pictures in hand -- did we realize that we were in fact at the WRONG castle. Such are the risks in a country so chock full of castles.
We licked our wounds, such that they were, and continued north and west, en route to the castle of Inverary. This was one of a few castles we visited which are privately held and still occupied by a member of the respective family or clan. Inverary is the ancestral home of Duke of Argyl, who is chief of the Campbell Clan, and originally dates back to the 1400's. It's one of those places you see and think to yourself, "Yeah, I think it could be real nice to be part of the aristocracy." Or, to quote Mel Brooks: "It's good to be
king!" As they're still living in parts of the castle, it had a much more "homey" feel to it, though it was overflowing with artifacts and priceless antiques.
Rain moved in while we toured, so we proactively cut the chill with some tea and scones before we headed back out...en route to yet another castle. We had to rely on our GPS, and eventually some human intervention, to find our next target -- Kilchurn Castle. It also dates to the 1400's and was home to seniors of the Campbell Clan. I had entered geocoordinates into the GPS, which I pulled off of Google Earth. Problem was, it said we had arrived and then passed the castle, and we'd seen nothing. We looped around a few times, but still couldn't find anything. We finally caught a glimpse of the castle ruins at the end of spit of land, sticking out into the loch. We finally asked at a hotel, and they had pre-printed instructions for reaching the castle, as we were obviously not the only folks who had had trouble. We looped around to an unmarked dirt pulloff, next to the train tracks -- no signs, no anything. Instructions in hand,
the three of us (Jane opted to sit this one out), followed a dirt trail, looped under the railroad tracks and through a cattle/sheep gate, and then we finally could see the castle. It sat about half a mile away, at the end of a foot-worn path through a wild field full of sheep. We felt like right proper explorers (even trespassers), as there were still no signs. We all loved visiting this castle. I think it was a combination of its "secrecy" and our having it all to ourselves. It is in ruins, but good-condition ruins -- if that makes sense. Our only regret would have been the overcast skies, as I'm certain pictures taken in full sunlight would better convey the beauty of the area.
Once on the road again, you wouldn't be surprised to hear that more castles lay ahead -- the next being Dunstaffnage Castle, on the far western coast of Scotland. This one was far better marked and easier to find. It dates all the way back to the 1300's, making it one of the oldest stone structures on the British Isles. The castle is modest in scale, but made more impressive by the fact that
it is build directly upon promontory rock at the entrance to the harbor.
Our southern-most point this day would be the ferry-terminus city of Oban -- the first town of any size we had seen all day. Ferries for the Isle of Mull leave here. Our lack of time didn't permit for any lingering here, though it did look like a fun place to spend a few hours. We still had miles to cover and sights to see. We were headed to the remote area when the the Massacre of Glencoe had taken place. This was the massacre of members of the MacDonald Clan in 1692; it has been romanticized and used a fodder for future rebellions ever since, and has become akin to a place of pilgrimage for many independence-minded Scots. In short, James IV of Scotland became King of Great Britain as James II. He was pro-French and -- adding fuel to fire -- Catholic, making him very unpopular among most people in Britain. When he had an heir, and made it clear he planned to raise him Roman Catholic, British nobles enticed his nephew (and son-in-law) William of Orange (of German descent) to seize the throne. William
(of William and Mary fame) did land a force and James went into self-imposed exile. The clans of Scotland went into revolt against the new king, only to be defeated a couple of years later. Anyway, all of the Scottish clans were made to pledge allegiance to the new king, William. The leader of the arm of the MacDonald clan was slow to make the pledge (for several reasons, many of which were beyond his control). In retaliation, he and many of his clan were attacked by people they had been sheltering. Anyway, while it really a case of inter-clan feuding, it has since been morphed into a symbol of Scottish freedom and resistance to British rule. Anyway, we finally found the massacre site -- which was much more difficult than it needed to be, but as we were to discover many times on this trip, many things are very poorly signed (if at all). To see the actual "killing fields," you have to hike into a remote valley, which we decided to forgo.
It was later than usual when we finally reached our destination for the evening -- Ft. William. Our B&B for the night was very welcome, and
it was perhaps our favorite stay of the entire trip.
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