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Isle of Skye
Our travels from Fort William to Isle of Skye took us past one of the more famous castles (told you there where plenty of them). Another 15th century clan stronghold, you may remember Eilean Donan from such famous appearances as 'Castle' in the Highlander movie... if not - it's a lovely castle surrounded by water and thankfully accessible by bridge.
The appeal to the castle is not just that it's still more or less fully in tact, but that it is still used as a residence today. Perhaps more of a holiday home (?) as they are not there permanently. But this allows us to visit not just a castle steeped in history but also one used in the modern day.
Fort Augustus
After a night's stay in Isle of Skye, we paid our first visit to Loch Ness at the little township of Fort Augustus, situated at the south-end of the loch. Aside from being able to see the loch, the only other highlight in Fort Augustus is the incredible engineering achievement: a system of five cascading locks built in 1822, connecting Lochs Ness and Oich. We were somewhat entertained by the locks in action
She's behind you...
Brett and Nessie became good friendswhilst we stopped for lunch.
Two things Jo learnt while in Scotland:
1. The Loch Ness Monster categorically... certainly... most probably... quite possibly... perhaps unlikely... may be not exist.
2. Whisky should NOT be drunk straight and the Scott's (like the Romans) are crazy!
The Loch Ness 'Experience'
Leaving Fort Augustus took us along the length of Loch Ness to Inverness. Like any good tourist (we are getting better at this game) we did the Loch Ness Experience tour: an in depth look into the evidence for and against Nessie. Interesting ecological, environmental and scientific evidence was presented through a multi-media presentation and all we learnt was: the Loch is really, really deep; scientists will spend years researching anything; and the people who 'saw' Nessie were either pranksters or delusional. (Apart from one little old lady – but she says she saw the 'beast' crawl across the road in front of her. We think the 'national drink' may have been involved!)
The Whisky Experience
We chose Scotland's highest distillery for a sampler of the national drink. Dalwhinney, in Cairngorns National Park, is in such a remote area and experiences such extreme temperatures in winter that they take
Would you like water with that?
Whisky tasting at Dalwhinney Distillery readings for the Scottish Meteorological bureau! But a lot of snow means a lot of fresh water which, as we've learnt, is great for a whisky manufacturer.
Whisky is a long process and involves a lot of interesting smells, pipes and vats. Jo is not a fan of the end product - certainly not without the help of a little friend called cola, but Brett did his part and tasted a selection of 15 to 18 yo malts.: none impressed him too much.
The Highland Experience
The next experience we had took us back in time as we visited the traditional highland huts of 18th century Scots. We visited the Highland Folk Museum, set up as an open-air museum on a large property and taking you through the ages of Scottish life – complete with historical impersonators. We (ok, Jo more than Brett) had fun learning of village life in the 1700's through to the 1930's.
Balmoral Castle – the Queen's summer residence.
Staying in Aviemore within the Cairnigorns allowed us easy access into the heart of the National Park, to Balmoral Castle. The original castle – along with it's accompanying 50,000 acres – was bought by
Highland Folk Museum
the setting for some of the 15th century huts Queen Victoria in 1848 and her husband, Prince Albert, took charge, extensively renovating and expanding the humble abode into what it is today. It has been the Scottish home of the British Royal Family ever since and is currently the summer residence of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, who call it home in July and August.
We took the interesting audio tour whilst walking around the property, imagining where Liz, Phil and family would spend their annual 6 weeks.
One of the highlights of the visit was the rare sighting of the local, native red squirrel. It was a shy little bugger, but Brett managed to catch the little guy on camera darting across the road to either safety or to his nut-house... or something along those lines.
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