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Published: February 16th 2006
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26th August 2005
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Day 3 of
Skye High Haggis Tour.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Haggis Tour Day 3 *Kyleakin
to
*Armadale (8am ferry)
to
*Mallaig
then
*coastal drive
to
*Mallaig beach (white sands; some swam)
then
*coastal drive
to
*Glenfinnan (
Harry Potter bridge)
to
*Fort William
then
*Through Glen Nevis
past
*Ben Nevis (biggest mountain in the UK)
to
*Glencoe (the 'Weeping Valley')
then
*Through Rannoch Muir (desolate)
to
*Kilmahog (and 'Hamish the Hairy Coo')
to
*Stirling and the National Wallace Monument
past
*Doune Castle (
Monty Python castle)
to
*Edinburgh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glenfinnan .......and the Harry Potter bridge After a lovely sojourn on Mallaig Beach we drove to Glenfinnan, at the head of Loch Shiel, to see the Glenfinnan Monument. As mentioned on Tour Day One, in 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie raised an army amongst his supporters, the Highland Jacobites, and was ultimately defeated in the Battle of Culloden. But it was in Glenfinnan that his Standard (battle pennant) was first raised and the march south began. Almost one hundred years later, the Glenfinnan Monument was erected in tribute to the clansmen who fought and died for the Jacobite cause.
The actual structure is basically a high, round
tower, nothing more. Here lay my chance to climb the stairs and claim my first tower, but without the attached castle, without the tower room, it didn't seem worth the fee. So instead I turned around and trudged back across the field and up the mountainside with the tour's
Harry Potter fans, who wanted to see the genuine
Harry Potter bridge - you may know the one, it's long and high and with multiple arches. Which is not a particularly unique description of a bridge, but it doesn't matter as I went up more for the view than for a bridge from a children's movie.
Glencoe I know that I've seen and explained Glencoe on my last Highlands tour in May, but not having properly appreciated the story then, I didn't do a particularly good job in writing about it. So if you can bear to hear the story again, I'd like to offer a slightly more accurate account.
Fifty-eight years prior to Culloden, the Dutch William of Orange siezed his father-in-law's crown and became king of England. Supporters of the deposed King James II, the Jacobites, rebelled at this injustice for many years; hell, until
Culloden. But after the Battle of Killiecrankie, in an attempt to control the Highlanders, William demanded the clan chiefs swear alliegance by New Year's Eve of 1691.
The McDonald chief was two months late in doing so, and was chosen by William to use as an example to the Scots. He employed the Campbells, sworn enemies of the McDonald's, to escort a troop of soldiers into the McDonald stronghold and discipline them. Once there, the Campbells claimed sanctuary from the snow and, bound by honour and by the Highland code of hospitality, the McDonald's took them into their homes for what they probably expected to be a day or so.
Two weeks later - after
two weeks of eating their food and sleeping in their buildings -, the Campbells violated their own Scottish codes of honour by murdering their hosts in their beds. Those that did escape the massacre to flee up the surrounding mountains likely died of exposure in the snow. In the years that followed, Glencoe became known as the "Weeping Valley" in memory of that awful day, and the name Campbell became synonymous with threachery.
Stirling and the National Wallace Monument After
pausing in Kilmahog to meet Lynne's "sexy boyfriend", Hamish the Hairy Coo (seems every cow in Scotland is called Hamish), we arrived at the National Wallace Monument in Stirling. I should hardly need to explain who William Wallace was; everybody's seen the movie by now, except perhaps the English who knew enough not to.
Well, In 1869 the National Wallace Monument, a Victorian tower upon the tip of Abbey Craig, was built in tribute to him and to his victory over the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. In saying 'Victorian tower' I do not mean anything like the straight up-and-down affair at Glenfinnan. Built in a rectangular fashion rather than cylindrical, the outer appearance is very dramatic, very Victorian, and very gothic. The roof is an open affair made of a series of pointed stonework and parapets and vaguely resembles a crown. A statue of the original William Wallace stands about four metres up one corner of the tower, his sword arm raised threateningly, stance proud.
Amusingly, at the bottom of the crag, beside the Visitor's Centre where you pay for your ticket before huffing and puffing your way to the almost vertical
top, stands another statue of Wallace. This one bears an uncanny resemblance to Mel Gibson from
Braveheart, and apparently caused an outcry when it was unveiled a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, I have it on good authority that the Scottish people absolutely loved that movie when it was released. But the site is dedicated to William Wallace, after all, not Mel Gibson, and the statue is a bit kitsch. The humourous part, however, is that every night the wardens have to lock a protective cage into place around the statue to prevent people from egging and vandalising it. Ah, poor Mel.
Final Thoughts RECOMMEND:
* Beautiful Highland heather, soaring mountains, freezing rivers, brisk breezes.....
* Digital cameras; disposables are crap and developing film cameras is expensive. But don't buy a low-quality digital, it's not worth it. And don't insure unless it's top-notch, as most of the time it's cheaper to buy a new one than to fix the old. I should know, I'm on my third; and they were all expensive, too! Which is why price is not always quality.
* Sitting at the front of the bus; much better for photos. But don't
hog the front seats, make sure there's some rotation and that everybody who wants to is able to try it. And don't pull that "I get sick if I'm not in the very front seat" crap, because nobody believes you and it's rude. Four seats back is just as good in terms of motion sickness.
* Exploring your surroundings. DON'T sleep all day on the bus and DON'T go straight from the bus to the hotel. You're cheating yourself. Be adventurous (within reason).
* Tour guides who are willing to go all out and make it fun (Lynne was about to leave on holidays and pulled out all the stops, singing and 'being real'), and
* Cute tour drivers who arrive on the third day in a genuine kilt. Whoo-ee! Nothing sexier.
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