Loch Lomond

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Few things in this world ever made me feel smaller than I felt whilst standing above the vast body of water that is called Loch Lomond. I stood across from Ben Lomond and its mighty craggs were covered by clouds but it stood before me masking the dark islands that floated below. I expected vikings and warriors to spread out all around me or for dragons and fairies to tug at my sleeves pulling me into the dark watery abyss that surely had been laid out before me. It was such a beautiful and awe inspiring location, a place that for so many people must have always stood as a comfort of home. To me it was one of the last sights that I ever saw in the UK, at least for this chapter in my life. I was so afraid that if I were to blink its beauty would disappear. I will never forget the hike to overlook the loch or the look in my tour-guides eyes as he over-looked a place that he must have seen hundreds of times as if it was the first time, as it was for me. He told us of the story that accompanies the song of Loch Lomond.

"You take the high road and I will take the low

I will be in Scotland before you."



The song is shrouded in mystery but one of the stories that surrounds its authorship is that often, two brothers during the Jacobite uprising would be captured in pairs by the English Whigs. As a punishment the opponents would allow one brother free whilst the other was sentenced to death. The legend goes that one of the brothers who was lucky enough to be given freedom wrote the song in hopes of what his tragic brother felt. The Scottish believed that when you died you went back to the place that you loved most in Scotland. Personally, I hope that the unfortunate brother was able to go back to Lomond, I know that if I were he, I would be more than glad to rest in such a paradise. I also hope that the brother whom survived was able to come back to Loch Lomond as well, I hope that the ground and the water below it survived peacefully in his mind as his brother's heaven. I encourage anyone who ever visits Scotland to go to this special place so that they may get a little taste of heaven as well. (even if it is cold and rainy the day that you visit, as it was for me.)



I have decided to continue my blog through little anecdotes as they come to mind. I will also post as I experience adventures in my own home land!

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