Compass Buster #1: Edinburgh to the Isle of Lewis

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Treated myself to a McDonald's breakfast, it would have been nicer, if the place hadn't been littered with smack rats, but you can't have everything. I made my way over to the Old Town and to the Royal Mile, which was where my tour was departing from. There were quite a few different tours all leaving around similar times, but they got us all sorted on to the right buses with minimum fuss. I was doing the 10 day Compass Buster tour with Haggis Adventures. My trip comprised of people doing the ten day trip, like me, and others who were doing a five day trip to the Outer Hebrides and the Isle of Skye. We left about 8:30 am, and had a long day of driving ahead of us, as we would be catching a ferry to the Outer Hebrides in the late afternoon. Our lovely guide recounted some of Edinburgh's history as we left the city. We drove for a couple of hours before stopping to stretch our legs.

Our first stop was the small village of Dunkeld. One of its claims to fame is that its public toilets had won an award for being the cleanest or something like that. They were definitely worth the 20p or so to use them. From the carpark it was a short walk to Dunkeld Cathedral. It was nice to be out of the city and somewhere more rural. The weather was fairly nice at this point, no rain, but a bit chilly. Dunkeld Cathedral was pretty small, I always thought that cathedrals were big churches. It was being well looked after as someone was cutting the grass. Parts of the cathedral were ruins, but they were fenced off so that they couldn't be damaged. I don't know if restoration was in progress or not. We had a look around the inside, there was a small museum explaining the history of the place. Although the present cathedral was built (well began) in the 13th century, there has been a Christian settlement there since the 6th century. In 1689 the battle of Dunkeld was fought in the area surrounding the cathedral between the Jacobite supporters of the deposed King James VII of Scotland and those of William of Orange, who had become King of Scotland. The River Tay is right next to the cathedral, so I took a walk down to it. The water was pretty high and fast. It looked really pretty flowing under the bridge. I walked back through the town, pretty standard small countryside town. I stopped off at the deli, our guide had recommended to buy a sandwich for lunch and a coffee. It was pricey, but nice.

Back on the bus, I munched on my sandwich and we drove further north. We made a quick pit stop at the 'Welcome to the Highlands' sign. The Highlands are a historic region of Scotland as it was divided into the Highlands and the Lowlands. The weather had gotten worse, so it was literally just jump off the bus, get some photos and then get back on. Still, I like the sign with the picture of Nessie on it. The surrounding countryside was beautiful, with a low hanging mist covering the tops of the rounded hills.

We continued on and got to Culloden Battlefield, which is located near Inverness. The weather was really miserable when we got there, very cold, windy and rainy. Some people had a quick look at the battlefield and then straight to the cafe. I was not going to be put off by the weather and went for a good walk around. There is a sign near the entrance and I think a few more scattered around the site, reminding you to be respectful as although they term it 'a place for everyone', it is primarily a war grave. The Battle of Culloden took place on the 16th April 1746 and was the final confrontation of the Jacobites and the government soldiers. the Jacobites were supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie in his attempt to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The battle was short, barely lasting an hour, but very bloody. An estimated 1,500 - 2,000 Jacobites were either killed or wounded, whereas only 50 soldiers from the government forced were killed and 259 wounded. It had been a victory for the government forces and signaled the end of the Jacobean Uprising. Red and blue flags have been placed at various points on the battle field to show where the two sides' front lines were. Blue is used for the Jacobites and red for the government troops. A lot of the land is covered with heather and shrubs, I presume it was a lot clearer back then. There were well marked paths to walk along to tour the battlefield. As I walked along them I saw some of the clan graves. The Clan Fraser grave had some little trinkets and flowers on it, possibly from their descendants? I also saw the Memorial Cairn, which is 20 feet high and was erected in 1881 by Duncan Forbes, who also built the headstones marking the clans' mass graves. I didn't have time to look at the visitors centre. That's the one thing I hate about organised tours, there always seems to be a do this or this, never enough time for both.

Our final proper stop was Rogie Falls, which was on the other side of Inverness. It had stopped raining when we got there, so it was somewhat more pleasant to be outside. From the carpark it was about a ten minute walk down to the bottom of the falls. The waterfall was pretty, it wasn't too big, but was gorgeous to look at, as was the surrounding scenery. While I was taking pictures, I played about with my camera a bit and took some nice 'green only' photos. We walked down to a bridge that went over the River Blackwater and gave you a great vantage point to watch the water cascade down over Rogie Falls. Since we had plenty of time, we took a bit of a walk along the walkway that was leading up from the bridge on other side of the river. We walked along the path a bit, if fairies existed I definitely think that they would live in this forest. It just had the right look about it. On the way back I saw a couple of blokes salmon fishing and we stopped to see if we could see any salmon leaping as this is the best time, especially after rain. Unfortunately, I didn't see any, but there were some gorgeous pink flowers/bushes on our way back up.

We drove for about another hour to reach the small town of Ullapool. This is where we would be taking the ferry from to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. We have a bit of free time here, there wasn't really much to do so I headed up to Tesco to get some dinner and then had a little walk around the area next to the port. Not very exciting. The ferry terminal has a big, nice building so I made use of their free wifi in there until it was time to board. The ferry was massive and we grabbed some tables near/in the restaurant. Some of the others ordered food on the boat, which looked good, but I didn't want a big meal in case the sea was choppy. I ate the stuff I had bought at the supermarket. The ferry crossing was just short of three hours and we spent it chatting and getting to know each other, as we found be spending 5 or 10 days together. I was also trying my hardest not to fall asleep, the rocking motion of the boat makes me so sleepy and I hadn't slept much the night before.

We arrived in Stornoway and it was a quick drive to where we would be staying, Heb Hostel. I really liked the place, it was an old, terraced house that had been turned into a hostel. We had been designated rooms, I was pleased to find that I was in a small four bed dorm on the top floor. The sloping roof meant no bunk beds, yay! After dropping my stuff down, some of us decided to head to one of the local pubs. I think we went to MacNeills, which was just around the corner from the hostel. I got a pint and it was nearly £4. I had thought that it would be cheaper up here, but I was proved wrong. The pub as full with holidaymakers and locals. I don't know how the locals can afford to drink there. I wonder if they get cheaper prices. It was a Wednesday night and there was live music on. I stayed for a bit, but live music isn't really my thing. I enjoyed a cup of tea in bed at the hostel more, I am such an old fogie.

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