Scottish Highlands and Lass

---

The beautiful pictures of isle of skye, way out in outer hebrides were awesome. It is one of the most picturesque islands of Scotland. Scotland is called Switzerland without the Sun! When I got an invitation to spend Easter weekend with my cousin and his wife in Scotland, I did a high jump.

I finished my work early and took the 6:30 pm train to Glasgow. London underground and train station was chocoblock. Most were young travellers who were going to Lake district for the long weekend and there were not enough unreserved seats. I observed how passengers read, knitted or stood silently lost in their own thoughts. Some listened to music. Others got cozy with their significant others. There was a black man with whom I chatted on the condition of British railways. They were charging 70 GBP one way from London Euston to Glasgow central and look at the condition of the coaches. Not a place to even stand comfortably for 5 hour journey.

It was great to meet my cousin and his wife at Glasgow central station. Next morning, after quick breakfast, we put green new learner plates on the front and back of the car and set off. We drove to Isle of Skye.

We meandered through the Scottish highlands which were different shades of brown and yellow and a bit of clean snow on the peaks, which reminded me of Toblerone chocolates. The trees had a touch of spring. There was a riot of yellow flowers (Gorse flowers) on many stretches of the road. We hoped to see some wild deer or other animals but were rewarded with only sheep.The lambs were so cute. We constantly sighed appreciatively with the natural beauty all around us.

We stopped for coffee and reached the small Dunan's castle in the trisection of three loches (lakes in Scottish language). It was the house of an old Scottish bishop. Scotland was run by clans or lords (lairds in Scottish). They had their own dress code like criss cross patches of different colours. In years gone by, England passed laws to weaken the Scottish unity by banning dress codes and any identification of clan unity. However, recently, they are reviving it to boost tourism.

I wondered why there was no cultivation in the Scottish highlands, Isle of Skye and other associated places during our driving route from Glasgow to Portree. Earlier, the land were tilled by Crofters who lived with their families in crofts or stonehouse. They paid taxes to their local Scottish lords who owned the land. In the 1700s, it made business sense to convert these cultivable land to grazing land for sheep as sheep was easy to raise and needed minimum expenses. Often, crofters were driven out of their lands by burning their homes. Many migrated to North America or moved to Ireland or mainland of Scotland.

There is also a funny rebate given to farmers in Great Britain that if farmers maintained their land without too much wild outgrowth, they were paid. Hence, vast stretches of land with yellow wild grasses on them. There is no natural forest or wild life. We visited a deer park in St Andrews were we fed at least 20 varieties of deer. It was noted that the natural predator of deer, foxes was hunted to extinction leading to spurt in deer population. Over grazing surely would have happened.

All this played in the back of my mind as I listened to 'Heart', a popular radio channel and who should steal my heart- Ed Sheeran with top UK numbers- Shape of You and Galway Girl. I swayed with the music and my mood was like the swaying yellow grasses complementing the car, swiverling round the roads as we reached the magical land of Harry Potter.

Do you remember the train juggling through a sea of clouds in the mountains as Harry Potter goes to his wizard school? It was filmed at this location. We stepped out of the car to take pictures. The school in the shape of an old castle was implanted to the right of the valley. We walked around to another loch where other parts of the movie were shot. It was all dark waters with matching skies and a house in the far corner by the loch. We walked back to our car in the parking lot. My cousin and I wanted to do only one thing- visit a public toilet. They closed the one at the visiting center at 4.45pm.We retrieved our way back where we had spotted the public toilet. My cousin quickly parked and delighted we ran to the center only to find it is closed. No more Irnbru (a local drink 1000 times more popular than coca cola) till we reached our Air Bnb 😊

The Air BnB had a strange address. You will see a red post box on a particular named road, go up the hill and you will see a orange boat and that is the house. The house name is Mary Spider. We spotted the red postbox. It was a narrow lane, uphill and we were not sure how much more as the road got further narrowed. We got down and asked a friendly man standing just outside his house. He asked us to go further up as he had a gray boat and not a orange boat. We laughed.

Now boat is normally on water and not on a hill. Finally, I spotted a faded orange boat. We were delighted.We met the host who told us of the area but we were itching to go to Glen's fairy lake to make most of the long, summer days. We rushed out and climbed the hill. What a trek it was! It was about 300- 400 ms with mild gradient. I took a slightly stepper slope and climbed like spiderwoman as I wanted to reach quickly.

It was cold and windy. The green grass was wet. We reached the top. It was a narrow and I was so scared to look down. In reality, I could hardly see anything as it was raining and my glasses was wet. The strong wind did not let the rain settle. Then something started hitting us. Our legs started aching. It was hailstones! I wanted to take photos but my hands trembled and I could hardly see.

We fumbled as our jaws were numb because of the cold. Temperature must have been 1-2 degree celsius. In our midst on the hill were two other souls- an old and young man who were photographing with their tripod stands much like National Geographic. There were some sheep grazing. My cousin's wife did not miss the opportunity to play pranks and chase them away. She went up another hill. My cousin and I painfully followed this sprightly Highland lass.We returned to our car refreshed and spent 5 mins wiping our shoes in the grass.

At the Airbnb, our host taught us how to drink proper Scottish whisky. I was suprised how my cousin's wife had picked up Scottish accent and conversed fluently with the host. My cousin insisted that he wanted to marry a Scottish girl and I told him he did not have to look any further. We had bought Tellisker's single malt whiskey and colour was like sunset- a glorious gold!. We took our glasses, swirled the drink for 30 seconds. Then took a sip moved it left, right, top and down with our tongue and swallowed it, leaving the breath forcefully. My mouth and head burnt with heat. I tried another sip and had enough. I felt happy and very relaxed. Somehow managed to drink soup, clear the table and then hit the bed. I easily slipped into my dream world.

The next morning, I tried all the different types of Scottish produce, marmalade like lemon marmalade, blackcurrent jam and was ready for another big day. We saw some waterfalls,compared our footprint with that of dinasours (there were dinasours fossils discovered in this place) and went to the some other spots of natural scenic beauty.

We had a lovely lunch of fish and chips in a lovely place of Portree, the capital of isle of Skye. Recharged, we drove back to highlands and to castle Dunovegan. It was a castle of Maclean clan with light blue patch. It had a very beautiful garden with a glasshouse which grew sweet smelling jasmine! The garden was landscaped with cute waterfalls and bridges. There were so many types of beautiful flowers. If I was a butterfly, this place would have certainly been heaven!

We covered top tourist spots. We visited Quirang and almost saw the statue of Liberty across the Atlantic ocean. Another was old man's spur.- peaks which looked like an old man's head. It was a lovely trek but we came across vast number of conifer logs recently cut. There was a notice saying that the conifers were being replaced by broad leaved trees as conifers were exotic or in other words, not indigenous to Scotland. Won't evergreen trees take ages to grow? What happens in the interim? I suspect deforestation to get wood at profitable rates by timber merchants.

We headed to Dualin farm, which was our next AirBnb destination. We were greeted with smell of manure. Cow manure! We took our rooms which was big, neat and clean with clear view of the loch.

My cousin was excited with sky windows. He decided to sleep under one and keep all the curtains opened. We argued over it and then I decided to indulge him. He sat with a glass of whiskey in style. We loved this place. In the morning, we pottered around in the farm. It is such a lovely feeling to hug the little lambs and feed them a bottle of milk. They wanted to get down and play around with their ears which flopped gently and their gainty steps. The cows in Scotland had big head. My cousin patted their heads lovingly.

We had another dinner of a different soup and bread. Again, I hit the bed and was fast asleep. The next morning, it was our last day of Scotland trip. We were all very sad. As Easter Monday was a public holiday, Loch Lomond nature reserve was closed. We visited the Deer Park and then went to the city of St Andrews.

From the old Atlantic winds, the weather changed to sunny and slightly more stable weather of West Scotland. We visited the ruins of St Andrew's castle and cathedral, destroyed by the English. We had a quick lunch at Subway.

We walked by the sea and watched amused how a black poodle pulled the chain from his owner so he can play ball with another black poodle wanted to play. The other owner was finding it very hard to restrain his dog. It was so cute to watch.

We walked back and then drove home. In the evening, we visited the Celtic Footfall Club and I tried reverse bay parking in an empty car park failing miserably. My cousin gave up!

At home, we exchanged photographs, had some gin and orange. We were nostalgic and retired for the day. The next morning, I saw the massive Glasgow Cathedral with its history of St Mungo and a shrine for St Nicholas. I just remembered Father Christmas who was also called St Nicolas.

So much fight between the protestant and catholic divisions of the same religion. All related to politics. Our next stop over the bridge of sigh under which our car was parked was to the cemetery or Necropolis. A massive one with all the dead tombstones staring at you. A couple was walking down the alleyway and it was a strange feeling to realise ultimately we will all end up here. From dust to dust. My cousin confirmed that it was carbon that remained in the ashes. I stand corrected, from carbon to carbon!

They dropped me at Glasgow Central. I took bus from Glasgow Central to Carlisle ( Pronounced Carl – Isle and not Carleese). I enjoyed the delicious homemade sandwich with egg, ham, mustard, lettuce and cheese. I sat next to a 6 year old, Asian girl who was angry with her father. I remembered my younger self where we saw things from our own world and got angry at small things because our wishes were not fulfilled and we felt wronged.

I started to take photos and she quickly asked for smartphone from her father and started clicking. She asked if she could swap places with me so that she gets the window seat. Afterwards, she slept off peacefully.

Carlisle is a border town between Scotland and England. It did not matter which country won, the border towns were looted and rampaged. There was an old fort near the train station too. I took train and sat comfortably looking at green England, some cows and more sheep.

I pondered how England subdued Scottish culture because of which sadly, many Scottish people hate the English. Even today in 2017, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland wants to be part of EU at the possible expense of parting with England because Great Britain is exiting EU. English kings divided the Scottish clans among themselves. It is no surprise that they did the same to India, partitioning Bengal into East and West Bengal, India into India and Pakistan and interference in Tibet, Middle East and Africa. They ruled the world with hardly any good neighbourly feelings. Always, fighting!

I returned to the warmth of my home with Ed Sheeran singing in my head and sprightly steps of joy and happiness. The most important thing I carried with me was 3 liters of tap water from Glasgow in a Coca Cola bottle. Such sweet water of Clyde compared to the millionth time recycled water of Thames. The secret of Scottish friendliness and secret essence of being a Scottish lass!

---

Photos

More views
It was cold and windy