Today was the most crazy day I might have ever experienced.
We woke up at six o’clock in the morning to leave by 7, heading toward the
north highlands for our many stops of the day. We ended up leaving late, no
surprise, and on our way out we had a little breakfast from our b+b and we hit
the road. Following directions that my mom printed out is ridiculous because
street signs in Scotland are hardly visible and the directions are definitely
not clear! I kid you not, at one point the sheet said “turn right” and “turn
left.” My questions were, Where? When? In what distance? At what point? It was
so crazy! Long story short, our day was delayed three hours from one wrong turn
and one very long drive up the opposite way to Inverness.
We were listening to BBC Radio 2 for a while in the car
which was mostly 60s music that sounded a lot like the Beatles… but it wasn’t. This
may seem random but I wanted to remember it! It was nice and hearing that type
of music might remind me of that drive now. The route was scenic, and it was
most enjoyable! Next we listened to BBC Radio 1, the more ‘pop music’ station,
and heard more familiar songs from Canada.
As we were lost, we stopped upon a small coastal town which
was either Bamff or Cullen, I can’t remember at the moment! It was very
beautiful; the weather today was cool and foggy so the waves were crashing in
and the clouds were hovering above what seemed to be a sleepy town nestled
under a mountain, right by the sea. We stopped briefly to take pictures and
kept going.
We were hungry, and very late, so we admittedly ate at
McDonalds for lunch. We were very stressed because of how off our schedule was,
so it was fast- just what we wanted! Finally, we reached out destination, which
was Culloden. I saw the field where the Battle of Culloden in the 18th
century was fought between the Scottish and the English for Scottish
independence! I was standing literally on the government’s front line, staring
out into the middle where the two forces would have clashed. There was a
memorial, reminding people that it was a grave site.
I have to take a break from our itinerary and tell you that
it is unbelievable how many sheep there are in Scotland. It is true! They walk
across the road and wander around and everything! And because it’s spring, all
the wee little baby lambs are out running around with their moms! It’s the same
with cows and calves too, but the sheep are literally in every field you can
see. Even in the distance, the fields are spotted with white and you know the
little lambs are running around! They were so so adorable and looked like
little dolls! We had to watch on every little road because they ran out. Plus,
when we were in a parking lot, they came running across our car as it was
parked! So cute.
Anyways, after Culloden, we went over right down the road to Clava Cairn, which is a site of ancient standing stones kind of like Stonehenge. There are huge stones standing upright, as well as mounds of
smaller stones which my mom tells me where for burial. I’m going to do some
research on this! My mom knows of the site from one of her reads that mentions
it in the story line so this place was very special for her. It was very cool
to see, but we were running late so we had to move on.
Our next stop was…. Drum roll! Loch Ness! Once again, we got
lost but that doesn’t surprise you anymore. We drove into Inverness and quickly
saw water, and I was not sure whether it was Ness or not but my suspicions were
soon confirmed and we were trying to navigate our way down the side of the very
long loch to get to the bottom. My sister wanted to stop quickly in a gift ship
to remember the occasion, and once we did that we waked through an underpass
beneath the highway to get to the actual loch. Where we stopped was a little
cove where they offer boat cruises, but we were just there to see the water and
take some pictures. I can’t stress enough how rushed we were, as we had to be
many many miles west by the end of the night to check into our hostel (spoiler:
we made it and I’m writing this from our place!). We took some pictures of the
gorgeous loch surrounded by mountains, dipped our fingers in and had to leave.
Trying to navigate our way to Dornie to see the famous Eilean
Donan Castle, we were very tired and probably high on sugar and got very giddy.
This drive was the one I will remember for the rest of my life. It was
breathtaking and I couldn’t believe that it was real, and not LOTR or Game of
Thrones. I will post many pictures! I think we were in the Skye region, and it
was all huge mountains that can only be described as Scottish looking. The
fields and bases of mountains were moor-ish, and the slopes mostly had no trees
and were a brownish green colour. My pictures cannot come close to capturing
how vast and big everything was, and how tiny I felt in comparison. If anyone
ever goes to Scotland, this route is a must because to me it was truly the
essence of what I feel the Scottish Highlands to be. Simply amazing! I took a
few videos of our drive to try and better capture the scenery, which I will
post later.
We arrived to the castle and unfortunately, it was both
under construction and closed for touring. By this time it was five o’clock so
all we got to do was go up to the main gate and see the castle, and take tons
of pictures. It was right on the water and surrounded by mountains. So
beautiful!! I want to add some more on the history of this and other spots on
my trip that I will probably add to another page later on. Wifi is sparse here
in these remote north highlands!
Eileen Donan was gorgeous and we didn’t want to leave, but
we were rushed. Our journey continued on to the Isle of Skye, recommended by a
professor of mine. We were able to fit it into the trip and it was so worth it!
We got onto Skye with only around three hours to find the Fairy Pools (where we
were going to take a little walk), eat, and check into our hostel. We had to do
this with little directions and a guarantee of getting lost a couple times,
which came true. So, we stopped for directions twice before we finally grabbed
a bite and then went on up a very narrow, very long and very winding old road
through the mountains of Skye to an incredibly remote spot where little water
pools called Fairy Pools lay. They’re called this because of their enchanting
crystal clear waters, waterfalls and surrounding grass and moss on rocks. It
was truly beautiful! There were many different fairy pools and it involved a
very long walk to see them all, but we were running out of time. We walked a
ways down from where we parked our car and saw one little grove with a
waterfall and about three pools formed from its stream. Our hiking boots came
in handy as we walked down the wet, marshy, rocky, muddy half-trail-half-field
scaring away a few sheep in the process. Yes, they were just roaming around on
the trail that we walked down! This was true wilderness of the highlands,
people. And it was maybe the most stunning sight I have ever seen. I felt like
I was almost into the clouds with how high the mountains were and how low the
fog was settling. The weather was in true Scottish fashion but I think it made
the whole experience more atmospheric.
It slowed down after this. We had been in a rush all day and
saw four (five if you count Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness which we saw in
passing) ‘touristy’ things. I said that it was like sampling a whole bunch of
things instead of just one thoroughly. I’m glad we did things the way we did!
It was fun. Next we drove to our hostel and checked in. I must have been under
the wrong impression about hostels because our room is not our own. I guess
because it has six beds instead of four, other people can rent the bed whether
its in the same room or not. I didn’t know that and was a bit surpised. Here I
am writing to you from my bed! I’m listening to Mumford & Sons and
finishing up to go to bed. Our hostel is on the Isle of Skye and is called
‘Skyewalker’ Hostel- haha! Amazing Star Wars reference even in the highlands of
Scotland (:
I will probably think of more to add about today but that
has to come later. I am totally exhausted! Goodnight, tomorrow it’s on to Isle
of Barra!
Cheers!
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