Day 36 October 8 Edinburgh to Toronto

Posted on October 8, 2022 by rbhbmw

Today was our travel day back to Canada. Thank you, Bob, for being my travel companion, my husband, the love of my life.

Day 35 October 7 Exploring Edinburgh Day 2

Posted on October 8, 2022 by rbhbmw

This morning we bought our morning latte from the Coffee Cave across the street from our hotel room. It was delish!

Our planned walking loop for the day was to start at Arthur’s Seat, 3 kilometers from the hotel. We passed some interesting things on the way.

An old building made new with the addition of glass balconies.

Born Free animals in the park:

The rocky peak of Arthur’s Seat (251m), carved by ice sheets from the deeply eroded stump of a long-extinct volcano.

The view from our approach to the base of Arthur’s Seat

Another view of the city from one trail of Arthur’s Seat

From Arthur’s Seat, we descended the hill. Then it started to POUR!

Our descent led us to the Holyrood Palace gates.

As we retraced yesterday’s steps along the Royal Mile, the rain stopped, and we found this eating area. This is part of the University of Edinburgh. The it started to rain AGAIN!

We got chilled and popped into this lovely cafe. After spending 5 weeks in Scotland, this was our first treat in a cafe.

We then went to the National Museum of Scotland. IT WAS AMAZING!!

The main and central hub of the museum, from which the other exhibit halls expand.

As with our experience in the Scotland Parliament Building, we could not find our way out of the museum. We had to ask an employee how to exit. She said “Follow me. I am going in that direction.” She must be training for Olympic speed walking. We had to jog to keep up with her. Once we found the exit, IT WAS POURING! We were planning our next destination, which was to find Greyfriars Bobby. A man standing next to us (waiting for the rain to stop), overheard us. He came over and explained where to find the statue and the story behind it.

Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier or Dandie Dinmont Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died on 14 January 1872.

Day 34 October 6 Edinburgh’s Old Town

Posted on October 8, 2022 by rbhbmw

We started the day by going for breakfast at a local “bench“.

After breakfast, we meandered back to the hotel via the Union Canal promenade.

Narrow boats are parked along the Union Canal.

What is a narrow boat?

https://www.whiltonmarina.co.uk/useful-info/narrowboat-basics.aspx

The Union Canal:

The Union Canal, full name the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, is a canal in Scotland, running from Falkirk to Edinburgh, constructed to bring minerals, especially coal, to the capital. It was opened in 1822 and was initially successful, but the construction of railways, particularly the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which opened in 1842, diminished its value as a transport medium. It fell into slow commercial decline and was closed to commercial traffic in 1933. It is now in popular use for leisure purposes.

The Leamington lift bridge is strategically located so that the boats can proceed along the waterway.

We then started our ascent up to Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle has played a pivotal role in Scottish history, both as a royal residence and as a military stronghold. The brooding, black crags of Castle Rock are the very reason for Edinburgh’s existence. This rocky hill was the most easily defended hilltop on the invasion route between England and central Scotland, a route followed by countless armies from the Roman legions in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE to the Jacobite troops of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745.

A busker piper just outside the castle perimeter

After reaching the castle’s front gate, we began our descent to begin the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile (Scottish Gaelic: Am Mìle Rìoghail)^[1] is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. WE explored the main street as well as many alleyways (closes).

This is the view from the castle’s esplanade, looking along the Royal Mile.

The first thing we noticed was this Witches’ Well with its grim history.

We continued our walk and, much to our delight, we came across the Writers’ Museum!

The Writers’ Museum is situated in Lady Stair’s House (1662).

It is inconceivable that this house was once designated to be demolished!

David Tennant could play the role of RLS. The resemblance is uncanny!!

This angle shows the construction of tis sculpture

The Writers’ Museum contains manuscripts and memorabilia belonging to three of Scotland’s most famous writers: Robert Burns (1759-1796), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).

Helen Cruickshank

After a significant amount of time spend in the Writers’ Museum, we reemerged onto the main route of the Royal Mile.

David Hume Statue:

Generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers to write in English, David Hume (1711–1776) was also well known in his own time as an historian and essayist. A master stylist in any genre, his major philosophical works—*A Treatise of Human Nature* (1739–1740), the *Enquiries concerning Human Understanding* (1748) and *concerning the Principles of Morals* (1751), as well as his posthumously published *Dialogues concerning Natural Religion* (1779)—remain widely and deeply influential.

St Giles’ Cathedral was next.

St Giles’ Cathedral, or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town of Edinburgh.

Advocates Close is an alley leading from Cockburn Street up to the Royal Mile. Its exit is opposite the beautiful St Giles Cathedral.

Advocates Close

https://canmore.org.uk/site/52309/edinburgh-243-high-street-anchor-close

A nice courtyard area at the end of one of the closes.

Paisley Close story:

https://www.mercattours.com/blog-post/im-no-deid-yet—the-story-of-paisley-close

The Museum of Edinburgh was very impressive!

Main entrance to the Museum of Edinburgh

The church across the street from the museum

a lovely garden discovered at the end of the one of the closes.

I can imagine us having coffee at the table in the background.

Holyrood Palace Gates at the end of the royal Mile

Lovely entryway into the forecourt of Holyrood Palace

https://www.royal.uk/royal-residences-palace-holyroodhouse

Across the street from Holyrood Palace is the very modern Scottish Parliament Building.

Scotland’s Parliament Building. We entered the building at the public entrance on the far left of the photo. People were going through an airport-type security clearance. All we wanted to do was find out how to book a free tour. We decided it was too much protocol and decided to leave. But we could not. The doors were locked. We had to be rescued by a security guard when he noticed that we were trying to exit when people from the outside were activating the revolving doors to enter.

https://archive2021.parliament.scot/visitandlearn/15807.aspx

The Royal Mile is now complete. Now, we just need to walk back to the beginning…uphill.

Day 33 October 5 Travel day to Edinburgh

Posted on October 7, 2022October 7, 2022 by rbhbmw

Our “hotel” in Kingussie:

We chatted with the hotel owner and he gave us the history of these pods. We thought perhaps they were converted containers, but, no. The hotel had bought these pods at auction. They used to be accommodation for construction workers (at $30 CAD per night) and now the project was complete.

Today was a travel day for us. We decided to stop in at Pitlochry, on our way to our final stop in Scotland, Edinburgh.

Pitlochry town centre. Despite their being relatively few tourists in the centre of town, we decided to head for the river.

En route to the River Tummel in Pitlochry

An interesting walkway over the River Tummel

The River Tummel is dammed. We didn’t have time to reach the salmon fish ladder (due to the 30 minute parking restriction in the town centre). All hydro stations in Scotland need a fish ladder to allow the salmon to migrate upstream past the dam.

Pitlochry is full of interesting old buildings.

We arrived in Edinburgh late afternoon. Paparazzi-Lynn tried to capture the essence of the 3 bridges over the Firth of Forth, while Bob, with his trusty sidekick George Patrick Stewart, GPS for short, manoeuvred through traffic. From an engineering documentation point of view, the visuals are poor, but, perhaps from artistic lens, they might be food for thought.

The 3 bridges, no longer superimposed…just imposing!!

The three bridges over the Firth of Forth are:

The Queensferry Crossing (2017), Forth Road Bridge (1964), and Forth Bridge (1890).

Some information on the bridges:

https://www.theforthbridges.org/

Day 32 Oct 4 Day trip around Loch Ness

Posted on October 6, 2022October 7, 2022 by rbhbmw

Today our goal was to visit Loch Ness. We headed out from Kingussie and came across Laggam Dam near Tulloch.

This schematic was great! The waters from Loch Laggan are conveyed from this dam through 3 miles of tunnel to Ben Nevis. In 1926 work began to construct a 15-mile tunnel through the solid rock of the Ben Nevis mountain range from Loch Treig to Fort William.
The tunnel brought 860,000,000 gallons of water a day to the site drawn from a 303 square mile catchment area.
This concentrated natural water power was channelled down two steel pipelines, falling nearly 183m to the hydro-station below. Here 10 giant generating units each produced 10,000 horse-power to supply the factory with electricity.

We travelled through Loch Lochy to get to Fort Augustus.

**Loch Lochy** (Scottish Gaelic, *Loch Lòchaidh*) is a large freshwater loch in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. With a mean depth of 70 m (230 ft), it is the third-deepest loch of Scotland.

We arrived at Fort Augustus.

Fort Augustus would not be known were it not for the Caledonian Canal. And the Caledonian Canal would not exist if it were not for Thomas Telford.

Because today was Bob’s birthday, we stopped into a cafe (a very rare thing!!), for a piece of cake. The walls were covered with Telford information and statistics!! This was right up my alley!!

I can’t wait to read a book about Telford!!

Some interesting links about Telford:

https://www.visitscotland.com/blog/attractions/thomas-telford-constructions/

Thomas Telford – the colossus of roads

How Loch Ness is attached to the canal (basically at a 90 degree angle.

The Caledonian Canal connects Loch Lochy and Loch Ness

**Fort Augustus Abbey**, properly St. Benedict’s Abbey, at Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland, was a Benedictine monastery, from late in the nineteenth century to 1998 that also housed a school for young boys until 1993.

Scottish Gaelic is everywhere (as it should be).

Our next stop was Urguhart Castle.

Castle Urquhart stands on a rocky promontory on the north shore of Loch Ness.

More information about Urquhart Castle and the earlier history of the area.

http://www.aboutscotland.com/ness/urquhart.html

Our last destination for the day was intended to be Inverness, but, the Goddess of Traffic Jams had other ideas. Mid-jam, we decided to abort the mission and head home.

Stuck-in-traffic photo shoot. The Junction Church and the Old High Church as seen from the Ness Bridge.

S-I-T (stuck in traffic) photo shoot continues. Academy Street, Inverness.

SIT photo shoot continues. This thirty-seven foot high sandstone pillar in the middle of the new square is topped by a bronze unicorn, and circled by a swooping falcon in various stages of its flight. It is seen catching its prey at its lowest point (see last image, below). The monument was designed by the artist and sculptor Gerald Laing (1936-2011), who had once set up a foundry himself. One of his sons had later set up the Black Isle Bronze Foundry in Nairn. It is an imaginative and impressive tribute — to Falconer himself, to the city’s industrial past, and to the expertise of iron-founders. Unveiled in 2003, it is much bigger and more noticeable than the old Mercat Cross, with its more staid heraldic unicorn carved by Andrew Davidson.

Unicorn on the Mercat Cross, Andrew Davidson, 1900, Bronze, High Street, Inverness
Although the shaft of the Grade B listed Mercat (or Market) Cross is an ancient one, probably dating from the late sixteenth century, the cross was restored in 1900, and at that time Davidson carved the unicorn finial for it (see Gifford 195). The unicorn is the traditional heraldic beast of Scotland. It supports the arms of Inverness.

Day 31 Oct 3 Balmacara to Kingussie

Posted on October 5, 2022 by rbhbmw

This morning we left our attic home in Balmacara to explore more of the Northern Highlands.

We stayed here, in Balmacara, 2 nights in this lovely attic self-catering attic apartment.

Our first stop was Eilean Donan Castle.

The Eilean Donan Castle site was chosen in 634 AD by Bishop Donan as a monastic cell.

Eilean Donan is a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs in the western Highlands of Scotland

Some additional information about Eilean Donan Castle.

https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/eilean-donan-castle-visitor-centre-p248371

The GPS guided us to our next destination via a farm road through the Morvich area, and we discovered the Caledonian Canal by accident.

The **Caledonian Canal** connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford.

Next stop was the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge.

From the centre point on this plaque, each mountain in the distance was identified by name with its height.

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/speanbridge/commando/index.html

Our next destination was Glenfinnan.

Supposedly Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed at this hotel.

By accident, we came across this church.

**The Catholic Church of St Mary and St Finnan** stands in a magnificent raised location in Glenfinnan which offers stupendous views down Loch Shiel and across to the mountains which line the loch’s south-eastern shore.

Some extra information about the church:

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/glenfinnan/stmarystfinnan/index.html#:~:text=The%20Catholic%20Church%20of%20St,the%20loch’s%20south%2Deastern%20shore.

The following photos are of the statue in memory of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/glenfinnan/monument/index.html

Glenfinnan’s viaduct.

The train actually uses this viaduct on a regular basis.

Our day ended when we arrived in Kingussie for the night.

Day 30 October 2 Daytrip to the Isle of Skye

Posted on October 5, 2022 by rbhbmw

Today we decided to go castle-hunting on the Isle of Skye. Skye gets its name from old Norse sky-a, meaning “cloud island”, a Viking reference to the often-mist-enshrouded hills.

The Skye Bridge opened in 1995 and replaced the ferry,which used to arrive at this port in Kyleakin.

Our first destination was Portree, where, en route, we saw velvet moors, jagged mountains, sparking lochs, towering sea cliffs, and the Old Man of Storr.

Next we headed to Staffin.

Duntulm Castle was our next destination.

En route to the castle. Imagine this is a vertical drop.

Some serious changes in altitude in this area.

Here is an example of a single lane road with two pull outs.

After driving through stunning scenery, we arrived at Duntulm Castle. Once again, we had a castle coffee (and lunch!), made by the resident chef, Bob, on his handy-dandy camp stove extraordinaire!!

The plaque reads: “This cairn is to commemorate the MACARTHURS hereditary pipers to the MACDONALDS of the isles during the 18th century. Their school of piping stood at nearby Peingow. “The world will end, but love and music endureth. “”

Information about the castle:

https://www.thecastlesofscotland.co.uk/the-best-castles/scenic-castles/duntulm-castle/

Then we passed by the port village of Uig.

There is ferry service from Uig to the island of Lewis.

Next we drove a significant detour to view Dunvegan Castle. The views were incredible!

We finally arrived at Dunvegan, only to find out that we were not able to see the castle unless we paid to go in. This was the first time in Scotland, that we had been able to see the outside of a castle. Usually you have to pay to go inside the building. We were quite disappointed, to say the least. Because Bob drove such a long distance to get there, I think it only appropriate that we include a YouTube video of what we would have taken pictures of.

Bob discovered on his GPS, that there was one more castle we could see on our way home. It proved to be the best one of the day!

Castle Moil

Kyleakin village from the base of the castle

Some information about Castle Moil:

http://www.castlesfortsbattles.co.uk/highland/castle_moil.html

Day 29 October 1 Leckmelm to Balmacara

Posted on October 4, 2022 by rbhbmw

This morning our first port of call, literally, was Ullapool, a few kilometers north of where we stayed for the night. The name Ullapool is said to be derived from the norse ‘Ulla-Bolstadr’ meaning ‘Ulla’s steading’.

The ferry leaves Ullapool on its way to the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

This ferry ride is a 2 hour and 45 minute journey.

Front Street in Ullapool (with current work-in-progress fences)

Ullapool Harbour

The following link explains the current Ullapool harbour project:

Development Projects

This is a video of what the Ullapool shorefront looked like in September 2022.

As you can see, the project has certainly advanced since earlier in September. This machine was pounding the pilings into the sea bed.

This video captures the essence of Ullapool without all of the port work being done:

Some history of Ullapool:

https://www.ullapool.com/visit/history.php#:~:text=Ullapool%20itself%20is%20said%20to,regard%20as%20’modern’%20Ullapool.

We then travelled from Ullapool to Dundonnell.

From Dundonnell we went to Aultbea (looking for a coffee spot) and accidently came across an anti-aircraft battery site.

Look at this beach and body of water. What do you see and feel?

What is this? This is very close to the beach in the previous photo.

The plaques below answer these questions:

A video about these convoys to Russia and what the sailors experienced:

The following photos were taken en route through the Achnasheen region as we headed to Balmacara for the night.

These were the true colours. The photo has not been enhanced in any way.

Day 28 Sept 30 Crask to Lechmelm

Posted on October 2, 2022October 2, 2022 by rbhbmw

Our first destination today was Dunrobin Castle.

A short write up and video about Dunrobin:

http://www.dunrobincastle.co.uk/

Dunrobin Castle is the most northerly of Scotland’s great houses and the largest in the Northern Highlands with 189 rooms. Dunrobin Castle is also one of Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited houses dating back to the early 1300s, home to the Earls and later, the Dukes of Sutherland.

The back of Dunrobin Castle looks out across manicured gardens to the beach.

Manicured gardens at the back of the castle.

The village of Golspie is only one mile away from Dunrobin. We were looking for a place to make our lattes (usually we find something at a beach), but it was too blustery and blowy, and no privacy.

So we continued looking for the best coffee-making spot. We found it at Dornoch Beach, only a short distance from Golspie. The only challenge was that IT STARTED TO POUR! This was the first time this had happened to us since we started the entire holiday 4 weeks ago!! But, Mother Nature was looking out for us. We found a shelter in which to make coffee. This, too, was a first this holiday.

Dornoch Beach, which we would have strolled along, had it not been POURING!

Mother Nature provided this shelter at Dornoch Beach for us. She also continued to pelt rain INTO the shelter, but we were mostly dry.

In the graveyard of Dornoch Cathedral is this interesting marker “Plaiden Ell”. An ell was a former measure of length (equivalent to six hand breadths) used mainly for textiles, locally variable but typically about 45 inches in England and 37 inches in Scotland.

“A gravestone carries the Scottish ‘ell’ measure which was used on market days for transactions in homespun cloth. Donald Sage recollects Dornoch fairs in his ‘Memorabilia Domestica’ written in 1840.

“The market stance was the churchyard. The evening previous to the market was a busy one. The merchants’ booths or tents were then set up, made of canvas streched upon poles inserted several feet into the ground, even into graves and deep enough to reach the coffins. The fair lasted for two and a half days.”

Fairs and markets were great social as well as commercial occasions in Scottish life. Some idea of the noise, the bustle, and the commotion of these days comes across to us in the paintings of Scottish artists – Sir David Wilkie’s ‘Pitlessie Fair’, James Howe’s ‘Stirling Fair’, Philip’s ‘A Scotch Fair’.
A S Cowper, 1989″

Wilkie’s Pitlessie Fair painting. Can you imagine this happening in a graveyard?

Dornoch Cathedral’s first service was held in 1239 and it continues today as a parish church. Originally Roman Catholic rites were observed but since the Reformation it has been part of the Church of Scotland. The Cathedral has many interesting features, not least the gargoyles on the exterior.

The Dornoch Castle Hotel is across the street from the Cathedral.

Next we drove through Dingwall, on our way to our Lechmelm, our destination for tonight.

En route to Lechmelm

Day 27 Sept 29 Day trip from Crask to Assynt

Posted on October 2, 2022October 2, 2022 by rbhbmw

We decided to stay a second night at the Crask Inn. This gave us the freedom to explore the nearby Assynt region, knowing supper would be prepared for us at any time that we returned. Assynt is a sparsely populated area in the south-west of Sutherland. (Crask is also in the Sutherland region.) Our guidebook casually mentioned a 23 mile detour off the main NC500 route, B869, which would provide us with wild magnificence and glacier-sculpted hills. Little did we know we would experience 25 degree hill climbs and descents, and be hanging off the edge of cliffs on single lane roads! This is a slight exaggeration,but, this road IS mentioned as a dangerous road in Europe! We found all of this out later, of course. Bob was calm; Lynn was not.

https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/scotland/3860-b869-drumbeg-road.html

Today was a full day of IMAX meanderings with lots of “oohs” and “ahhhs”! But, as I have been writing this blog entry, and taking time to look beyond the scenery, where and how did and do the people live?

Here are a couple of links to the history of the area:

http://www.theassyntcrofters.co.uk/history/

https://www.irefuteitthus.com/owning-assynt.html

Crask to Achfary.