Highlands

Today is Wednesday

Most of our coach left on another bus today as they are all going to the Isle of Skye, we wanted to, but time doesn't allow on this trip. So we have a 28 seat coach with 6 people on it, we got the much prized front seats.

 












 

Today we drove along the bit that looks like a split in Scotland, it is a series of Lochs and the scenery is breathtaking. Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain along the way had it's head in the clouds, but we didn't care it was fabulous anyway.

We passed Inverlochy Castle, a ruin that has free entry. It was very interesting. It is one of three along the Lochs and held a strategic position. It has seen three battles. It was built in 1280 and had a deep moat around it.


 

Then the Scenery, We were so lucky with the weather. If a picture says a thousand words then there's a few novels in this...
The pictures are fantastic, we had to reduce them down to 30% for the blog, but they are still great.

 

This is the area of Glencoe, famous for the 'Massacre of Glencoe' where the MacDonald Clan was murdered, some by their house guests, the Campbells, for tardy compliance to pledge allegiance to the King, another 40 women and children died from exposure when their homes were burnt. That was on 13th February 1692. Now over 300 years later there is only one hotel in the valley and there is a sign at the reception desk, it says "No Campbells are permitted to stay here". And they mean it.

 



We passed a railway viaduct as we were leaving the highlands, it has been abandoned by the railway as stones kept falling on to the track, now it is a cycle track

Tammy finds some hairy coooos 
We swapped buses at this point, we now had six people on a 45 seat coach.

We visited the Wallace Monument in Stirling although we were not allowed off of the bus until Greg, our driver, had told us all the errors made in the film 'Braveheart' although he did end by saying it was one of his favourite films.
The monument was built in 1850 to replace an earlier one that was falling apart, it is the largest stone monument in Scotland to someone with no religious significance.
It is located on the hill where William Wallace (who was not called Braveheart, that was Robert the Bruce) organised his troops to attack the English army as they crossed the river Forth.

A statue was added to the car parking area in 1996 depicting William Wallace with Mel Gibson's face carved into it. It was regularly vandalised by the affronted locals until it was put in a cage to protect it. After much public protest it was removed in 2008.

At the foot of the hill there is a school called the William Wallace High School, our driver assures us that at 3.30pm every school day the children can be seen running out of the school shouting 'FREEDOM'.

And so our coach tour has come to an end, we are back at our hotel in Edinburgh. We would recommend 'Haggis Tours' to anyone who is going to Scotland and wants a "Young at heart, off the beaten track, coach tour.

Off to the Pub for tea and a pint.