Scottish Trip continued (or Part Three)

After washing our faces in the water of the wee people (that sounds really, really bad), we ended up at Fort Augustus, one of three major Forts the British built to keep law and order in the Highlands. It doesn't actually exist in any real sense now but there are a few pubs and a pretty good hostel (even if the staffing needs a bit of help).

Oh, and I almost forgot the distillery tour. Visited Glen Ord. It was very good.

The next day was spent doing Ness stuff, visiting Urquardt castle - well, not really visiting it because they charge exhorbinant amounts to look at the ruins and they've purposely planted trees along the roadside so in a few years time people won't even be able to see it from the road and will definatly have to pay for the privilege.. so of course we did the honorable thing and stole a tree. It's now living in the hostel's garden, rather than being used by a corporation to deprive people of their hard earned cash and much happier.

We drove down to Culloden battlefield - now this will take a little bit of historical background to appreciate so I'll try not to make it too painful...
There have been many periods in history where more than one person can lay claim to the royal throne. Bonnie Prince Charlie (who you may have heard of) and his father James were of the Stuart line and had a lot of support from the scottish highlands (I think partly because they were descended from Mary, Queen of Scots and her son James I/VI).
Their supporters, the Jacobites, consisted mainly of highland clans like the McDonalds, the Camerons and the Frasers.
Bonnie Prince Charlie (so called because he dressed like a fashionable frenchmen, ie. a girl) grew up in France and eventually decided to press his claim on the throne, with the help of a French army. He landed in Scotland and drummed up a lot of support while he waited for the French to arrive.
They got a bit sick of waiting and marched all the way from the central highlands to within striking distance of London - the English king was already in a boat on the Thames, ready to abandon his city if the army invaded. But because the French hadn't turned up (and Charlie didn't know the King was about to flee), the Scottish generals argued that they should fight the big battle on familiar ground so Charlie and his army marched all the way back up to Culloden.
They thought they'd made pretty good time so they thought they'd have time to recuperate, feed properly, rest and wait for the French.
The English army turned up two days later.
The French troops had tried multiple times to cross the Channel but the winds stopped them and eventually they'd given up.
It was a complete massacre - the English slaughtered Charlies army, who had been marching for months and were tired, hungry and unprepared.
But the worst was yet to come. At this period in history, it was normal for the women and children to watch and come onto the battlefield once the fight was over and tend to the wounded - but the English slaughtered those women and children watching. They killed anyone wounded and they chased anyone who ran for help.

As a result, many basic Scottish customs were banned : playing bagpipes, wearing kilts, speaking Gaelic. And much of the highlanders land was given to wealthy landowners who made more money from sheep and cattle than renting it back to the highlanders and so they were moved on - many ended up in Canada, Australia, New Zealand...

It's all pretty tragic. It was the last major land battle on British soil. And a pretty moving place to visit.

Then we wandered back to Fort Augustus and went on a cruise of Loch Ness... that's a differently paced story so I'll leave it for the next post....

Part Two

Ok, I'm doing this of memory now since I've forgotten my notebook...

So, Day Two. Started in Oban, we began our trek up the Great Glen, which is a huge valley with four substantial lochs in it (the most famous being the northernmost Loch Ness). We stopped in a small town to get lunch and then had a picnic at my favorite loch, Loch Garry (ok, it's not spelt that way but thats how it sounds :o)

I kissed a dirty old bagpiper on the cheek.

Then we wandered over to Skye, crossing the road bridge that caused soooo much angst. I can't quite remember how much it was to cross but it was an outrageous amount for people who had to work and live on either side of the bridge - but the Scots had a cunning plan.
- You could cross the bridge for free if you were transporting livestock. So people used to chase down sheep (the sheep wander pretty freely around here, they mark them with paint to keep track of whose is whose), chuck one in the back of the car and then point to it as they sped across the bridge, depositing said sheep on the otherside for someone else to pick up and take back home.

Anyway, Skye was gorgeous. Lots of munroes and bens and general star-like quality. We saw a few blackhouses (the traditional house of the Highlanders, basically a thatched roof cottage) and the grave of Fiona McDonald, who saved Bonnie Prince Charlie after one of the most disasterous and horrific fights between England and Scotland which basicallly led to the ethnic cleansing of the Scottish highlands (more on that later, it's actually pretty sad and we visited Culloden battlefield towards the end of the trip).

Slept in a gorgeous hostel on the edge of the ocean but no sunsets/sunrises (would it surprise anyone to know that Skye is Gaelic for misty/cloudy?)

The next day we wandered through Skye for a while and washed our faces in a river supposed to have been magicked by the 'wee people' (if you've never heard of the wee people, they are basically just like us, same likes/dislikes/prejudices/weaknesses/strengths except about three feet tall. And with magic powers. Some are good, some are bad, some I guess are just indifferent as long as they get what they want.)
Anyway, this river apparently makes you beautiful. Since I can't post photos, you'll just have to take my word that it worked and I am now a ravishing beauty with Scottish men falling at my feet :o) It's next to a pub and a steep-ish hill - story goes that one evening two guys were having a pint and one dared the other to run up the hill and back in under an hour. He did it in 59 minutes. Now it's a big charity event - the record is 48 minutes! Pretty damn impressive really.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment (i'm writing this for my fathers benefit more than anything else so he'd better be reading this!!!!)