Scotland the brave and beautiful three.
The land of nooks and crannies.
This post comes two weeks after my trip to the Orkney’s. Again internet access has been a problem but I have also found myself strangely lost for words (a rare event). In the two weeks I’ve done a lot, traversed Scotland from the North to the West and South. I’ve seen castles, mountains and lochs, wildlife and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.
I took the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Malliag across the Glenfinnan Viaduct (aka the bridge from Harry Potter) through some of the most spectacular scenery in Scotland. This route is called the Road to the Isles. On one side of the train was mountains and sea lochs and on the other mountains and fresh water lochs. I just sat there on the train wondering how Scotland can be so beautiful. It got all the looks and England got all the power.
After feeling like I’d had enough and could come home early, I went to Stirling Castle and got my third wind. As castles go it rivals Edinburgh not for spectacle and gilting but for history. Robert the Bruce (I think) said that if you control Stirling you can control Scotland. The castle is built on a rock that overlooks the Trossach mountains. From the top you can see Stirling Bridge, where William Wallace defeated the English in 1297 and Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce defeated the English in 1314 - thus securing Scottish Independence.
At Stirling castle James the first of England and Scotland was baptised. Apparently Mary Queen of Scots hosted a three day banquet to celebrate the baptism, where much feasting and debauchry went on. The castle also boasts a tapestry studio where you can watch weavers re-creating a medieval tapestry of the Capture of the Unicorn. It was amazing to watch the artists at work and it’s not at all like the way we’d do tapestry at home.
There are lots of highlights from those two weeks. Including going to the Highland Games at Blair Castle, where I felt like I’d stepped into Brigadoon. At the games, I watched heavy men, throwing heavy things including the Caber (Gaelic word for log) and lots and lots of pipers playing Scotland the Brave over and over. Probably the memory that will stay with me the longest is sitting at the fort in Fort William and watching dusk fall across the loch. The sun had a particular angle, where one mountain shone bright green in one area and the rest was in shadow. As I sat there I wondered how I could ever drag myself away from a place that I have felt total peace.
I don’t know what makes me so attracted to those mountains. It’s certainly not the idea of climbing them. But they’re mine and when I see them I can only think of the tranquility which I felt there. I love the way the sky surrounds the mountains and the mountains tumble down into the lochs. Photos can never do justice to them really.
On my last night in the highlands, I went to a highland night, which was a bit daggy but at the same time a fitting tribute to end my time there. The song Loch Lomond performed that night, contains the famous lines “you take the high road and I’ll take the low road and I’ll be in Scotland afore you”. It’s a sad song about two lovers seperated after the Jacobite rebellions. That song said everything about how I felt about Scotland too.
I can understand why people wept as they watched the mountains becoming specks on the horizion as their boats sailed away during the highland clearances. Scotland has that effect on you. In Fort William, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to get on that train to take me Stirling. To seperate myself perhaps for a long time from those mountains, maybe I’ll never return there again.
I went to Scotland because I felt like I had unfinished business there. I’ve tried to finish some of it but alas I just want more now. Maybe because I’ve seen more and realised there is more to see and maybe because I was slightly disappointed that I couldn’t see more even though I saw a lot.
Scotland is the land of nooks and crannies. To truly see Scotland, to emmerse yourself in it’s beauty, you need a car. You need to be able to stop go down the little side road to see a waterfall or a loch or a forest. These places aren’t accessible by public transport and has much beautiful sceney as you get from the train, this is only part of the story.
Perhaps one day I’ll be able to take the high or the low road again and be back by the bonny banks of Loch Lomond.
