Western Scotland - stunning landscapes

For two days we drove along the western coast of Scotland and down to the Isle of Skye, mostly over narrow roads with beautiful landscapes in every direction. The mountains felt strangely familiar, which made sense when we stopped at this exhibit telling us how the Appalachians used to be connected to Scotland, eons ago.

 Herb is with some clever geologists who figured out how the older rock got on top of the younger rock.

While the drive was fascinating and beautiful, it wasn't exactly relaxing.  Herb had gained a lot of confidence driving on the left by this time, and was zooming along a bit faster than I was comfortable with, especially as he kept ogling the scenery and pointing out yet another distant mountain while NOT KEEPING HIS EYES ON THE ROAD. Little swerves into the oncoming lane weren't such a big deal until a giant lorry appeared over a hill and swept by us at a high rate of speed.  Stay in your lane, Herb, stay in your lane.

Weirdly, while the mountains felt somewhat familiar, they were also very alien, in a way, because there were so few trees.  Every rock, dip, and stream was visible from the road. Without trees, the mountains took on a more dramatic aspect. And with so much off and on rain, the mountains were frequently misty, looking like some primeval vista, still cooling off after being pushed up out of the molten earth.

I never got the full story of why there are so few trees. Herb says it's the latitude. Some English people on the train said it's because there are too many sheep and deer and they eat all the little trees. Some other people said it's all the logging.  Maybe it's all of the above.

I took gazillions of landscape pictures as we zipped along, but the tinted windshield might have taken a bit of the edge off the glory.  Here's a little slide show of some of the amazing scenery that I made instead of pasting all of these pictures into the blog.  Hope it works!

Wester Ross and Skye PowerPoint slide show

Flora and fauna

Sheep, sheep everywhere.  This happy crew held up my personal tour with Gavin for a few minutes, but they were awfully cute.

We saw only a few real Highland cattle, and I didn't take any pictures of them, so I'm appropriating this photo from Google just so you know what they look like:

 I took waaaay too many photos of wildflowers and gardens, so I won't bore people by sharing them all.  But I was most astonished by the wild foxglove (digitalis) growing everywhere, like a weed, often pushing its way up through the bracken. In all the years I've read stories that used the word "bracken," I never knew it just meant ferns.

We saw some beautiful formal gardens at the castles we visited, including Blair Castle (posted earlier). Probably the most beautiful gardens were at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, but it was POURING when we would have walked around there, so we had to pass. This garden is at Cawdor Castle near Inverness. Also raining.

Just a bit of golf

The farthest north we stayed in Scotland is Dornoch, a peaceful little town with a golf course. Here's how we knew Herb's goal was close:

The main street in Dornoch was very solid looking. The tower at the far end is the former castle/now hotel where we stayed for 2 nights:

Because castles are made of stone, some elements of the structure just couldn't be changed. Here's the entrance to the WC. Fortunately, we were able to stand up straight in the rest of the bathroom.

While Herb squeezed in 2 rounds of golf in one day (the ONLY day he golfed on the entire trip, he would like the viewing public to know), I went off on a personal tour/adventure with a 6'7" kilted Scot named Gavin.  You should have seen the heads swivel whenever he strode confidently past groups of tourists at Cawdor Castle. Several women asked him to stop for selfies.

Besides the inhabited castle above, I investigated the ruined Urquart Castle on Loch Ness. Very cool. How many castles can you visit on a single trip to Scotland? We are trying to find out.

Gavin also had to break the news to me that the standing stones of Craigh na Dun from Outlander are actually not a real location near Inverness at all. If I'd done a few seconds of research in advance, I might have known this. But taking pity on me, he showed me an ancient site of burial cairns with a few really old remaining standing stones, and insisted that I re-enact Claire's ill-fated stone-touching incident. Overall, I'm thinking it didn't work out so well. But it was a fun tour, anyway.

There's no wrong-side-of-the-road when there's only one lane

There's an interesting element on our detailed map of northwest Scotland. Some of the roads are shown as dashed lines. Oh, smaller country road, you think, perhaps not paved?  Nope.  One lane. That's right, one lane for all to share, no matter which direction one might be headed.  How could this possibly work? you might wonder. We first encountered such a road on our way to Culloden battlefield. Drivers are expected to hum along at a steady clip, watching ever so carefully for the possibility of an oncoming vehicle, assuming that such an oncoming vehicle is visible given turns in the road, crests of hills, and roadside vegetation. When the inevitable oncoming vehicle appears, each driver must choose whether to slam on the brakes and dive sideways into a "passing point," or barrel on while the other driver does the brake-slamming, side-diving manoeuvre.  Then everyone proceeds on their journeys as if what just happened is normal and safe, Most drivers are considerate and take their proper turns diving into the passing points, depending on what side of the road they're on.

Here's a one-lane road on the Isle of Skye:

Further along the same road, we hitch ourselves to the end of a parade of Porsches, reasoning that if anyone is to be the victim of a head-on crash, it will be the first Porsche, and not our rental Nissan.

Porsches by the side of the road, just before we joined the parade:

After 2 days of high-intensity touring along scenic coastal Scotland, Herb has become quite adept at managing the one-lane road situation. We even had one section where no oncoming vehicles impeded our progress.

We met some people from England on the Jacobite train yesterday who assured us that these one-lane roads are not found throughout the UK. It's just one of the many unique charms of Scotland.

The many flavors of sticky toffee pudding

In a very short time, the national dessert of Scotland (or so it seems) has become a favorite of mine. I'll definitely be working on a recipe for the next book club I host. As you can see, sticky toffee pudding can come in various shapes and with assorted garnishes, but I assure you it's always really, really good. "Pudding" in this case is actually more like a thick cake, which most likely has molasses in it and is something like gingerbread, but the caramel or toffee sauce is what really makes it awesome.

My initiation, on the dinner train from Aviemore:

Second experience, and oh-so-much better than the first :)  Dornoch Castle Hotel:

The hands-down winner, from the Sconser Lodge on the Isle of Skye:

The chocolate-lover's version, at the Invergarry Hotel:

Now that all dessert lovers are inspired to try making this, I suggest a bake-off.

Culloden in the rain

Outlander fans need no further explanation. For everyone else, Culloden was a pivotal battle in the history of Scotland, and actually had repercussions around the world, including the American Colonies. It was a disastrous defeat and end of the 2nd Jacobite uprising. Bonnie Prince Charlie hightailed it back to Europe, where he stayed for the rest of his life. The Scottish Highlands paid a heavy price for the whole affair.

The red flags marked the line of the British (aka "Government" troops). The display in the visitor center told the story of the events leading up to the battle from the Government side (red) and the Jacobite side (blue).

The national flower of Scotland is the thistle. The story goes that the Vikings were sneaking barefoot up to a Scottish settlement at night, when suddenly one Viking stepped on a thistle and cried out. This woke the Scotsmen who leapt up to defend their people and defeat the Vikings. At least that one time.

This cairn and all of the clan grave markers were added to the battle site on Culloden moor in the 1800s. This being Scotland, it rained off and on all day, which definitely added to the somber atmosphere.

The Fraser clan stone had more flowers than all the other stones. Outlander fans know why.

We walked pretty far, from the British line to the Jacobite line (blue flags) and back around. It was beautiful with all the wildflowers blooming.

This is not the original crofter's hut where Jamie Fraser (yes, I know) and other Jacobite wounded holed up, but it sure looks like it.

Would you believe, a ski town?

Next stop, Aviemore. We arrived near evening and realized this was not your average Scottish main street. Instead of every other shop selling woolens, this town sold sporting goods. It reminded me of Stowe, Vermont, or other small towns in New England ski country. Apparently the Highlands attract loads of bikers and hikers in the summertime.

We checked into a nice B&B 5 miles up the road in Carrs Bridge, where the chatty proprietor discovered a kindred soul in Herb. The two men shared some Scottish Open talk (golf, if you were wondering which open), then Herb and I headed back to Aviemore for our evening's entertainment on the dinner train.

This being the Scottish Highlands, there was of course a bagpiper providing ambiance as the passengers found their way to their dining cars.

The day's off and on rain was just lifting off again, presenting us with mysteriously misty views of the Cairngorms.

It was a very entertaining evening. Mostly we saw sheep, cattle, and mountains, plus a train graveyard.

And the best part was our first sticky toffee pudding.