On the morning of September 5th, we checked out of our Edinburgh hotel and picked up a rental car. With Chad as our designated driver and Lindsay as official navigator, we were ready for a great Scottish road trip. Chad quickly overcame the initial awkwardness of left handed shifting and driving on the left side of the road, and we were on our way (more on driving in the Scottish Highlands in a future blog post…)
Our plan was to do a clockwise round trip of the country; our first stop was Duchray Castle, just outside of Stirling. A 500 year-old castle of modest size and interesting history (including a story featuring Rob Roy), it is now a charming B&B run by a lovely English couple. The castle is situated in the middle of forestland, the nearest village a 2.5 mile drive away. We enjoyed the serenity of the grounds, the mist rising from the river in the mornings, pints of local beer at the Aberfoyle village pub, and an excursion to Inchmahone Abbey, a ruined church on an island in Lake Menteith nearby (notice the sign in the picture of Chad on a dock: flip the board to white to signal the boat – clever rural tourism!).
We left the castle on a drizzly morning headed for Oban, our gateway to the Inner Hebrides islands of Mull, Iona and Staffa (at least, that was the plan). On the way to the coast, the wind started to pick up and the rain came down with purpose. By the time we pulled into Oban, the wind and rain had intensified, the harbor waters dark and dotted with whitecaps, fishing boats rocking wildly. Fingers crossed, we braved the weather and made our way to the ticket office to book our spots for the island tours. The lady at the desk smiled apologetically and told us all ferry services were cancelled due to weather conditions; the forecast didn’t bode well for the next several days, unfortunately.
Disappointed, we ducked into a pub to warm up over a pint and a bowl of Cullen skink (Scottish fish chowder), and made a plan B. Being from the Pacific Northwest, rain certainly wouldn’t deter us from hiking, so we decided to head inland to Glencoe. Satisfied with our new plan, we stopped in the Oban Distillery for our first sampling of Scottish Whisky. Slainte Mhath!
With its treeless hills and narrow valleys, wild heather and rushing creeks, Glencoe is exactly what you’d imagine the Scottish Highlands to be – it is hauntingly beautiful. It is also the location of some tragic clan history; in 1692 government Redcoats slaughtered 38 members of the Macdonald clan, earning the valley the nickname “the Weeping Glen.”
We packed a picnic, including two cans of Tennents lager (a beer at the top is our traditional hiking reward), and set out on a trail called the Devil’s Staircase. The heavy rains made for healthy waterfalls and the creeks took on a peaty color, looking like boiling tea. With no tree cover, we felt the full blast of the wind. Despite numb fingers and wet cloths, we made it to the top, reveling in the views. Our plan B was a memorable day in Scotland.
Now reading… Chad: The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and it’s Peoples, by Tim Flannery; Lindsay: The Girls, by Emma Cline
A Forever of Nows 