In September last year, Dana and I met in Scotland for a
wonderful two-week visit to places we’d always wanted to see! I’ve had a lot of
disruptive activity since then, and have strayed from telling and showing about
the trip, so I figured it’s time to get back to that. More on Abu Dhabi soon,
but just for fun here is a sunset photo I took this evening from my balcony:
Just for fun I’ll take you through one day of our trip, in
pictures. September 21 started bright and early! We didn’t, but the day apparently did. We typically don’t get rolling til mid to late morning.
That’s just how we roll and I have no sympathy for those people who force
themselves out of bed before daylight so they can enjoy all the available
sunlight. Part of a trip, for us, is to relax and rest and just enjoy time
together – we don’t have to be GOING every minute of every day. So for you guys who don't stop often to smell
the flowers, here’s a pretty little thing I caught off a bit the road.
So sometime mid-morning we set off from Fort Augustus, which
sits at the southern end of Loch Ness (more on that next time!) for an expected
lovely drive to the Isle of Skye on Scotland’s east coast. It really doesn’t matter which way you go in
the Scottish Highlands, it will be lovely, green, and beautiful which every way
you look! Our trip today was to see two castles. On our way out of town we came
to a one-lane bridge and this scene – worth stopping for a look!
One of our favorite movies is “Highlander,” about an
immortal who spans centuries, and he starts out in the first castle on our schedule,
Aileen Donan (a’ len do’ nen). This is a
13th century structure that was destroyed, but in the 1930s was
rebuilt by the local townfolk. The owners still live in this place, so it is
part home part museum part display, but no pictures are allowed inside.
It is also part ancient and part new, with electricity and
running water. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful place, strategically located at
the heads of three lochs. We spent a
long time enjoying the sights, and then had a great afternoon meal in the café. Unlike the
national museums, which are free, this is private property and well worth the fare!
We continued west on the A87 highway til we ran out of mainland,
and crossed a monumental bridge to the Isle of Skye. It looks much like the rest of Scotland –
lush, green, mountainous, and today it was cloudy! The second castle we wished to see
was about as far away on this island as you could be, and the further we went
the darker and cloudier it got. But it
was still a great drive together.
We finally reached Dunvegan Castle right before the
downpour. Another private property, this castle is the home of Clan Macleod,
and the family still live in the place, so no photos inside, and by the
time we left it was dark and pouring rain, so we didn't really look around that much after the interior tour.
When we left there was only one way to go – a long drive
back the way we’d come. But on the way out we spotted a cemetery, and with the
rain and clouds like they were I wanted to see what kind of images I could get.
The answer was: somber. Like most of
Europe, Scotland is littered with war cemeteries from the great wars. Every
little town has one. This one was derelict and the gate was jammed, so I couldn’t
enter. Instead I shot over the stone wall where I could, sometimes holding the
camera over my head. The monument below was for a Campbell.
We headed back for Fort Augustus, and I’d finally put the
camera away, but coming up a long, lonely stretch of highway well past sunset I
thought I’d try one more shot. I think it turned out to be a good end to a
cloudy day on the road. Safe to say, we love Scotland!
All images are the copyrighted property of Stone Ridge Photographers, 2015. All rights reserved.
#Aileen Donan, #Dunvegan, #Castle, #Scotland, #Highlands
