Travel to Tyndrum - Ready to hike!

We left Edinburgh and took the train to Tyndrum to meet up with our hiking friends. 

We stayed overnight at a B&B and had a hearty Scottish breakfast in the morning. 

Today, we only had seven miles to hike which was a nice way to ease ourselves back into hiking. 

Thus we were able to spend lots of time taking some photos on this beautiful day. 

Today's stage took us through some beautiful meadows. For much of its length the West Highland Way follows old historical routes such as drove or military roads. The drove roads were special routes along which cattle could be "moved" from the Highlands and Islands to the cattle markets further south. Drovers were men who moved the cattle - sometimes hundreds of miles. Scottish droving was a big industry until the early 20th century when eventually railways offered a quicker alternative. 

Enjoying our lunch along the way. 

Tomorrow we will hike almost 13 miles, so we were glad to have the easy warm-up hike today. 

We are staying tonight at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel. The bridge next to the hotel was built in 1751. The River Orchy is an active river popular for kayaking, white water rafting and fishing. 

We had a good first day of hiking!

Final Thoughts

Our last 10 days have been a crash course in Scottish history and Highlands culture. While it has been hard to keep all the kings, rebellions, and battles straight, it is clear that politics, religious beliefs, and fierce tribal (clan) loyalties have intersected in all the dramatic historical events. 

Part of our interest in this trip was to learn a little more about the Scotsmen that ultimately emigrated to the new world. We wanted to understand what helped form their world views and how some of those views might be still influencing our politics today. As we struggle with the fact that political views, religious beliefs, and fierce "tribal loyalties" (political party) continue to create so much conflict in our country, it is clear that some of what we experience is inherent in being human. 

However, one thing that intrigued me through this program was Scotland's greater emphasis on "the common good" versus the highly individual rights that America seems to value. For example, our leader Linda told us that one of Scotland's essential values was that an educated society was critical, so every person in Scotland can have a "first college degree" for free. This is just one example that Linda shared . . . And really got me thinking about if our own country could benefit from a little more emphasis on viewing the common good . . .

We have loved our introduction into Scotland's history and culture. Now we are ready to start the hiking part of our trip! We hop on the train today to Tyndrum where we meet up with Kevin, Kris, Tom, and Chanda. Looking forward to posting more about our hiking in the Highlands!

Our Last Road Scholar Day

Our first stop this morning was the Glencoe Visitor Centre operated by the National Trust for Scotland. Glencoe is known for its extraordinary and dramatic landscape, for its no less dramatic history, and an abundance of wildlife.

We spent several hours there and learned all about the Clan MacDonald including the infamous massacre of almost 40 MacDonaldo clansmen in 1692. The clansmen were killed by Scottish government forces allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II. 

We also learned about the construction of a creel house that was built to model the houses the clan families lived in back in the 1700s. A creel house is a wattle-weave, basket-like structure clad with turf, clay daub and thatch. 

There was a large topographical map of the region and we were able to see the West Highland Way that we will be hiking. 

After our delicious lunch in the Visitor Center, we had time to do a short hike.

In the early afternoon, we made our way to our final stop at Stirling Castle. 

Stirling Castle is one of the largest and most important historical castles in Scotland. In times of peace, Scottish Royalty came to Stirling Castle to enjoy its comforts, superb hunting and to hold court. 

The Royal Hall could hold as many as 500 guests for dinner making it one of the most important places for the gathering of royalty in all of Scotland. 

The views from the top of the castle were impressive and made it clear why the Stirling Castle was a strategic stronghold. 

St Conan's Kirk, Oban, and Dunstaffnage Castle

We started our day with a trip to St Conan's Kirk in the village of Lochawe in Argyll. St Conan's Kirk was designed and built by Walter Douglas-Campbell as a "church of ease" for his mum. Back in 1881, Walter's mum thought the trip to the nearest church was too arduous, so he decided to build her a chapel. He started the project in 1881 and completed the chapel in 1886. Walter Douglas-Campbell had considerable wealth which allowed him to spare no expense on this project. He was very interested in a variety of architectural forms that he ultimately incorporated into his project. In addition, he was a huge collector, so ultimately St Conan's Kirk houses a large number of items from all over. For these reasons, it is a very interesting place to visit. 

Walter's unmarried sister, Helen, was a close collaborator on the project. Both Walter and Helen were generous benefactors in the community and made efforts to employ local craftsmen and artists.

The design includes many elements that highlight the local clans in the area. Once the basic chapel was finished, Walter and Helen's mother used it daily. When she died in 1907, Walter began to embark on a large expansion of the original project. 

He worked on the expansion until his death in 1914 with Helen carrying on the work until her death in 1928. Other trustees carried on the final work until the expanded St Conan's Kirk was opened in 1933. 

Today the Kirk is used for a variety of community uses including weddings, musical and dramatic events as well as a meeting space for a variety of groups.

From there, we headed to Oban which is considered "the gateway" to the outer islands of Scotland. 

The Oban Distillery is physically and spiritually at "the heart of Oban." In effect, Oban grew up around the distillery which was founded in 1794.

We had a chance to learn more about the importance of whiskey in Scotland as well as have a "whiskey tasting." Whiskey accounts for 5.5 billion dollars annually in Scotland's economy. While we tend to think of whiskey as the national drink of Scotland, it wasn't always that way. In fact historically, whiskey was always the drink of the "Highlands" while claret (red wine) was the drink of the "Lowlands." This stems from the fact that the Scottish Lowlanders had a strong alliance with France who provided the Lowlanders an abundance of French red wine.

However, in 1803 when Britain went to war with France, the supply of red wine was cut off, so the Lowlanders turned to whiskey. Simultaneously, in the early 1800s many Highlanders had moved to the lowlands and brought with them the skills and expertise for distilling whiskey.

There are three ingredients in whiskey - barley, yeast, and water. However, there are many ways to process the whiskey to create many different kinds of whiskey. For example, some distilleries specialize in a "smokey-flavored" whiskey that is created with peat that is harvested from bog areas. The above "photo" is a picture of workers harvesting peat.

Our Program Leader, Linda, shared with us the correct way to "taste whiskey" and we tried three different whiskeys all produced in different parts of Scotland. 

Tim and Lynn testing a flight of whiskey at the Oban Distillery.

Besides whiskey, the other major industry in Oban is fishing. We had lunch on our own and all enjoyed lunches from the catch of the day.

After our lunch, we headed to Dunstaffnage Castle. It is one of Scotland's oldest stone castles overlooking Loch Etive.

In the mid 1100s, Norway controlled Scotland's western seaboard. Somhairle, a Gaelic-Norse warlord, ruled "the kingdom of the isles." When he died, his lands were divided among  sons. His grandson, Donnchadh (Duncan MacDougall), built Donnstaffnage in 1220 as a statement to his status of Lord of Lorn. The MacDougall clan controlled this area for years.

In 1469, King James III was concerned that the MacDougall Lord of the Isles wielded too much power, so he granted the Lordship of the Lorn and the captaincy of Dunstaffnage to Colin Campbell, the 1st Earl of Argyll. The Campbell attacked their MacDougall neighbors, survived a civil war in 1644 and supported the monarchy during the Jacobite risings. The Campbells still own the castle today.

The castle has a superb strategic location with panoramic views in all directions. No vessel or army could approach Dunstaffnage without being seen.

One other "claim to fame" fact about Dunstaffnage Castle concerns the Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald. Flora saved the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Battle of Culloden by disguising him as her maid and rowing him over to the Isle of Syke. She was later captured and held prisoner at Dunstaffnage in 1746 before being transported to London.  

The Isle of Skye

We woke up to a beautiful view outside our room. We will have a long day today as we are traveling to the Isle of Skye and then stopping at Eileen Donnan Castle. 

Our wonderful bus driver, Stevie, was fully dressed in his kilt for our trip today. 

Along the way,  we had lots of beautiful scenery of the Highland mountains and fields of heather.

The bridge over to the Isle of Skye.

The scenery was breathtaking!

We eventually got to the village of Portree where we had some free time to wander around and explore. 

Our amazing Program Leader, Linda, is like an "encyclopedia" of information on Scottish history, culture, social issues, and current affairs. 

After leaving the Isle of Skye, we stopped at the Eilean Donan Castle. The Eilean Donan Castle, strategically placed at the confluence of three sea lochs. The site has been inhabited since the Bronze Age; however, it wasn't until the 13th century that a castle was built on the site probably as a defensive measure against the Vikings. 

In 1719, the castle was destroyed and it remained in ruins for almost 200 years. In 1912, John MacRae-Gilstrap purchased the castle and began a 20-year process of restoring the castle. When the restoration was completed, the family used the castle as a hunting lodge and for special family gatherings. 

Today, the MacRae-Gilstrap family still makes visits to the castle; the castle is also open to the public. In fact, it is often said that the Eilean Donan Castle is the most photographed castle in Scotland.