I'm not sure how we did it but we were checked out of the hotel room at at the
Haggis Adventures office by 8:00AM. And then we were off on our 6 day
Compass Buster tour. I knew we were in for a fun time when our tour guide & bus driver
Ped told us we were going to start the tour by learning & singing the national anthem of Scotland. Little did I know that "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimer's is the national anthem (you know... "I would walk 500 miles & I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles.."). And did you know that you could have a light show on a bus... Anyway, these are some things I saw on the 1st day.
The William Wallace monument.
The Wallace monument is HUGE. And it's on top of a hill overlooking Stirling Bridge where Wallace (& his men) defeated the English in 1297. (Ok I don't actually remember all those facts... it's called a travel book)
A view of the monument from the bottom of the hill.
Trina taking her photos of the monument.
Stirling Bridge is down there somewhere.
A statue of Robert the Bruce. Bruce took over after Wallace was executed in a very nasty manner (& lets just say, Braveheart sanitized the execution scene). This was also where we discovered that one of the girls on the tour lived in... Knoxville. How random & small world is that?
"Run away, run away". If I have to say anything else, you are not a Monty Python fan.... and you wouldn't understand any ways.
One of the billion lakes (I mean lochs & I may be exaggerating on the number) in Scotland. Unfortunately by the end of the trip I had all these wonderful photos of lochs & just can't remember which is which.
This was in the middle of a wilderness area. I can't remember the name but we were told the Royal Army does some of their elite unit training (you know survive on the land with nothing but a pocket knife & duck tape... oh wait that was MacGeyver).
The beautiful & sad Glencoe. The beauty is obvious. The sadness is hidden.
So what's the sad story, you ask?
Well in 1692 the leader of the Glencoe MacDonald clan was 5 days late in getting his oath to follow William III. So William decided to make an example of the MacDonalds.
He sent the Campbells in to kill them. How they went about doing it was especially brutal.
They took advantage of the unwritten rule of hospitality between the clans. They were entertained by the MacDonalds for 10 days. Then, on the 13th of February, 1692, the Campbells killed the MacDonalds. And you can imagine, the ones that were able to escape & hide didn't fare too well in these mountains.
Like I said, beautiful & sad.
The William Wallace monument.
The Wallace monument is HUGE. And it's on top of a hill overlooking Stirling Bridge where Wallace (& his men) defeated the English in 1297. (Ok I don't actually remember all those facts... it's called a travel book)
A view of the monument from the bottom of the hill.
Trina taking her photos of the monument.
Stirling Bridge is down there somewhere.
A statue of Robert the Bruce. Bruce took over after Wallace was executed in a very nasty manner (& lets just say, Braveheart sanitized the execution scene). This was also where we discovered that one of the girls on the tour lived in... Knoxville. How random & small world is that? 
"Run away, run away". If I have to say anything else, you are not a Monty Python fan.... and you wouldn't understand any ways.
One of the billion lakes (I mean lochs & I may be exaggerating on the number) in Scotland. Unfortunately by the end of the trip I had all these wonderful photos of lochs & just can't remember which is which.
This was in the middle of a wilderness area. I can't remember the name but we were told the Royal Army does some of their elite unit training (you know survive on the land with nothing but a pocket knife & duck tape... oh wait that was MacGeyver).
The beautiful & sad Glencoe. The beauty is obvious. The sadness is hidden.
So what's the sad story, you ask?
Well in 1692 the leader of the Glencoe MacDonald clan was 5 days late in getting his oath to follow William III. So William decided to make an example of the MacDonalds.
He sent the Campbells in to kill them. How they went about doing it was especially brutal.
They took advantage of the unwritten rule of hospitality between the clans. They were entertained by the MacDonalds for 10 days. Then, on the 13th of February, 1692, the Campbells killed the MacDonalds. And you can imagine, the ones that were able to escape & hide didn't fare too well in these mountains.
Like I said, beautiful & sad.
4 comments:
Your pictures make me want to go visit these places Sonya! --Darlene
Then I say just go! You won't regret it. This is the 1st big trip I've ever really planned myself & had been hesitant to do it before. Once I got into it, I was suprised at how easy it all was. And going with a tour company like Haggis made it very cheap. If you're like me, the thought of traveling alone is very scary but I was amazed that the majority of the people on the tour were traveling alone.
Had you been out of the country before? --Darlene
I visited my sister when she was in Moscow. But I flew over with them & they made all the plans.
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