Aberdeen is the third largest city in Scotland, located on the north-eastern coast. It is often known as the "Granite City," since most of its buildings are made of granite. My first impression of Aberdeen was that it was a rather nice city of old granite houses with multiple chimneys and many gothic looking churches and buildings.
My first night there we went out for a drink in a pub. Going to the pub is a big part of Scottish culture and most people "pub hop," having one drink in a pub and moving on to the next one. The streets were crowded with people walking from pub to pub. My favorite pub was called "Frankenstein's" which had a 'monster' theme - there was music playing, but you could still talk and it wasn't overwhelmingly crowded, like some of the others were.
One thing I really had to get used to in Scotland was looking to the right when I crossed the street because the cars drive on the left side of the road rather than the right. I almost got run over once, so I learned quickly to look to the right! Another oddity that I discovered was that people line up (or as they say in Britain "queue up") at the bus stops!
On Sunday, we took a trip down to Stonehaven, a small village just 30 minutes south of Aberdeen. There we hiked along the cliffs by the sea to the Dunnotar Castle, which is perched on the cliffs (almost as an island) overlooking the sea. The hills were lush and green, dotted with cows and sheep that seem to defy gravity, feeding on the lush grass of the steep cliffs.
The following day we rented a car and drove about 1 hour into the countryside to go horseback riding for two hours. It was a great ride with a wide variety of weather conditions! Janet was right when she said you can have 4 seasons in one day in Scotland. Well, ok, there was no snow, but we did experience some rain, sun, partly cloudy and cloudy conditions! The ride was through the forest and up into the hills, with many canters and trots.
Janet had to work for the next two days, so I familiarized myself a bit more with Aberdeen, and then we embarked on our 4-day trip through the Highlands. We left on Wednesday evening and drove 3.5 hours northwest, past Inverness, into the country north of there to stay at the Carbisdale Youth Hostel which is a beautiful castle perched on a hill. We were unsure of how difficult it would be to find the castle at night, but there it appeared to the left, lit up in all its glory, like a magical dream floating just off the road.and we were glad it was so easy to
locate it, but then we were driving past it and it was soon far behind us! We stopped at a hotel and asked for directions to the castle and found that we had to return to the last village 5 miles away and go from there as there was no turn-off from the road we were on. This castle is also supposedly haunted by 5 ghosts, including one of a highlander warrior (the site of the castle is also the location of a furious battle in the 15th century. In the 1930's, the castle was bought by Col. Salveson, who was a Scotsman of Norwegian descent, who still
had some diplomatic connections with Norway. During WWII he invited the King and Prince of Norway to stay there when Norway was invaded and occupied by the Germans. An agreement was signed in the castle between Norway and the Russia (in the room where we ate our breakfast) that the Russians would withdraw after invading Norway to push the Germans out. In 1945, Salveson died, leaving the castle to his son, who in turn donated the castle and all of its contents (it has many works of art - including paintings and Italian
marble statues) to the Youth Hostel Association, in an effort to provide a place for the young people of the world to meet one another, get to know one another, and hopefully get along better in the future.
The following morning, we left to drive towards the northwest tip of Scotland. The landscape here is a little more stark and barren, with less trees, mostly moors, moss and rolling hills - dramatically beautiful and a bit melancholy in mood. The weather was rather nice, fairly sunny, although a little windy and chilly. In the far north, people are scarce and sheep are more plentiful than people. The road narrows to one lane, with periodic passing areas every 20 feet or so. This can be a bit scary at times. For instance, while crossing a little stone bridge, we screeched to a halt, when we met face-to-face with a big yellow truck! Luckily both of us stopped in time before we hit head-on.
Just before the town of Durness at the very north of Scotland, we found a wonderful place. The rolling green hills of moss lead down to the beach, where soft sand began, curving around a cove like a crescent and there were the turquoise waters of the north Atlantic. So surprising this was, as I'd only seen water that color in the tropics, and didn't expect to see it in the northern Atlantic. After a fair amount of wandering in this beach paradise, we departed southward again to end up in Ullapool, a nice little port on the western coast of Scotland. We checked into a youth hostel there, right on the port, and looked around for a place to eat. After checking out several places, we settled on one and decided to splurge for a nice dinner. Janet had a highland cow steak and I had venison steak. Scotland abounds with red deer, and venison is found on just about every menu in the countryside. I love game, so this was a big plus for me while traveling in Scotland. The venison was served with black pudding, which is made from blood and oatmeal. I know, it sounds disgusting, but I tried it and it wasn't too bad, and tasted like a bit like sausage and was very rich and dense.
The next day we continued towards the south and into the main area of the highlands where the mountains are higher and more trees appear, mostly pine. We stopped in the adorable village of Plockton, on the coast for lunch and coffee and then continued on towards Loch Duich where the Eileen Donan Castle is located. This castle was used in several movies, most notably "The Highlander," and is one of Scotland's most beautiful castles. It is also very old, originating in the 13th century. This castle is built on a tiny island with a stone walkway to connect it to the mainland.
We decided to go inside this castle and and there we met a Scotsman named Gordon, dressed in medieval clothes, selling jewelry and displaying various celtic and viking artifacts. I videotaped him playing a musical instrument made from a horn and he also described the various artifacts he had displayed. This included a few swords and I filmed Janet playing with the swords (pretty funny). He also teaches sword fighting and was instructing her how to use the swords. He has been in several films, including Braveheart, The Highlander and Rob Roy
and additionally is a location and production coordinator in the film industry.
We left the castle and continued south towards Ben Nevis, our next destination. We had decided to hike up Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in Great Britain (4,400 feet). There's a youth hostel right at the entrance to the hiking trail, and this is where we stayed. We decided to buy food and cook at the hostel that night and met two guys from Israel in the kitchen while cooking dinner. Janet had asked them how it was to live amidst so much violence and they said that you get used to it. One of them mentioned that he could now tell what types of automatic weapons were being fired, just by the sound they make. Seems hard to imagine getting used to life being like that. They both were very interested in Scottish culture, mainly from movies they'd seen like The Highlander and Braveheart.
The next morning we awoke to pouring rain! This was very disappointing as although hiking in drizzle or if it starts to rain a little after you've already begun your hike is one thing. but pouring rain is quite another and neither one of us were too keen on hiking in such bad weather. We had planned to leave at 9am, but with all the rain, we decided to wait and see if it would stop or at least slow down a bit. We drove down the road to an area where Braveheart was filmed and on the way met some highland cows in the middle of the road. We stopped to photograph them and they came up to our car and licked the headlights and sideview mirrors! Highland cows are indigenous to the highland region of Scotland and have long red fur and very large sharp horns!
Well, around 11am, the rain stopped, so we decided to try to climb Ben Nevis. We decided that if the weather turned bad again, we could always turn around and come back. So off we went, and to my surprise, the trail was not soft earth amidst the green moss and purple heather, like the previous trails we'd hiked, but it was large stones, turning later to small stones, and not very comfortable to walk on. Eventually, I felt like the bottom of my feet had been pounded by a hammer! The other people hiking on the trail were very friendly, always greeting each other when they passed. We met a nice Irishman along the way and kept running into him again and again. Once we were almost at the top, people on their way down would congratulate us, saying "Well done!" At the bottom, it had been relatively warm, but as we increased our altitude it began to get colder and colder.
The summit was clothed in mist and was windy as hell and it was freezing at the top - you definitely needed gloves and a hat. At the summit there is Britain's highest war memorial (World War II).
So then we headed back down. Funny, it's always more exciting to go up as you have a goal to reach the top, and on the way down, you're just going back. On the way up the weather had been changing dramatically, from party cloudy to misty to sunny again, always shifting, and the top was misty and cold, you had no view. But on the way down, the mist cleared and it was sunny and by the time we reached the bottom, we could see that the summit had also cleared. Although the hike up Ben Nevis is relatively easy, there are people that die climbing this mountain every year (according to Janet). At the summit there are several sheer drop-offs and when the visibility is really bad (especially in winter when there's snow and a lot of fog) some people wander in the wrong direction, off the path and end up walking off a cliff.
We ended up back at the hostel around 5:30pm and drove towards Glen Coe, a beautiful valley just south of Ben Nevis. We found another hostel there and went to an Inn down the road for dinner and a drink. Again, I found some venison to eat, and this time in the form of a burger - a deer burger - how cute. This Inn had a unique selection of old Scottish ales, and the one I chose was heather ale, based on a recipe from 2000 BC - the oldest brewed ale in Britain.
Sunday, our last day, and we were headed back to Aberdeen. On the way back, we drove to the Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe (photo will be posted shortly). I had seen photos on postcards of this lovely ruined castle and was enchanted by it, so I wanted to see it in person and take my own photos. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived at the castle. But still, we marched through a cow pasture to take photos of it in the rain.
We stopped in Crieff, on the way back for lunch and coffee and then threaded our way through the mountains of the Glen Shee area to Braemar, and finally east towards Aberdeen, stopping a few minutes at Drum Castle.
And so our little journey was over, and we were back in Aberdeen. One last glass of wine in a nearby pub, the "Monkey Bar" as we called it - a little farewell drink.
Sad to have a journey end so soon, but in a short time there will be another one, already planned...as it is always with me..as I am one who has wanderlust.
October 2001 Kristin Piljay