Highlands, Take Two

Alright, so more details about my trip. We left St. Andrews at about 10am and got back at 7pm, almost two hours after our scheduled time. The reason for this is that our very enthusiastic tour guide, Tony, didn't seem to have an actual itinerary. Quite a few times during our trip he commented, "Well, I haven't been this way in awhile, so why don't we pop over this way to see such-and-such?" It was very entertaining though, because Tony kept up an almost constant stream of information about the areas we were going through and different sites.

We started by traveling north to Dundee and then down to Perth, crossing over and then following the Tay River. On the way, we passed Discovery Point, where the Discovery, a ship used to explore the Antarctic in 1901-1904 is kept in Dundee. We also passed the site of the Tay Bridge Disaster, where a train went off its tracks into the river as the bridge collapsed in 1897. According to Tony, this event was immortalized in a poem by William Topaz McGonagall, popularly known as Scotland's worst poet. Having read the poem (which can be found here- http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/pgdisaster.htm), I'm inclined to agree with him.

Our first stop was in Dunkeld, which happens to lie in Birnam Wood, of Macbeth fame. I was excited to be in Macbeth country, since it's my favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies, but we were really only there to use the "loo" before heading into the woods for a walk. We were going to The Hermitage, a national trust site that was originally owned and managed by the Duke of, of all things, Atholl. Today, the area is public property and the Duke's "folly", or a building built with no purpose other than entertainment, is open for people to view. It's a very small building in the woods with only two rooms. Called Ossian's Hall, to celebrate the blind poet Ossian, the building has a balcony looking out over a medium-sized waterfall. Next to the building is a small wooden bridge over the waterfall, apparently built by one of the Duke's nephews as a birthday present. The Hermitage is also home to a 194 foot tall Douglas Fir, one of the largest trees in Britain.

After we walked through the Hermitage, we stopped at a monument to the Black Watch. Apparently the Black Watch is known throughout the world, but in Scotland, its reputation can be either good or bad depending on who you are talking to. It was created as a way for the English to have someone keeping an eye on the rebellious Highland clans of Scotland, and participated in numerous conflicts with them. Thus, some people in Scotland see them as traitors and murderers, while others look upon them as having provided protection.

From the monument, we drove onwards to Loch Tay and Kenmore, the town next to it. Loch Tay is home to the Scottish Crannog Centre, so we got a quick peek at a Crannog, which is "a type of ancient loch-dwelling found throughout Scotland and Ireland dating from 5,000 years ago. Many crannogs were built out in the water as defensive homesteads and represented symbols of power and wealth", according to the Centre. The demonstration crannog was a small, man-made island just big enough to hold a stone hut. It apparently was a reproduction of an Iron Age one. Pretty clever way to keep out wild animals, I have to say. Kenmore, the town next to Loch Tay, has the oldest inn in Scotland, as well as, unsurprisingly, a golf course.

Then came the highlight of the day for many people- a tour of the Glenturret distillery, the oldest whisky distillery in Scotland. There they produce Glenturret single malt, which is also one of the ingredients in The Famous Grouse blended whisky. The tour took us through every step in making whisky, and also explained what you are looking for when you smell or taste a whisky. It was interesting to see how little goes to waste in the making of whisky. For example, after the barley it is made from is used in the whisky, it is then used again as cattle feed. No wonder the Scots make such a profit from whisky.

The day ended with one final stop, at what was once a Roman fort, over two thousand years ago. Today, there are no real remnants of the fort left except for a series of short but steep hills running across a plain. These hills were constructed by the Romans in order to slow down Pictish attackers. I didn't test it, but my friend Neil ran up and down a few and attested to their ability to tire people out. It's hard to comprehend a time period like that-- over two thousand years. I was discussing it with Reuben, a JSA from Norway, and we had to agree that in comparison to some of the things we were seeing that day, the United States is an absolute baby. Everything here is just so old. You can tell by looking at the land, especially in the Lowlands-- people have been living there and cultivating it for such a long time that it shows through in small things like where the trees are and how the fences run. At least that's the feeling I get.

And now, off to bed, because it's late here. I'll update you on my trip to Loch Lomond tomorrow, hopefully. I've been doing a lot of work for class and everything lately, so we'll see if I get to it.