Loch Ness and the Highlands ... (Scotland - II)

For part of our journey to Scotland, we took a commercial tour

through the Scottish Highlands, Loch Ness and Glencoe. 

Beautiful, and quite remote.

We met the bus in central Edinburgh and headed out early.  As you leave the city, the first thing you see is the Firth of Forth Bridge, a large (huge) railway bridge, one of the first large structures built of steel, completed in 1890.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin



Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The anchor for one of the great cantilever sections.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The tour bus links up with a tour boat.  You buy a box lunch on land and take it with you onto the boat, nice interior seating, with a top deck for the parts in between the rain.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

...and the rain wasn't far off.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The boat travels a short bit up the lake and stops

to swap some passengers at the ruins of a cool (former) lakeside castle.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The cloudy-sky-lighting was a bit of a challenge,

but as I say, you deal with what you get.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Lots of moisture in the air.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The roadway runs right down one side of the 1-mail x 65-mile long lake. 

There are only two such roads going up into the highlands,

and as you will see below, this one isn't a big road.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Only a few houses, guest houses and small hotels

are scattered along the lakeshore on the one side.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The stone in the shallow water (about 3-4m diameter) is said to be a "Witches Stone". 

Apparently, in the distant past, two powerful witches lived on either side of the loch,

and occasionally hurled insults, and large boulders, at one another. 

This one is said to have landed on the side of the hill, and rolled back down to the water's edge.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The road on the lakeshore is narrow.  There was not much room

between the bus and oncoming trucks, a bit unnerving in the rainy weather.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

At the bottom end of the lake we turned back east, into Glencoe ("glen" is valley in Scottish), beautifully sculptured by volcanic action.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Imagine living in that tiny, isolated little farm house.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

When the rain is falling, you can see the myriad large and small water falls

as the rain water cascades off the mountain. 

The locals called these "weeping mountains", and you can see why.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Stirling Castle.  We stopped and toured it actually on the following day,

on a shorter tour, with more stops at castles, abbeys, etc.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

A "Highland Cooo" !

The Longhorn's Scottish cousin.  ;-)

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

A Scottish thistle, a national emblem,

perhaps indicative of the kind of hard-scrabble life

one finds in such rugged country.

Y'all take care now,

- Mark W. Laughlin

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Long Live Nessie !!!