After 21 years of patiently waiting and eagerly anticipating the day I could visit Scotland, the day finally came. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I have been drawn here for a long while. Maybe it's because of my known Armstrong clan ancestry, its rich history that I've spent days, weeks, months of my life reading about in historical fiction and Scottish history books, its breathtaking landscape, and heart wrenching music to name a few reasons for my perpetual intrigue of this country. Flying out of Belfast we landed in Edinburgh at around 9:30 at night, enjoying the rich brown stone and brick of the city framed in the fading colors of the sky. I was so taken by this city that I was regrettably too busy staring at everything to snap even a single picture, not that my camera could have captured the beauty I was so engrossed in. Excited from the flight, Hannah and I dropped our stuff off at the hostel and spent an hour or so walking around, trying to take in everything we could since we knew this was our only night there. My first regret of this trip is that we were unable to spend more time in Edinburgh, but it was hard to take my mind off of anything but the Highlands.
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| The double decker bus we took to the hostel |
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| Edinburgh, Scotland |
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| Edinburgh, Scotland |
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| The hostel |
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| Our hostel accomodations |
The next morning, we ate breakfast at a cafe next to our hostel, went to grab our rental car (after a bit of 21 year old driver rental car drama), and began the trek up into the Scottish Highlands.
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| The traditional Scottish breakfast we enjoyed the next morning, unknowingly indulging in our first ever haggis consumption as seen as the brown blob above the beans |
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| The most expensive thing I've ever been responsible for |
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| This sign meant we were almost there! |
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| Just a small taste of how beautiful the drive was. Unfortunately it took me a day or so to really appreciate the roadside scenery seeing as how I was having to get used to left side of the road driving on narrow, Scottish roads that were sometimes questionable as to if they were roads of not. |
3...4...4 1/2? hours later, we arrived to the home of the family we'd be staying with for the next few days, just right outside of a town called Kyle of Lochalsch. A little wary of my first couch surfing experience, I was more than plesently surprised by the kindness and hospitality shown by this family and long nights of insightful conversation over tea, biscuits, and a snug fire. If my travels are showing me nothing else, it's the goodness in people that I've largely overlooked the last few years of my life.
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| The view from their driveway |
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| Hannah and I got our own caravan to sleep in in the family's backyard |
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| Needless to say all expectations of couch surfing were exceeded, we were spoiled... |
The very next day marked the first day of our Isle of Skye adventures, for anyone who has never heard of Isle of Skye, look it up or better yet,
go there. It will absolutely blow your mind. If given one word to describe it, dramatic. Hopefully the following pictures can give you a taste of just how dramatic. The first day we spent essentially driving around the entire southern half of the Isle, from Broadford, through the Cuillin Hills and Glenbrittle area, on toward Carbost, and ending in Dunvegan before our loop back to Kyle of Lochalsh just across the Skye Bridge.
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| A wee little bird feeder with loads of wee little yellow birds outside of a wee little tea shop we stopped to ask for directions at |
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| I'll admit it, we got a bit lost. However, the finding of this tea shop made it worth it. |
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| Our first stop of the day, the Fairy Pools |
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| This trip has also inadvertently made me obsessed with apples, so here is Hannah, me, and an apple of the pink lady variety |
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| So happy. |
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| Still pretty happy. |
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| If you're not hiking in a kilt, you're doing it wrong. You know you're in Scotland when... |
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| The first of our daily tea/pastry stops. |
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| Dunvegan Castle was grossly overpriced, but let it be known that it is still added to "Chase, Hannah, & Castles". This picture is proof. |
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| Neist Lighthouse |
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| Neist Point |
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| The Granite Red Cuillins to the left and THE Cuillin (Gabbro and Basalt) to the right. |
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| Dinner: Highland venison & chestnut stew with wild thyme dumplings |
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| Just me n' the Cuillin. |
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| The Red Cuillins |
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| I felt like I had to be dragged out of this place, this view, these mountains. Let it be known that one day I will return and climb the Cuillin... |
Our second day exploring Skye, we headed up northward going from Portree, to the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing, down to Uig and looping through the center of Skye to get home.
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| Portree |
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| CARAMEL DONUT |
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| with some tea and a touch of morning rain...the best. |
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| Start of the hike to the Old Man of Storr, as embarassing as it is to admit, neither Hannah nor I are quite sure which of the rocks we saw was in fact THE old man of storr...but I can say with absolute certainty this was one of my favorite hikes ever. And never have I seen scenery like this. |
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| Old Man of Storr possibility #1 |
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| Old Man of Storr possibility #2 |
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| Me, still unbelievably happy. |
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| Old Man of Storr possibility #3 |
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| This picture took some scrambling |
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| #4...#5?...idk... |
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| Kilt Rock Falls |
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| The Quiraing, hopefully these picture do this unbelievable place justice. |
After having traveled from one end of Skye to the next, we spend our 3rd day in the Highlands exploring the area around where we were staying on the Scottish mainland.
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| Alternative Low Level Routes are for the weak. |
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| The start of the single lane road climb |
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| Dad! This could be you!!!! |
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| The top of the pass |
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| Hannah and I's picnic lunch spot overlooking the Five Sisters. |
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| Still going strong. |
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| Millionaire Shortbread. |
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| Our daily tea and pastries at a small shop in Torridon, Scotland |
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| It being our last night with our host family, they made us a traditional Scottish dinner of haggis, neeps, and tatties with 3 different kinds of haggis to choose from. The one as seen above with the metal clasps was cooked in real stomach lining. |
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| Don't ever listen to the rumors, haggis is absolutely delicious. |
The next morning we got up and started our drive down to Aviemore to meet up with our friend Alan from field camp and a few of his friends.
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| Eilean Donan Castle |
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| Chase, Hannah, & Castles at Eilean Donan Castle, it was far away...we were itching to get on the road, this is the solution we came up with. |
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| Hannah and I at Loch Ness, unfortunately no Nessie to be seen. |
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| Glenlivet Whiskey Distillery Tour |
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| Lane, Alan, Hannah, Chase, & Castles |
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| Dufftown, Scotland where we stayed for the night. |
After a proper Scottish feast for breakfast at the B&B we stayed at in Dufftown, we all drove back to Aviemore for some tea and coffee before we said our goodbye's and parted ways. This was Hannah and I's last day in Scotland before we took an overnight bus into London. As such we decided to stop at Stirling Castle along the way as recommended to us by the family we stayed with up in the Highlands...best decision ever. Immense in both size and historical significance, we couldn't have picked a better place to end our Scottish trip at. I would highly recommend fellow history buffs to read up on this castle, but for those of you with a shorter attention span for historical facts, one of the cool things about Stirling Castle is that Mary Queen of Scots was both crowned here and raised here...
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| I think Hannah and I fit in quite well |
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| This was the Great Hall that King James IV used to procaim his and the Stewart monarchy's power. In 1594, to celebrate the baptism of his son, Henry, a fully-rigged, 5m-long ship with 36 brass guns was wheeled in to serve the fish course. |
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| The Queen's Chambers |
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| The Queen's Chambers |
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| I could get used to this... |
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| Apparently Scots are obsessed with unicorns, this entire castle was filled with tapestries, paintings, statues, and carvings of them. Scotland's national animal is a unicorn...you can't get more legit than that. |
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| All of the carvings and sculptures adorning the castle would have been painted back in those days, not just shades of brown and gray. I actually didn't know that and I thought it quite crazy to imagine so much color everywhere. |
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| King James himself |
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| The view from the top wall |
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| The steps down to the kitchens |
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| Probably Hannah and I's most legit Chase, Hannah, and Castles picture |
And just like that, the Scottish leg of our journey ended and we were on an overnight bus from Edinburgh into London...I won't say that I'm not excited for England, but I am unbelievably sad to be leaving Scotland. And I'll leave it at that because I'm sure my friends and family back home who may be reading this will hear me groan enough in person about how much I miss it...
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