"Photos from the Highlands & Islands" Scotland Travelogue by hslowe

Culloden is the site of the last major battle fought on British soil. The Scots fought the English here, and Bonnie Prince Charlie was forced to flee and go into hiding on the Isle of Skye.

Culloden totally lived up to my image of what a windswept, heather-covered moor would look like.

Find out more about Culloden at
http://www.nts.org.uk/culloden.html

The Clava Cairns are piles of stones (ancient burial mounds) which are over 4,000 years old, older than the pyramids in some cases. These mounds are located in somebody’s field, out in the middle of nowhere. When we visited the silence was perfect and the day was still. We wandered around the cairns in quiet wonder and felt our own insignificance.

For more on the cairns, visit
http://www.archaeology.co.uk/timeline/prehistory/clava/clava.htm

Glenelg was one of those places I don't think I would have seen without being on the Haggis tour.

We took a windy, uphill single-lane road to get to the overlook, where we were bowled over by the beauty of it all. Glenelg felt like heaven, and yet we could see an even better heaven just around the corner--the Isle of Skye.

Unfortunately I got sick on Skye and wound up in the hospital at Portree; however I did get to see the Sligachan bridge before I became
ill.

Supposedly if you stick your face in the water here you will have eternal youth and beauty. Guess I'm screwed.

Skye is inexpressably beautiful with AMAZING scenery. And the people speak Gaelic, so it sounds like they are singing to each other instead of talking.

Glencoe is a deep glaciated valley gouged out between the rugged mountains. It's nationally protected and there are only three houses in the area.

The famous clan massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells happened here. (The Campbells' violation of the MacDonald hospitality was viewed as so treacherous that even today, some pubs hang signs saying, "No Campbells.")

We had a wonderful picnic lunch on a mountainside at Glencoe.

Glen Nevis is another ridiculously beautiful place. You might recognize it as a location from the movies Braveheart and Rob Roy.

Highland cattle (hairy coos) are unbelievably cute, being the short, squat, hairy creatures that they are. They are quite docile unless you touch their horns, and then watch out. We fed them shortbread.

Just another scenic overlook. After a a while in the Highlands you come to expect this sort of beauty, because it's everywhere. The people who live there are blessed.