Bruce Calvert and John Prokop's Trips

Scotland (aka Caledonia)

John and I have visited Scotland three times (1992, 1994, and 2002), and have driven 4200 miles there, very few of them twice. All but maybe 100 of those 4200 miles were either pretty, beautiful, or dropdead gorgeous -- even with the frequently cloudy skies. Considering that Scotland is about the size of South Carolina, you can safely assume we have seen a good bit of the country, though we have missed the northeast bit, where John o’Groats is, and most of the islands except Skye. These pictures only hint at the beauty of this land.

In an attempt to bring some order to this presentation, and to show things in the same part of the country together, I have made the very arbitrary decision to begin on the west coast, south of Glasgow, and move in a generally counter-clockwise fashion. This is not, of course, what the typical first-time visitor would do, but it allows me to spread the best pictures out and to end with pictures of some beautiful landscapes.

If you go south from Glasgow and towards the west coast, you enter Ayrshire, Robert Burns Country. Our first stop was Culzean Castle, which is right on the coast. At the end of World War II, General Eisenhower was given lifetime use of an apartment in the castle by grateful Brits. There’s a wildlife park on the land side of the castle, where I shot (the proper photographic term) this lovely doe.

Also in this general area we found the ruins of the old church where Robert Burns’ parents are buried (front tombstone). It was quite a lovely spot, with the light glowing from inside the ruins at dusk. And nearby we found the real Brig o’ Doon (“Brig” means “bridge”), featured in Robert Burns' Tam o'Shanter and reminiscent of the movie, Brigadoon.

The southeastern section of Scotland, south of Edinburgh, is known as The Borders. While not as dramatic as the Highlands, we found it very lovely with interesting old homes, old abbeys, and pretty drives. We easily spent a week there. Dryburgh Abbey is one of the famous four Border Abbeys. The coastal scene is at St. Abb’s Head, a bird sanctuary on the North Sea. The day we went there for our 5 mile hike, they had a heatwave – it got to about 84 degrees – and everyone ran out of ice!

We discovered this charmer named Susie (an 11-month old puppy!!) in the town of Coldstream (as in Coldstream Guards), just on the Scottish side of the River Tweed, waiting patiently for her owner to return.

Castles abound, of course, in Scotland. In fact, we slipped across the River Tweed into England one day, and had the good fortune to find Lindisfarne Castle capped by a rainbow on our return. Moving closer to Edinburgh along the coast, we visited the ruins of Tantallon another day as the sun was setting.

A little south of Edinburgh is Rosslyn Chapel, where this beautiful column is to be found. (Those of you who have read the novel The DaVinci Code will perhaps recognize this chapel as the place where the denouement of the novel occurred.) The story goes that the master craftsman had a plan to carve the column, but wanted to see others like it before attempting the feat. So he left his apprentice alone, telling him not to begin until he, the master, returned from the continent. But the apprentice decided to surprise the master and had the column complete when he returned. The master was so angry (and perhaps jealous) that he killed the apprentice on the spot. In the chapel today you can see a carving of the master’s head -- deliberately placed by other carvers to stare at the apprentice’s column in perpetuity.

Edinburgh’s most famous street is probably the Royal Mile, bookended by the wonderful and historic Edinburgh Castle (left) (where they have the Edinburgh Tattoo) on the one end, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (right) at the other. Holyrood is the official residence of Queen Elizabeth when she is in Edinburgh. Holyrood also was the scene of the murder of Mary Queen of Scots' secretary David Rizzio by her jealous husband Henry, Lord Darnley, and other lords -- right in front of the Queen.

Another wonderful castle northwest of Edinburgh up the Firth is the unpictured Stirling Castle. Nearby is Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, defeated Edward II of England (son of Edward I, known among other things as the "Hammer of the Scots") in 1314, winning freedom for the Scots which lasted for several centuries. This statue of Robert the Bruce is on the battlefield.

If you head north from Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth, you find yourself in Fife. The peninsula that juts out into the North Sea there is called the East Neuk (“newk”) of Fife, and there you find picturesque fishing villages, such as Crail, as well as the unpictured mecca of the golf world, St. Andrews.

Craigievar Castle, farther north in the Grampian region and west of Aberdeen, is one of Scotland’s best known “tower houses.” The Forbes family built the castle in the early 17th century and lived there until 1963. An image of it appears on the front of some Walkers shortbread cans. (Good stuff!) We got there 30 minutes prior to closing time, only to find the door shut tight and the docent inside practicing his bagpipe playing!

Foxglove and stone walls are ubiquitous in Scotland. These are in the Dee Valley not far from Craigievar. Glorious roses such as this are also abundant in the summer.

Old foot bridges, such as Carr Bridge, are tucked here and there.

Moving west, to Loch Ness, you may not find Nessie, but the ruins of historic
Urquhart Castle are interesting and in a lovely setting.

Traveling north up the loch to Inverness and beyond, there is the charming village of Cromarty on the Black Isle and Cromarty Firth, where the big oil rigs are brought to wait their turn for repairs at Invergordan.
A wonderful mist at 8 a.m. hid the rigs and gave me this picture of a boat apparently suspended in the mist.

We were on our way to Glen Affric and Dog Falls (southwest of Inverness) when we came upon lots of caravans (campers) pulled over to the side of the road. The source of the excitement was two wild red deer bucks. After moving around and nibbling from various trees, the larger of the two paused (about 15 feet away according to John) and posed for me before departing the area. And yes, that's snow on the mountains. This was in July of 1992.

There are few roads through Rannoch Moor in the central part of Scotland, but one takes you by Bidean nam Bian. We went all the way to the end of the road and had tea at the train station, only to discover on our return that my parents had done the same thing on a previous trip, but hadn’t mentioned it. The mistress’ children had to take the train to school each Monday morning, and didn’t return until Friday night.

Oban is a town on the west coast, not too far from Glencoe, site of the infamous massacre of the McDonalds by the Campbells. A well-known traditional song about that battle is still sung frequently at Scottish festivals.
In Oban and nearby, however, we enjoyed the lighter side of life, including the four-footed locals and humorous signs.
You won’t be surprised to find that the restaurant was closed – permanently.

A day trip south from Oban took us by the ruins of Kilchurn Castle at the head of Loch Awe.

Farther south, we visited the town of Inverary, where we opted to visit the jail rather than the unpictured castle. Good choice.
The jail had a tableau of the court with many full-size figures of the trial participants and a recording of the trial.
It was a moody and overcast day, but it wasn't raining, so we were grateful.

These hairy beasties (Highland cattle) are found many places in Scotland – with and without beautiful roses nearby.

Loch Glendhu is high in the Highlands, on the west coast.

South of Loch Glendhu, but still in the Highlands, the famous garden Inverewe sits on the west coast. That’s a rhododendron leaf John is measuring against his arm. Just below Inverewe is the lovely Loch Maree.

One of the prettiest drives in Scotland starts at Invergarry, near the Caledonian Canal and south of Loch Ness.
The A87 goes west from here to Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye. After I shot this picture of Loch Garry,
I discovered that the pros like it, too. It’s all over post cards on the west coast.

A little farther along the A87, a little past Cluanie, you come to this spot on the left,
and then the one on the right, which is near Loch Duich.

Near Shiel Bridge, at the east end of Loch Duich, still on the A87.

Two views of Eileen Donan Castle, located on Loch Alsh (A87), and reputedly the most photographed castle in Scotland.
When we were there in 1994, I believe it was still occupied by the owners.

And finally, Plockton on Loch Carron, a little northwest of Eileen Donan. We arrived there at 9:30 at night,
when the sun was just setting out of sight, and casting a pink glow over the entire scene.
I was waiting for Brigadoon to start. This shot was taken the following morning.