Gaby's World Travels: Scotland: The Highlands

On July 17th we left Edinburgh and traveled north to the Scottish Highlands. Our first stop was the city of St Andrews, famous for being the meeting place of Prince William and Kate Middleton while they were attending university there. The town is very much a university town, and as you walk through the streets almost every second building is associated with the university. St Andrews is also known as the “home of golf”, and this is because the Royal and Ancient Golf Club is located there, and this club has legislative authority over golf worldwide (except in the US and Mexico).

While in St Andrews we visited the St Andrews Cathedral, a Roman Catholic Cathedral built in 1158 that is now in ruins. Although it’s in ruins now, it was the largest church ever built in Scotland. Walking around the ruins and remaining cemetery was actually very pretty.

I liked the buildings in the town, many of them were old and historic and others were newly built but still had the “historic” feel to them.

St Andrews is located right on the water, so it has a beach, which for UK standards is pretty beach (but since I had just spent over a week on the beaches of Croatia I was missing the beautifully clear warm waters from there!)

That evening we made our way to the town of Inverness on the shores of the Loch Ness. Our hotel was right beside Nessieland – a museum dedicated to the mysterious Loch Ness Monster (also known as “Nessie”) which is believed to live in the Loch Ness. Evidence of the existence of this monster is much debated, and there is very minimal photographic evidence (almost all photographic evidence has been found to be manipulated). It is believed by many that Nessie lives deep in the Loch Ness, maybe hiding within one of the underwater caves. The Loch Ness is 812 feet deep, and the volume of the lake exceeds the combined total volume of all other lakes in Scotland, England and Wales, so the idea that Nessie is living somewhere in this vast amount of water could very well be possible, but has never been proven. None the less, we had a lot of fun exploring the museum and the life-sized representations of Nessie!

The following morning we took a boat cruise on the Loch Ness – just to see if we could spot Nessie ourselves. The cruise took us along the shores of the Loch Ness and we could see the beautiful green hillside surrounding the lake.

The boat took us right past Urquhart Castle, a castle now in ruins after it was destroyed in 1692 by government soldiers. First records of this castle date back to the 13th century, and the castle has changed hands over the years between the Scottish and the English.

While in the boat we had a little visit from a duck and her little ducklings!

On our drive through the Scottish Highlands we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle, a famous castle that often appears in photos of Scotland. It is located on a small island (the “Island of Donnan”), connected by a stone bridge. The castle was founded in the 13th century, and has since been reconstructed.

I loved driving through the highlands! It was just beautiful everywhere you looked!

We drove to the Isle of Skye, an island off the coast of the West Highlands of Scotland. It is covered in hills and makes for very picturesque scenery!

We ate lunch of traditional Fish and Chips on the Isle of Skye, and we ate our food overlooking the water. The only problem with this was that the area is full of seagulls, who sit around and wait for food – and they get really aggressive! One seagull swooped down and attacked the fish and chips of one guy on our tour. We had to constantly watch your food and protect it from the seagulls! Apart from the vicious seagulls, it was a wonderful lunch!