Ken Bell Photography - Scotland Gallery I

Edinburgh, Falkirk and St. Andrews

Edinburgh Castle is an imposing structure on the west end of the Royal Mile. It is on the highest point of a volcanic outcrop it sits on. The Royal Mile slopes downhill toward Hollyrood Palace and Arthur's Seat so starting at the east end really makes it seem like the castle is up high. The views from the castle walls are very impressive. Edinburgh, especially Old Town, is a fantastic historic city to explore. Just northwest of Edinburgh, at the end of the Firth of Forth, is the small village of Falkirk. Two canals joined up through locks that needed repair, so rather than repair them they decided to build a giant wheel to lift boats from lock to the other. There is an information center at the Wheel where you can sit and watch the wheel in operation. It only takes five and a half minutes to lift the boats from one canal to the other. On the lower canal we discovered some canal boats that you can rent to cruise the canals with. They are rather small but are extremely cute little craft.

    Edinburgh Castle     Half Moon Battery        Castle building             Royal Mile             Falkirk Wheel          Canal Boat

St. Andrews is a pretty port town on the north side of the Firth of Forth facing out to the North Sea. I would have liked to explore St. Andrews more but time and weather did not permit us to stay long. We did see the impressive Priory Wall, St. Andrews Cathedral, St. Rules Tower, the cemetery and the nearby castle ruins. The ruins sit high on a cliff overlooking the sea. The view in both directions was impressive. We also saw the Old Course and walked around it a bit. I got my picture taken while standing on the Swilcan Burn Bridge. We walked on the West Sands beach that is beside the course. This beach is really large; over two miles long, and there was a nice rolling surf when we were there.

        Anstruther     St. Andrews Priory Wall  St. Andrews Castle  St. Andrews Cathedral   The Old Course      West Sands Beach

Pitlochry, Balmoral and Inverness

Pitlochry is in central Scotland at Loch Tummel. We went to nearby Loch Tay to see the view of the loch, and then to Fortingal to see the Yew Tree at the Fortingal Church. The tree is on record as the oldest tree in Europe. At Kenmore is Taymouth Castle which now has a golf course on the former hunting grounds. There is also a small stone circle called Moraig's Croft near the entrance to the castle. Pitlochry sees a lot of rain and there are wonderful gardens wherever you look. Just north of Pitlochry is Moulin where the Moulin Inn is. We had lunch there and enjoyed a beer from their micro-brewery that is right behind the hotel. A bit farther away was the Edradour Distillery, the smallest distillery in Scotland. We toured the distillery which is very quaint and picturesque.

We drove to Balmoral along the eastern side of the Cairngorm Mountains. The land is very different than what we had seen up until now. The higher mountains still had snow on them im places. Otherwise these are treeless mountains that are covered in heather. Patches of heather are burnt off each year to allow new cover for birds and deer. We saw quite a few pheasants by the roadside. The valleys are different as they usually have a sheep farm in them with grass and even some trees. There are stone fences everywhere that stretch on for miles. I cannot imagine how long it must have taken to build these walls by hand. Balmoral sits beside the River Dee and is on 8,000 acres. The grounds are immaculate and the castle looks like something out of a fairy tale. There is an incredible forest Queen Victoria started on the estate that is also a fantastic sight to see.

         Loch Tay            Fortingal Yew Tree     Pitlochry gardens    Cairngorm Pheasants          Bridge             Balmoral Castle

Inverness was a pretty town with the River Ness flowing through it. From the river bank we could see four church steeples on the opposite side, with Inverness Castle in the background. We toured Loch Ness and the Urquhart Castle ruins, which I thought were amazing. There is even a replica Trebouchet there that is quite interesting. I thought Loch Ness was a very beautiful lake. Nestled in the Great Glen it is the largest fresh water lake (by volume) in Great Britain. The Culloden Battlefield was very enlightening. We walked around the field and could sense the dispare that must have come over the combatants as they fought and fell. It was a sobering experience to go to that battlefield. The next day we went to Elgin and discovered the beautiful Elgin Cathedral ruins. Driving on we came to the distillery district near Craigellachie where we went to the Macallan Distillery, Speyside Cooperage, and finally to the Glenlivet Distillery. We had lunch in the Craigellachie Hotel at their world famous whiskey bar. On the way back to Inverness we stopped for a quick look at Brodie Castle. The castle is a Z-plan style of castle, the only one of that style we got a chance to see on the trip.

     Corgarff Castle             Inverness             Urquhart Castle     Culloden Battlefield      Elgin Cathedral           Whiskey bar

Isle of Lewis and Harris

The Isle of Lewis and Harris has two names for one isle. Lewis is rather stark and devoid of trees. It is mainly covered in large peat moors covering the low rolling hills, mixed with a lot of Lewis gneiss rock. Harris ia much more hilly. At the north end of Lewis is the Butt of Lewis lighthouse. The view from the lighthouse looking north goes all the way to the Arctic Circle, and looking west you look all the way to Newfoundland. Near the lighthouse is an amazing little stone church called St. Moluag's Church that was built around 1100 - 1500 A.D. The original parts of the church were from 560 A.D. Further south we found the Arnol Blackhouse Museum, which unfortunately was closed. We did get some pictures of the replica blackhouse including a peat pile that is used for heating. At Carloway we discovered the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, an interesting village of restored blackhouses that were still in use in 1974. Just near the village was where my great grandmother was born and raised on Upper Carloway. Nearby is the Dun of Carloway, an ancient circular stone building that was started in the 1st century B.C. It has an impressive view overlooking Loch Roag that is at the midpoint of the isle. Also nearby are the intriguing Calanais (Callanish) Standing Stones. There are 50 of these huge stone still standing, and they are thought to be 5,000 years old.

Butt of Lewis lighthouse     Sea cliffs           St.Moluag's Church         Blackhouse          Blackhouse Village             Croft

The southern end of the isle is konwn as the Isle of Harris. When we toured it we found more smaller stone circles. We also found the Bosta Iron Age village that was discovered after a gale in 1993. There is a replica blackhouse at the site that can be toured. I was impressed by the nearby graveyard and the fantastic view from it of the beach and ocean. At Uig we found the most incredible beach on the isle. The beach itself is huge, probably more than a mile across. On it the Lewis Chessman were found in the 1800's. These ivory pieces were of Norse design and are now housed in museums in London and Edinburgh. The rest of Harris is all high mountains, inlets, waterfalls and towering cliffs. This part of the isle is particularly rock covered. We saw many sheep roaming the hills, and on one occasion found a highland cow wandering right along the roadway.

The Dun of Carloway  Callanish Standing Stones     Peat                    Uig beach                Beach waves          Loch and hills

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