Northern Highlands
It's midnight and I'm writing this in bed like I did every evening so far. We're in a tiny little village called Rhue at the west coast of the highlands, just above Morefield which is right above Ullapool, one of the bigger cities in this area. We've been looking for a place to spend the night for a couple of hours. It was quite hard this time since everything was fully booked, no vacancies at all.
We found a sign though at the side of the road that said: B&B vegetarian. So we went there to check it out. It turned out to be a really nice place owned by Barry and Irene. Two really nice people. They built the house themselves which is very impressive. It's a cosy warm house with a wonderful atmosphere, very quiet and peaceful! We've been talking with the owner since we came back from having dinner at a restaurant in Morefield [more about that later].
He told us wonderful stories about houses, hurricanes, underground warm water systems, the cats, the dogs and his sheep. He is a shepherd which is quite amazing because I've never met one in my entire life until now and I'm impressed by his stories about his work and about sheep in general. Very interesting!
He also told us that there might be northern lights tonight. His wife seems to have this alert thingy on her computer that will tell her if there might be an occurrence tonight. He said he saw them here last night and at some other time, years ago he saw them for over three hours; amazing colors. That would be the icing on the cake to me!!! So I better keep it a bit short this time and get some sleep because I might wake up in the middle of the night watching some beautiful natural slide shows...
Barry and me having breakfast and talking about their business cards that I'm going to design
We had late breakfast this morning; around 09.00 and drove off about an hour later saying goodbye to our hostess Jean Mackay who made an excellent breakfast: two sausages, two eggs and a tomato, coffee and orange juice. We left Skye by the bridge to the mainland on the south side of the island. We thought we had to pay money to cross the bridge but to our surprise we didn't have to. The bridge was amazing; so high!
The day didn't start off very well, it was totally clouded and constantly pissing down. I really don't mind though. Being on holiday in this country is such a pleasure, enjoying all the beauty of nature everywhere and all these kind people. We went to Dornie about 10 miles from the bridge. This is where the famous castle is situated; Eilean Donan Castle. I was hoping for some sunshine so I could take some beautiful pictures but alas, the sky was grey and it didn't want to change color...
When we got there the place was just too crowded with tourists and it wouldn't be fun to get into the castle to have a look around. Big groups of people, coaches, came in every five minutes so really there was no point in going there. Which was a shame because I overheard a conversation from the security people telling each other that it was very quiet yesterday because of the sunny weather...
Aaargh I wanted to go there yesterday but we decided to find ourselves a place to stay first because it was getting late already and then we decided to do it the next day and then of course the next day, it was crowded and pissing down... Anyway, the entrée fee was quite a lot too so we didn't really want to spend the money on having to push our way into the crowd. We'll be back some day in the near future and pick a quiet day to have a look around; I promised myself...
Some history:
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Eilean Donan. Alexander III gave the surrounding lands to Colin Fitzgerald for his help in defeating the Norse King Haco at the battle of Largs in 1263. The family later changed their name to Mackenzie.
Randolph, Earl of Moray, executed 50 people here in 1331 and put their heads on pikes on the castle wall. The castle was captured by the Earl of Huntly in 1504, and the castle was handed to the MacRaes in 1509. It was besieged by Donald Gorm MacDonald (see Duntulm) in 1539, but he was killed by an arrow shot from the castle during the attack.
Eilean Donan was garrisoned with Spanish troops during the rising of 1719, but it was surrendered after being attacked by three frigates from the seaward side, and it was blown up from within. It was completely ruined, but restored in the 20th century.
The castle is mainly a 13th century wall with a 14th century tower on one end. Other ranges were added later around the courtyard. The main hall of the tower is on the first floor and the basement is barrel-vaulted. Private rooms are above the hall.
The ghost of one of the soldiers of the Spanish garrison haunts the castle, and Lady Mary haunts one of the bedrooms.
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From Eilean Donan Castle we went to Strome Castle near Stromemore which was more like a ruin but at least not as crowded as the Eilean Donan Castle. It was set in beautiful surroundings, right at the end of a loch; Loch Carron where it is connected to the sea, amazing view out there! Although it was still pissing down we had a wonderful time enjoying the view and reading about the history of the castle, or better; what's left of it. Very interesting material!
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Strome Castle, built in the 15th century, was demolished after a siege in 1602. It was originally part of the lands of the ancient Earldom of Ross, which was taken over by the Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles. In 1472 Celestine, son of Alexander Earl of Ross, gave the castle and associated lands to Allan Cameron of Lochiel. From 1539 - 1602 there was continual struggle for possession of the castle between the Macdonalds and their neighbours, the Mackenzies of Kintail.
In 1602 Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord of Kintail once again laid siege to the castle. He was about to admit failure when, as a chronicler puts it, 'some silly women from the castle' went out to draw water from the well. On their return they were fearful and in poor light they accidentally poured the water into the vat containing gunpowder. When the defenders came to replenish their stock they discovered this and cursed the women loudly. A Mackenzie who was a prisoner in the castle heard what was happening and managed to escape to his own camp where he informed the Clan Chief of what had taken place.
Mackenzie of Kintail immediately renewed the attack and the Macdonalds, realising that their enemy was now in a strong position, offered to surrender on condition that they were guaranteed safety of life and baggage. This was readily granted and the Mackenzies subsequently blew up the castle which has remained in ruin ever since...
Today's Strome Castle has a slightly sad and neglected air. Although a battered noticeboard beside the steep mud path that provides access from the road says that the castle is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, there are few other indications of it. On the plus side this gives a visit a sense of exploration: on the down side it makes access much more difficult for all but the completely able and well-shod.
Strome Castle was built in in the 1400s. Its position is a strategically important one, guarding the north side of the Strome Narrows near the mouth of Loch Carron and the ancient ferry crossing here. And its position is also a commanding one, on a rocky bluff, surrounded by steep drops to the shore and sea on three sides.
The noticeboard shows a reconstruction that suggests Strome Castle was a tower house, looking a little like Invermark Castle. If so, it would have been truly spectacular in this location.
After a century or so in which the castle changed hands a number of times, it was granted by James V to the Macdonalds of Glengarry in 1539. For the next 63 years the Macdonalds intermittently fought to keep possession of it with their neighbours, the Mackenzies of Kintail.
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From here we went back again on the same road to Lochcarron where we had a tea and cake at a really nice place. A tiny little coffee room with a toothless owner, who was helped by his wife and two daughters. Very kind people. We had our tea and planned our trip on the map further on north in the direction of Ullapool. We filled up the tank and got on our way.
From Lochcarron we went to Loch Maree near Talladale where we stopped along the road to have a quick break at some remote parking. We thought we would be the only people there but two other cars showed up. We had lunch there while sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop for a second. We walked around a bit near the water and moved on again after about 20 minutes, up north still to Gairloch near Loch Gairloch.
A. wanted to take a short nap while I visited the local jewelry shop. They made handmade jewelry out of some kind of glass that had been processed. The result is a colorful bright piece of glass that looks like gems somehow, but they aren't. I will look up the name of this method later since I reckon it must be mentioned on the business card that I took. I bought a beautiful 'stone' with purple and green colors that I tied around my neck with a leather string.
A. bought some creme for his hand; it's still very swollen and very itchy, the insect that bit him is called a Clag. We've never heard of it but I'm going to look it up on the internet and see what kind of insect it is. His hand looks painful and I really hate to see him suffering from the bad itch. We took the car and drove up to Poolewe where we looked for these gardens called the Inverewe Gardens.
We found the place but it was already 16.45 and the visitors centre was closing at 17.00. We also had to pay 8 pounds each which was quite a lot. We still had to look for a B&B and we didn't find one yet so we told the lady at the counter that we would look for accommodation first and then we would come back to go for a walk. The walk would take an hour and a half but since it was pissing down we couldn't really be bothered...
So off we went to find ourselves a place to stay. We wanted to look in the area but ended up all the way up to Ullapool driving along the coast enjoying the amazing views. We actually planned on going there tomorrow but since we didn't find a place to stay we had to keep going until we found something. Lucky us we've found this wonderful place with these really nice people so we didn't have to worry about that anymore. We put our stuff into our room and went back to Morefield to have dinner there.
The restaurant was recommended by Barry and the food was absolutely wonderful. It was quite busy so we had to wait for a while but it was worth it! A nice couple told us that they were leaving soon so we would be able to take their table which was really kind of them. So we had a drink at the bar first and sat down at our table about 5 minutes later [19.30].
I had Moules Mariniers [steamed mussels drenched in a garlic cream sauce] to start with and A. had Smoked Mackerel Pate, served with cracked black pepper oatcakes. My main course was Monkfish and Prawns in a white wine and Tarragon sauce. A. had Salmon filled with garlic and coriander butter and wrapped in bacon. The food was divine and the people were really nice! We went home at 21.30 with a full tummy! When we got home we made coffee and ended up talking for a couple of hours with Barry.
I asked him for a business card but he told me they didn't have one really and didn't have the time to make one so I offered them my help to design a proper card for them, he accepted my help which is really cool. I would love to design a nice card for them! So I will give them my own card in the morning when we leave. Breakfast is served at 08.30 and I will have to get up at 07.30 so I'd better get some sleep now since it's already 01.25 in the morning... Good night!
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