gorgeous on the contrary (10. 016)

Whilst waiting for us as well as our camping kit to hopefully air-dry back at the campgrounds near Ullapool on Broom Loch (Lochbraon, Gaelic for the Loch of Rain Showers—that ought to have been a clue), we hiked down the forested trail to view Corrieshalloch Gorge (Coire Shalach, ironically for unattractive corrie, ravine), hewn out of the monolithic landscape by retreating glaciers and torrents of melt water ten thousand years ago.

The bridge afforded views of the forty meter drop and rushing river below and there was an observation platform further on that extended over the edge. Smallest of Scotland‘s forty three nature preserves supporting populations of ferns, feather mosses and sansicle, the forty six meter cascade has the poetic name Easan na Miasaich, meaning Waterfall at the Place of Platters, for the Onomatopoeia and the plate shape bore holes the falling water forms.

reluctant spelunking (10. 015)

From the Old Norse smuga for a hidey hole and not be confused wIth the social media mascot Snoo, we hiked down to the not undiscovered but nonetheless spectacular Smoo sea cave.

The large cavern in Sangobeg in the parish of Durness is unique in the British Isles for being a geological formation hewn by freshwater and seawater.

Venturing inside the cave mouth—which was a  bit something out of a dinosaur adventure experience, we decided not to go further inside to get doused by the gushing waterfall from an above ground burn (river) that helped form the cave, having just recently dried off from a soggy start to the day decamping and ready to head towards Cape Wrath and points west.

unthirldom (10. 014)

After six years of heavy battles to establish full dominion over Scotland, the last bastion of resistance to rule by Edward I of England, Stirling Castle (updated with pictures of ours) finally fell on this day in 1304 after four months of besiegement under attack by a dozen war machines—towers, battering rams and catapults, hails of cannon balls, Greek fire and possibly a primitive form of gunpowder. 

Impatient with the slow progress though the Scots garrison holding the castle were ready to sue for surrender at this point commissioned a more massive trebuchet from master architecture James of Saint George to be christened the Warwolf. Edward refused the request of William Oliphant, constable and commander, until he got to test his Warwolf. Once the castle was taken, all the landed-gentry excepting William Wallace pledged their fealty to King Edward.

secret spots (10. 012)

Presenting a pair of hidden places that H found—first in our campsite on the beach of Crackaig by Loth that’s buffered from traffic by a long path through the pasture and a rail underpass that keeps the bigger caravans away.

There were very few people, the larger campers perched on the dunes being permanent installations and presently vacant. It took some time to adjust to wind and the facilities were a bit lacking but no matter as we had a nice overnight stay.

The next was a hidden cove down a quite long, unmarked footpath through the heather (see previously) at an unassuming rest stop between Counties Caithness and Sutherland. The trail led by a gradual, rocky natural step descent to a stone and shale beach curtained by a protected cliff face host to hundreds of nesting puffins to observe from a distance. I was unsure whether I had ever seen the bird in flight (certainly not in person) but they were pretty cute and comical with their dangling little legs and deft crash landings.

and i would walk five hundred more (10. 011)

Following the North Coast 500 back towards the North Sea and open waters, we stopped at the stately ancestral home of the Clan Sutherland in the Highlands, Dunrobin Castle, the medieval fortification extensively remodelled in the 1830s in Scottish Baronial style for the second duke—whose father was a touch megalomaniacal having commissioned a colossal statue of himself build atop Ben Bhraggie visible at every point in the county and whose land reform practises were responsible for the Highland Clearances, landowners evicting crofting communities (tenant farmers) to make room for the far more profitable raising of sheep for wool.  

Dunrobin takes its present form thanks to these gains. We opted not to take the guided tour owing to the large amount of tour coaches parked in the forecourt—including a Rotel bus with a sleeper carriage (see previously) so instead we walked around to the beach of the Firth of Dornach to see the residence from that side before later claiming a patch of strand as our own.

kirk-yard (10. 009)

Still in the region of the Highlands referred to as the Black Isle, we paid a visit to the ancient Kirkmichael overlooking the placid Udale estuary on the Firth of Cromarty.

The grave markers, many of the slate slabs featuring exquisite masonry and funereal art and span more than eight centuries of memorial and memory and many moments of upheaval and transition with plague, war and reformation. The site has views of the bird sanctuary and drilling platforms.

and i‘ll be in scotland afore you (10. 008)

Meandering along the Spey and visiting a distillery—though too early for a tour and a testing before heading to Elgin (Eilginn, possibly meaning Little Ireland and reminding early Celtic settlers of home) in Moray whose cathedral was left in elegant and vaunted ruins since its destruction by fire in the late thirteenth century. 

I tried not to drag H to too many monoand i‘ll be in scotland afore you liths this trip but willingly we went to see the Stone of Sueno outside of Forres, the largest Pictish slab carving in the nation. The plinth traditionally associated with Sven Forkbeard features a Celtic style cross on one side and possibly a coronation scene on the other. 

Next we took a look at the ancestral home of Clan Brodie and the grounds of Fort George, a Vauban-inspired bastion that suppressed Scotland’s rebellion by taking the strategically important headland at the straits between the Firth of Moray and the bay leading into Inverness and Loch Ness before journeying there ourselves—seeing the Clava cairns, an ensemble of Bronze Age burial mounds along the way. 

We marveled first at Loch Ness and set up camp near Drumnadrochit (Druim na Drochaid) and hiked along a high coastal trail to Urquhart Castle overlooking the loch, whose invasion attempt by Edward I of England in 1296 marked the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence, besieged and never rebuilt in order to deny Jacobite elements purchase to reorganise.