Glencoe

We spent two days at the Clachaig Inn, a 17th century hotel at Glencoe right at the foot of some of the mountains. The mountains rear up on all side and for an Antipodean like me this is truly an awesome sight, having only ever seen hills in Australia. It rained all day for both days but it was not cold, and we enjoyed our walks around the glen. We hiked a little way into one of the mountains (right now I can't think of its Gaelic name) - maybe one quarter of the way up. It was wet, boggy and slippery and we weren't really equipped with the right shoes so we turned back before it turned into a big slide back down to the bottom. But it was well worth it for the views and the clean air.



Glencoe has a tragic history, like alot of Scotland, especially the Highlands. There was a massacre of a branch of the McDonald clan in the Glen in the 18th century, by the English aided by an enemy clan, the Campbells. If you read the story it is about women and children scrambling up the mountain in the snow to escape a bloody death, and most of them dying anyway of cold and exposure. One translation of the name Glencoe is "glen of weeping" although the name predated the massacre. There is a great deal of heaviness but also majesty about the place.



The Clachaig Inn is a great place to stay, a gathering point for walkers and climbers from all over the world, and young friendly staff who keep the place jumping and vibrant - good food, great beers and whiskies for the connoisseur of those forms of the poison, warm fires and great company.



This was the last leg of our journey around the Highlands, and after this we returned to Dunfermline to spend time with family before catching our flight home. It has been a truly memorable holiday and as this is my third visit to Scotland I felt quite at home and realised I really do love the place. However my ambition to try and practice the travel journalism was probably a little unrealistic as my blog was always hastily written at internet cafes between trips around the countryside and instead of a different take on things I ended up with mostly the same old cliches written in a manner which did not really reflect my true thoughts and impressions, which were much more vivid and complex. Never mind, I can now go back to it all and maybe come up with something a little more from the heart!