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Loch Ness -> Urquhart Castle -> Culloden Battle Field -> Clava Cairns -> Kingussie -> Dunkel Cathedral -> Edinburgh

We begin our tour today by winding down the side Loch Ness to our first stop at Urquhart Castle to the deepest point of Loch Ness. After scouring the breadth and width in an attempt to locate Loch Ness’ famous creature we re-board the blue-machine-of-fun and roll onwards up the side of the mighty Loch.

After a relatively short drive through the town of Inverness we trumped off the bus and onto the battlefield of the Battle of Culloden where 4,500 Jackabites (Catholics rebelling against the erosion of Monarch power of the Scots to London) lost their lives under the mismanagement of a general who then fled the country not to be seen again for many years afterward.

Two minutes down the road and we were at Clava Cairns, ancient burial grounds for the Celtic druids, and built over 4,000 years ago.

Lunch at Kingussie which consisted of local pub fare and finally the emergence of some vegetables for seemingly the first time in 20+ days of travel.

Our final stop brought us through Dunkel and for a visit to the quaint Dunkel Cathedral.

Back onto the bus, we made our final trip of the blue-bus-of-fun over the Forth Bridge and then back into Edinburgh for final farewells.

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Fort Augustus -> Loch Garry -> Elan Donnan Castle -> [onto] Isle Of Skye -> Portree -> Loch Ness

Our first stop for the had us alongside the beautiful Loch Garry where we talk some time out to take some photos of the gorgeous landscape.

From there it was back aboard the bus and onto the Elan Donnan Castle, still used by the MaCrae family over the winter months and a last fortress for the warring clans with the castle switching hands many times over the past 500 years.

From there we proceeded over to the Isle of Skye where we learned more of the history of the clans that inhibited these lands, and the tourism industry that has now flourished as a result of the Skye Bridge being assembled back in 1986. (A point of note, the bridge was the 2nd most expensive toll bridge in the world, with a small 29 seat bus costing a horrendous 80 pounds(!) for a return crossing. They stopped taking tolls a few years ago.)

A quick stop had us beautifying ourselves at the Skye River, the tale being that if you dip your face in the river for seven seconds you will be forever beautiful. I’m not sure it helped me a great deal…..

From there we headed over to lunch at Portree, the main town of the Isle of Skye, a small, picuresque fishing village north off the island.

From there it was onwards and upwards further into the higher regions of the Isle of Skye to an amazing waterfall for spectacular views, even though the weather was horizontal rain.

For our final stop, we shipped ourselves up to Kilt Rock where we continued to brave the weather and caught some beautiful views towards the north of this beautiful island.

Night time visit to The Clansmen Centre where we had a taste of what it would be like to live in a Black House as a Scot Clansmen 1,500 years ago.

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Edinburgh -> Loch Lubnaig -> Glencoe Lochlan -> Ben (Mt) Nevis -> Loch Ness

Tour Manager Claire, a well-travelled North Scotland lass who has been working with Haggis for over four years. This trip we are not on one of the mighty yellow Haggis buses, however we do board a similarly attractive blue ‘middy-bus’.

Our first stop was at the National Wallace Monument with some great views over the surrounding landscape. It was also the home to possibly the worst statue I’ve ever laid eyes on, a replica of Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

From the Wallace Monument, we reboarded the Blue Bus of Fun TM and drove through to Loch Lubnaig for a quiet photo session.
From there we pushed on through to lunch at Green Welly Shop where we had the opportunity to meet Hamish the (Highland) Coo (Cow) saved from slaughter when the Mad Cow Disease plague ran through the UK and Europe.

From there it was back onto the bus and forward moving until we arrived for a 30 minute walk around Glencoe Lochan

Pushing on, we made way for Ben Nevis, Britians highest mountain at an impressive 1344m where we captured some photos, and took away some great historical stories of the region and the Macleod and MacDonalds clans.

From Ben Nevis, it was onto Inverlochy Castle and a chance for more photos, and more shivers as the weather started to turn rather quickly against our favour.

Our final stop for the day was onto the The Commando Memorial (predecessors to the SAS) … training grounds where Americans, Scots and English trained for WWII ….. slogan “Together We Conquer”

For the final leg we pushed on through to Fort Augustus where we bedded at Morag’s House for a night of baked potatoes stuffed with Haggis and other traditional western fillings.

Not a bad first day…..

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I’m really fucking stressed out atm … really stressed out… like stressed out getting aches and pains, scaring the shit out of me stressed…..

I realise its stress because:

1. As soon as I start to relax (irony.. really) or head to bed and switch off from work all my muscles start to relax and I sleep soundly
2. When i’m awake, and at the office, everything tenses up
3. I went out last night with some friends and after I stopped thinking about work altogether, I started to feel fabulous….

I am seriously looking forward to this holiday, I have pushed myself to the max and i’m honestly not looking forward to coming back (though I think 6 weeks away and i’ll be sufficiently de-stressed!)

Missing all of you, i’ll work on posting photos throughout the trip, will update this page if I get anything added in.

A

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