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Date Posted: 20:59:05 10/10/06 Tue
Author: Alisha
Subject: My trip to Scotland August 2006

I went to Scotland in August of this year. I spent the WHOLE month there! Woohoo! I stayed with my best friend who lives in Musselburgh (just outside Edinburgh) whom I'd met online in January. I LOVE the Outlander books, Jamie is my favorite character and what'd ya know, my best friends' name is Jamie!! My very own Jamie. :-) Except, oh so terribly sad, he hates the Highlands. We drove into the Highlands and stayed for 2 days and all he did was complain. UUGGGHHH!! He's a city-boy, no wonder. I wanted to slap him! But we got through it fine.

Anyway, I highly recommend these places to visit:

Craigmillar Castle in Central Scotland. Try to go there on a cold, foggy and rainy day if you're the spooky loving type of person. When you walk in the castle, there's a big tree just inside the doorway. It gives it great appeal and even more spookiness. What added to the spookiness was it was only Jamie and I there. There's a doorway type thing in one of the turrets and it has a chain curtain across it. The wind was blowing like mad down the turret and causing the chains to move eerily and make a "clink, clink, clink" noise. Jamie was too scared to go see what was inside (I dont know why, he's 29, for christs sake!) so I slowly and quietly walked over to it with Jamie right behind me and his hand on my back. When we got to it I parted the chains and looked inside. There was hay in it with pigeon droppings. Nothing spooky. Jamie said "well that was for nothing" and when he said that 2 pigeons went "OOOOO" and flapped their wings really loudly. Jamie screamed like a little girl and ran out of the room!! I just stood there with a blank look on my face! But I highly recommend that castle for it's spookiness. Mary, Queen of Scots stayed there a couple of times. It was built in the early 15th century.

Linlithgow Palace: Birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. The palace stands on a small hill over looking a small loch. Linlithgow means "the loch in the damp hollow" All the Stewart kings lived here from James I (1406-37) and later it housed Cromwell, Bonnie Prince Charlie and, after Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland. The palace is beautiful and has a newly restored fountain in the courtyard and DRAT IT! beacause the fountain was only on 2 days this year, and the second day was the day BEFORE I was there. Oh and children aged between 8 and 12 give you a guided tour if you like. I didnt, but I did hear what they were saying and they're so smart! They know everything about the palace.

Tantallon Castle: My favorite!! It is a beautiful castle and sits on the cliff over looking the Bass Rock in North Berwick. I got lost in this castle a couple of times so just remember where you're going and prepare your lungs for the walk up the stairs to the highest battlements. The walk is worth it as the view is spectacular. I'm not sure how old it is or who or what happened here. I didnt buy the castle guide books like I should have. I cant even remember all the castles I went to! :'( I'm going back to live there next year, so I shouldnt be sad! :-)

Not recommended but still a good place to visit;
Eilean Donan Castle: The inside of the castle isnt what you'd expect. It was rebuilt in the 1930's and the inside looks like that, the 30's. The MacRae family still live there and they made it "liveable"Thankfully, they made the exterior look 14th century-ish. The three Lochs around it are beautiful and make for a wonferful picture at night. Dornie is where Jamie and I stayed, at the Dornie Hotel. They're not too friendly and the food isnt great but at least you have a roof over your head for a night and a comfortable bed. It was very windy and cold so I suggest you bring a windbreaker/rain jacket with you if you plan on walking a while. And if you dont have suitable clothing, there's an outdoor clothing shop off the main highway just past the castle.

This is where you go on to Skye. Take the A87 from kyle of Lochalsh, over the Skye bridge and continue on the A87 until you reach Portree then turn off on the A855. The shoreline and mountains are beautiful on the road. And you'll get a lovely (and equal) view of both. Flora MacDonald's (you'll remember her from one of the newer Outlander books, forgot which one) grave is at Kilmuir near Uig (western side) in Trotternish (mountain/rock range) It says here in my book "The fourth of Skye's great wings is Trotternish, a landscape of many astonishments, a symphony wrought in rock. It begins calmly enough if you board it discreetly by its Loch Snizort (eh?) shore. From the west coast of the wing, you see only a hunchbacked landscape with occasional dark hints of the formidable face that stares eastward beyond the skyline, twists out along a cliff, and with deep enough water to accommodate the ferry to Harris. Kilmuir lives above and beyond a clutch of climbing hairpins, a village forever aching with loss. Flora MacDonald lies here, the heroine of Bonnie Prince Charlie's fight after Culloden. Her bold and colorful life is still wedded of that fateful aquaintance with the Prince, and more than 250 years after Culloden and all that, the Scottish throne is as empty and Stewart-less as it was when he fled his lost cause" I didnt go to anywhere else on Skye but please do if you have time. I'm sure there are plently more beautiful places to see in Waternish and Duirinish, Minginish and Strathaird, all of these are mountain ranges just so you know. You can drive for miles on Skye and not see anyone or anything.

Thats what makes it so beautiful. A land untouched.

The same goes for Glencoe. There's a verra sad and tragic story called the Massacre of Glencoe. Read up on it. When I went through there going to Dornie, it was rainy and foggy. Seeing that was seeing the true Scotland. Beautiful mountains shrouded in mist, myth and mystery. I felt at home! Coming back down it was sunny and clear, so I got to see both sides of Highland weather, although the sun doesnt really last long. But as a Highlander told me "The sun is always shinin' on Alba, exep' the clouds block it from our view!"

I didnt make it to Loch Ness or Culloden, but please go there yourself. Dont pass up that chance like I did. I feel so stupid for doing that and I regret it more than anything.

My life changed whilst I was in Scotland. I met my best friend and saw the land that I knew I loved even before I'd ever visited it. And in the end, I fell in love with Jamie! I like to think of it as a "Jamie and Claire" story but without everything else they went through! hehe.

I have tons more of places for recommendation but cant think of them all right now. Sorry! Hope this helps though.

Cheers,
Alisha

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