By Fidelity and Fortitude
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Fort William is famous because it acted as a gateway to the Highlands for the British armies which came through in frequent attempts to subdue the wild Highlanders. So, we followed the well-worn path of the armies and headed to the Highlands after our night in Fort William. We got a marvelous taste of Highland history at the Highland Folk Park. They had many old buildings and exhibits, but the place of greatest interest to me was the "township," re-created to replicate what we might call a village from the 1730s.
The curators of the park don't actually know a lot about how the Highlanders made their homes. Most Highlanders of that time were too busy surviving to write much down about how they survived. Historians and archaeologists have to piece together what they can from the remains of these townships. This is a living history museum, so there were two "residents" of the township, dressed in period costumes, who could tell us about what we were seeing. One of the students commented that the place looked like the village from "Braveheart." The whole place was truly fascinating.
Our next stop in the Highlands was
The grounds also boasted...
After Blair Castle, we drove on to St. Andrew's. We passed the famous battlefield of Killiecrankie on the way, but did not have time to stop - looked like just a lot of hills and trees anyway. When we got to St. Andrew's we had some complications with the youth hostel. Let's just say it made us realize what a nice place we had in Ft. William. Once that was sorted out, Tom and I headed out to get some supper and see the Old Course. (Dad, that's golf.)
I'm sure this post has taken a long time to load, so I'll just put up one more picture.
Everything in this post (and more) was seen in one day! It was impossible to really absorb it all, but pictures and blogging help it to soak in. Next time: more St. Andrew's and on to Stirling. |
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And beautiful! The air was so clean and sweet. I wanted to bottle it and bring it home. 
Blair Castle. The flag flying on top of the castle indicates that the 11th duke (of what I don't remember, forgive me!) was in residence. Turns out the 10th duke died with no immediate heirs, so those who do this sort of thing had to retrace the family tree and go down a different branch to find the 11th duke, living in South Africa and completely unaware that he was about to inherit a dukedom! So the day we were there, the duke was visiting from S. Africa so that he could muster the only private army in northern Europe, the Highland Atholl. The grounds were also being prepared for a huge Highland games going on that weekend - what fun it would have been to attend a Highland games in the Highlands! 
The gardens of Blair Castle were as gorgeous as the castle. Again the air was pure and lovely and one could well understand why, once upon a time, consumptives were sent there to heal. 
...a field of "Heelan' coos!" (That's Highland cows, in American.) 
This is taken from just beside the 18th hole. 
This is the town of St. Andrew's, golden in the glow of sunset, seen across the beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed. Comments
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