Scottish Highlands

Much excitement after my last post - we were just getting into bed when the fire alarm went off. So back on with some clothes, grab the important papers and out of the hotel onto the footpath over the road. And then of course it was a false alarm so back to the room, into bed at last.

Next night, you wouldn't believe it, it happened again! And again it was a false alarm. There were various rumours about people smoking in their room, but I don't know if that was true or not.

Anyway, we left Edinburgh and went off to the highlands, which are truly amazing. The heather was out and looked spectacular.

We've also been to the Orkney Islands, much less rugged than I expected, very interesting place but not somewhere I'd like to live, really.

Then to the Isle of Skye, via the road bridge as the ferry has been replaced. We learnt a lot about the Jacobite history of Scotland, we visited the battlefield of Culloden, and turned into proper Jacobites. So we toasted the King Over the Water (Bonnie Prince Charlie) as we drove over the sea to Skye - we did it in style, with Drambuie the favourite tipple of the prince himself. Skye is a very beautiful and rather wild place, very windswept as you'd probably expect - there's a lot of ocean before the closest land to the west.

Yesterday we travelled to Glasgow, passing through Glencoe, the scene of the massacre of the Clan MacDonald by the Campbells. Campbells are not well received in the highlands even today after that event.

Today we crossed the Irish Sea and are spending the night in Derry (or Londonderry if you're talking to a unionist!). We'll be having some time for a bit more of a look around before we leave, so I'm looking forward to that.

Tomorrow we head for Sligo and a 2-night stay which will be very welcome. It's been very busy so far, with early starts and late finishes. Yesterday we were up at 6:00 am and reached our hotel about 9:00 pm, which was a bit later than usual, but included dinner on our way. I think we will have a free afternoon on our full day in Sligo, everyone is looking forward to that.

I'll try to put some photos on later if time allows. The internet connections have been a bit dodgy when they've been there at all, so that's why it's been such a while between posts. Hopefully it will improve now that we're back in more settled areas!