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May 24, 1999
Day 9
Well we are up and at it today! Leaving the quite country side and heading back to Inverness and on down the Loch Ness. We looked and looked but not a ripple of activity on the lake that could be old Ness. We went on South and came to Ben Nevis mountain which is the highest mountain in all of Great Britain. Along the road side stop were people take pictures of Ben Nevis is also a Commando Memorial, what a place to have this memorial, right in the middle of the Highlands and in view of Ben Nevis.
From there we continued on past Loch Linne which brought us into the Glencoe area. This is truly my favorite place in Scotland. The road came up the small valley while mountains just went up all around. There were these three mountains called the Three Sisters that sat together. With the low cloud cover it looked like all around the tops was the entrance to heaven. It seemed to glow up there. If that wasn't enough at our stop there were two pipers in full dress kilts. I think I know what heaven is going to look like and sound like. A little further south from there is a small water fall called the Tears of the McDonalds (It could be the MacGregors sorry for the misspelling). The name comes from a story about two clans. This is that story in short form.
The story surrounding Glencoe is of a slaughter of the McDonalds by the Campbells. As the story goes, the McDonalds afforded the Campbells safe haven for 14 days as they traveled through. It was the custom to allow safe passage during difficult times (i.e. winter) between even rival clans. On the 13 day of their safe passage, the Campbell clan arose in the middle of the night and slaughtered their hosts. This story has much more to it but this is the nut shell version.
From there we went to Loch Lommond which has at its center the famous Rob Roy legends. We took a boat ride on this Loch and than headed on toward Glasgow. This is were we would be staying on this night but first we spent about an hour at the Burell Collection. This is a giant museum of artifacts and artwork donated to the city of Glasgow and is free to the public. We didn't get any time in this town besides sleeping. Tomorrow we are heading to Liverpool which will mean leaving Scotland. Can I stay?
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