Scotland

Four months on from our trip to South America and Andy & I headed off to Scotland with four friends for a week away. We stopped in a little cottage in the picturesque village of 'Bonnie Strathyre' (from the Gaelic 'sheltered valley'), situated at the head of Loch Lubnaig ('Crooked Loch') below Beinn an t-Sithean (pronounced Ben Shean - 'Mountain of the Fairies' or 'Fairy Hillocks') in the heart of the Trossachs National Park. The area of the Trossachs is from Loch Earn in the north to the Lake of Menteith in the south (the only lake in Scotland – the rest of the bodies of water are lochs) and from Doune in the east to Loch Lomond in the west.

It was near Strathyre (Doune) that Monty Python & Holy Grail was filmed and the village isn't far from Dunblane or Stirling. Also unbeknown to us when we decided to do the trip we got to learn some Scottish (& English) history and learn more about the local Scottish heroes William Wallace, Robert the Bruce & Rob Roy Macgregor, but on our first night we simply enjoyed the hospitality of a local pub for food and drinks! J

The following day the sun was out so we wandered around the village, as there was direct access to woodland with walks from the cottage through which we could take a scenic walk into the main part of the village. The village shop and 3 pubs in village were within easy walking distance. Then after a hearty home-cooked Sunday lunch at the cottage we decided to venture up Beinn an t-Sithean through the woodland. That was enough for one day and we settled in for the evening in the lounge with its cosy open fire to watch a spoof version of the Talent Show mania currently on TV.

The Monday bought with it grey skies and some slight drizzle but we decided to be brave. Going further a field to Loch Lomond, we set off (on what I found to be a relatively arduous and very tiring journey) up to the 3,192 ft summit of Ben Lomond. The Ben had been named after Laomain, a legendary hero of the Celts. Apparently the song "The Bonny Bonny Banks O' Loch Lomond" was associated with the last Jacobite Rising of 1745 & the words were reputedly said by a Jacobite soldier before his execution to his sweetheart who'd walked all the way from Loch Lomondside to Carlisle to bid a sad farewell. At about 24 miles long & 700 ft deep at the deepest point, the loch is the largest freshwater loch in Scotland and the largest inland water in Britain. Although we were back late from our walk, we still managed to join the other four down the pub for a couple of drinks while they finished off the pub quiz they'd joined in with!

After a late start and a long sleep Tuesday was a relaxing day visiting Callander with its coffee shops, crafts outlets and a Rob Roy & Trossachs National Park Visitors Centre. It was made famous as Tannochbrae in the BBC TV Series "Dr Finlay's Casebook". It appears that it used to be a favourite meeting place for drovers, bringing cattle from the highlands to the markets of central Scotland. We also visited Balquhidder just a couple of miles north of Strathyre where Rob Roy's family grave is situated. Dinner was cooked at the house.

As the saying goes, "To take Stirling is to hold Scotland" and no less than 6 major battles that changed the course of history took place in or near Stirling: 2 of the most famous being the Battle of Stirling Bridge (William Wallace) and the Battle of Bannockburn (King Robert the Bruce, 1314). Close to the heart of the nation geographically, historically and tourist literature has it, emotionally, Stirling was Scotland's ancient capital, seat of Kings and parliament. In 2002 it was granted city status to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II

So while the other four opted for a day out to Edinburgh (Andy & I have both been to Edinburgh before), we opted for a visit to Stirling Castle. The castle whose origins date back centuries – it was a meeting & crossing point over the river of the four main routes from north, south, east and west respectively - has apparently been attacked or besieged at least 16 times and a number of Scottish Kings & Queens have been baptised, crowned or died within its walls. The current remains of the castle though mostly only dates back from 1496-1583 as the castle was burnt to the ground by Robert the Bruce after his success at Bannockburn. There is more to see here than just the castle, with exhibits on past, present and future renovation works, a townhouse outside the walls (available on a tour) and a museum for the Sutherland & Argyll Highlanders Regiment. Suffice to say, we spent a great deal of the day there and returned late enough (the others were back late too) to have the excuse of eating down at the local pub again!

Within a short drive you have Loch Katrine & what we felt would be an easy walk for the day up Ben A' an. However the road was closed off for tree felling so we had to take option B that was the medium-hard walk up to the 2,874ft summit of Ben Ledi that stands majestically overlooking Callandar and Loch Lubnaig. Not so bad as Ben Lomond, the worst part was a section of the walk, which is neither way marked, nor has trails. A combination of that and the late start due to its being Plan B, we were back late again. Fortunately although our friends weren't in the walking mood, they were in the cooking mood and dinner was waiting for us on our return!

Since we'd only seen Stirling Castle on our previous visit to the city, we decided to revisit Stirling and walked through the Old Town & along the route besides the Old Town walls. We also visited Stirling Old Town Jail where an actor re-enacted what it would have felt like to be a prisoner in those walls at various times of its history. We hadn't planned to, but with time on our hands we also went up the Wallace monument – a tower & viewpoint erected as a national monument to William Wallace in 1869 and exhibiting Wallace's sword & life story as well as other Scots in the "Hall of Heroes". We visited another pub in the village for a final eat & drink session before the end of the holiday.

All of a sudden we were setting off back to England again. On the way we visited Bannockburn Heritage Centre where you can "relive the action of Scotland's most famous battle – Bannockburn". We also stopped at the Falkirk Wheel – the world's first and only rotating boat lift that links the Forth and Clyde Canal, which lies 35m (115ft) below the level of the Union Canal. Historically, the two canals had been joined at Falkirk by a flight of 11 locks that stepped down across a distance of 1.5km, but these had been dismantled in 1933, breaking the link. The journey starts by sailing into the bottom gondola of The Wheel in a basin of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which then makes a graceful sweep, lifting the boat up to join the Union Canal 35m above. The ascent takes approximately 15 minutes. Another stop was the renovated woollen mills of Lanark at the New Lanark World Heritage Site.