Isle of Lewis

Hello all!

Pictures now added!

Last night Brendon and I had a chilled out night and then went to sleep. This morning we woke up, packed up and headed to the Haggis Adventures office. Brendon set off on his Loch Ness daytrip and I went off on my ten day Scotland tour! It was hard to say bye but November will roll around before we know it. 

Standing waiting for my bus I quickly made some friends with Lexi from Canada and Monique and Libby from Australia. All really nice! Our guide's name is Jamie and he's Scottish and really lovely. And off we went!

We had a few stops today. Firstly at some bridges, then in a cute little town called Dunkeld. The sun even made an appearance which was nice! Grabbed some food at the bakery, enjoyed the view from the bridge over the river and looked at the cathedral. 

Next we stopped at Clava Cairns, some rock formations and temples made by clans thousands of years ago. We also saw the battlefields where the Jacobite wars took place. These were wars that aimed to reinstate king James VII of Scotland (the last catholic monarch) to the throne. 

Our last stop of the day was at Corrieshallock Gorge, a beautiful canyon with a suspension bridge. The sun made another appearance - lovely!!

Our guide Jamie is so knowledgable but unfortunately I awoke with a cold this morning so kept snoozing through his explanations! I did learn about Mary Queen of Scots though. She became queen at just six days old when her father died. She grew up in France and married there but her husband died. She remarried but her husband was murdered, and she then remarried again, this time to the main suspect in his murder! There was an uprising against the couple and they were locked up. Mary fled to seek refuge from her cousin queen Elizabeth I but Elizabeth saw her as a threat as she had previously attempted to lay claim to her throne. She locked her up for 18.5 years before Mary was sentenced to death for supposedly plotting to kill Elizabeth! When she was beheaded the executioner missed the first time and scalped her, then didn't cut her head clean off so had to hack away. Eek!

We got a 2.5 hour ferry from Ullawater to Stornaway, the capital of the isle of Lewis where we are staying tonight. I'll learn lots about it tmro and explain then. I felt so ill on the boat as it rocked a lot. Never mind!!

Tonight most of our group went to the local pub. I've made a good group of friends of about 7 or 8 which is nice and Jamie is really nice too! Some of our group are far older which I wasn't expecting as Busabout is generally a younger crowd but that's ok, as long as they're interested in the history and culture it doesn't bother me!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox