INTO THE GREEN

digging deeper

until you've dipped into the GREEN, i mean WAY DOWN into the GREEN, i mean SWIMMING IN THE SEA OF GREEN, i don't think you've really experienced SCOT-LAND.
it is, after all, a country all about LAND.
but, first the LOCHS...

heading south out of Inverness, we hugged the LOCHS (that's lake to the uninitiated and should rhyme with the composer Bach - a THICK ch at the end).

monsterless Loch Ness

no monsters in evidence but we did drop by the parking lot of the magnificent ruins of the URQUHART CASTLE. the structure dates from around 1230 AD and though it is built on a theoretically very defensible promontory, it was the site of many a siege and plunder.

sadly, everybody and their mother is desperate to visit castles so we stood on a wall, as it began to rain, and satisfied ourselves with a birds-eye-view. waiting in long lines is not a fun holiday sport.

Urquhart Castle ruins overlooking loch ness

the rest of the day was dreamy, slow miles spent weaving along the edge of the loch in intermittent rain. 

among roadside treasures, the stone bridge at Invermoriston was spectacular, just above the falls.

Telford bridge Invermoriston

eventually we reached the LOCKGATES in the Caledonian Canal and stood there in the rain watching sailboats and small yachts get threaded through, fascinated by the incredibly slow process, the letting in and letting out of water, opening the lockgate, closing the gate, rinse and repeat.

Caledonia Canal

lockgates opening in the Caledonian Canal

all over Scotland stand these dry stone walls or dry stone fences. dry because there is no mortar used to hold the thing together - it's sheer rock magnetism! i love the way they are topped with side-ways members. very appealing design.

toward the end of the day, after Fort William, heading east to look for lodging, we were met by a brooding sky. but we found a slice of heaven on Loch Leven, our gateway to Glen Coe. 

thistle on the shore of Loch Leven