Final Remarks on Scotland

Have I traveled to more than just another continent? Another planet perhaps?

The Western Highlands and the Hebrides have an other-worldy appearance. I had to consult a guidebook or two to better understand what I was looking at. Scotland's rocks display three billion years of geological time. Pretend you are looking at Scotland from a bird's eye view. Hold your left hand out and allow it to superimpose itself over your view of Scotland. Spread your fingers and thumb slightly. Your thumb is England. Each of your four fingers is one of the four faults that define Scotland's geology. Your index finger is the Southern Uplands Fault. Your middle finger is the Highland Boundary Fault. Your ring finger is the Great Glen Fault. Your pinky finger is the Moine Thrust.

Our coach travelled the length of the Great Glen, from Inverness to Fort William. The Great Glen is a glacial rift valley that was created when the landmass split and moved about 400 million years ago. There are four lochs in the glen -- Loch Ness, Loch Och, Loch Lochy, and Loch Linnhe. Our hotel in the glen was at Ballachulish on Loch Linnhe.

We left mainland Scotland, which is an odd remark given that it is a part of the British Isles, at Mallaig and ferried to Skye, the largest of the Hebridean isles. Skye never freezes. Given the fact that the temperatures during our visit in early August never rose above 60 (F), I have my doubts. However, this is in fact where the Gulf Stream winds up after bumping gently against the Irish coast just across the way.

On our journey south to Glasgow, we passed through Glencoe. Our final full day in Scotland was a day of contrasts. We went from Scotland at its most rural to Scotland at its most urban. Glencoe's scenery is mesmerizing -- craggy peaks and moss covered ridges spewing rivulets of water. Glencoe's history is appalling. It is the place where the name Campbell became synonymous with betrayal, murder, and treachery. In 1692, Clan Macdonald, suspected of Jacobite sympathies, was late in registering its oath of submission to King William III. Clan Campbell was enlisted by the throne to punish the Macdonalds for failing to submit by the January 1, 1692 deadline. The Campbells arrived in Glencoe amidst a brutal blizzard. The Macdonalds took their fellow Scotsmen, Campbells, in and provided them with food and lodging until the winter broke. At dawn on 13 February, the Campbells repaid their hosts with death and destruction. Thirty-eight Macdonalds were killed. Countless others fled and died of exposure.

That's it for the moment. Peace.