Scotland 2019, Day 1

Finally, back in Scotland again! It’s been a couple of years since I’ve last been to Scotland and I look forward to visiting areas that I have not seen before.

The first day is usually one of the hardest, especially if you don’t get to catch any sleep on the plane. Currently, I’ve been up for close to thirty hours. I might be a bit on the tired side and I’m hoping what I write tonight makes sense tomorrow.

Since I knew I’d be working on little to no sleep I planned a short day for the first day. Just three stops before getting to my lodging for the first two nights.

First stop was Huntingtontower Castle, which was originally two towers but joined into one building in the1600s. Whenever I look at the tower houses from the outside I always think they are bigger inside than they actually are. As they are designed for a certain amount of defense the walls are thick leaving less space inside. They were still very big investments and represented power for the owners.

The interior still had some of the painted timbers from the original construction. This is fairly rare as most get covered up or painted over as owners attempted to modernize the homes.

Several of the floors are missing but still give a sense of what the interior would have been originally.

Part of the walk through the castle lets you out onto the two roofs of the original towers. Legend says that the daughter of one of the Earls leapt from one to the other to escape being caught visiting her lover, whom she eloped with several nights later.

My second stop of the day was a town called Dunkeld. Admittedly, the reason I went was because of a song I’d heard about the parish at Dunkeld and thought it would be funny to stop in.

The cathedral in the center of town is in a half state of ruin due to its conversion from a Catholic cathedral and into a Protestant church. The building was essentially halved to simplify the structure.

My journey to my final visit of the day was a bit more stressful than it needed to be. My lack of sleep was catching up with me and I found it harder to focus on the road, my body really wanted to sleep! I did make it safely to the Crannog Center but I felt it was a closer thing than I would have liked. The downfalls of solo travel.

The Crannog Center was a missed item from another trip that I very much wanted to see. The Center is both a recreation of a type of Iron Age Scottish dwelling and a series of demonstrations on how the people of the time might have lived. I say ‘might’ as they left no written record and no pictures that anyone has yet found.

A Crannog is a dwelling built out in the Lochs for a variety of reasons that archaeologists can guess at but cannot be completely certain about. They obviously would have taken a fair bit of effort so they must have had a good reason. I just think it’s neat to have a house out on the water.

I felt infinitely better after having walked around for a bit but more than ready to find my lodging for the evening. My first two nights are to be in the town of Killin, which is know for its falls that feed into the local loch. I’m very lucky that they just had some heavy rain so the falls are more extensive than in drier times. The Inn that I’m staying at is just across the street from the falls and any rooms facing the street must have some lovely background noise.