Breathe out…

This is the morning view from our converted byre in the north west corner of Skye. The couple who converted it live in the wee But and Ben in the photo (actually not so wee!) the which they also converted.

As trailed in yesterday’s post, we are taking a few days to breathe out – to review where we have been and what we have done and to place it all into some larger context.

When we started planning our trip to Caledonia we each had our own agendas. The Girl was keen to revisit places and sights that she had experienced once before on her only previous trip to Scotland. I was eager to see if I could expand the sense of a link to my ancestors that I had originally been gifted by my father – who was always most proud of his Scottish heritage.

So – here we are, about half way through our expedition and this is probably a good opportunity to give some thought to how successful (or otherwise) we have been in achieving our objectives thus far.

When we picked up our hire car in Edinburgh and headed for the highlands we took a brief detour to visit Roslynn Chapel, the which had particularly struck The Girl on her previous trip. Visitors are not allowed to take photos of the wonderful and surprising interior carvings for which the chapel is renowned, so I am instead offering the reader a link to the chapel’s website:

Home

Needless to say, the chapel worked its magic as anticipated.

Our initial sojourn in the highlands found us in a beautifully and thoughtfully converted Air B & B in Pitlochry. This little hideaway – over the garage of a guest house – was wonderfully peaceful and ideally placed for excursions to a variety of sites nearby that I had visited many times back in the day on family holidays.

The Girl and I visited Blair Atholl (and its castle), Bruar (where yet can be found our clan museum) and Old Struan (home to the clan church). The weather was overcast and still quite chilly at this point so photographic opportunities were somewhat limited. These are of Blair Castle – home to the Dukes of Atholl and to Europe’s only private army!

We also visited the pass of Killiecrankie and replicated much of a walk that was a regular and much loved feature of our family holidays in Perthshire.

Herewith a few photos:

This promontory is Soldier’s Leap, so named because – in the rout that followed the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689 – one of the fleeing redcoat soldiers is reputed to have leapt 18 feet across the Garry river to escape the pursuing Jacobites.