SCOTLAND, 1996
Our
first
stop was a causeway that was built by
Italian
P.O.W.'s for
the military vehicles in WWII. They
asked if they
could
build a chapel and took every scrap they could find
and
built a small chapel. What they did is
so ingenious,
using
scraps of tin, motor parts anything they could find
and
built a little chapel that stands to
this day, in
perfect
condition. Quite an engineering
feat. We then
went to
the Gloup which is a collapsed cave. It is
essentially a
huge hole in the ground where the roof
of the cave
fell in
thousands of years ago. I have never
seen anything
like it
before. We then went to Skara Brae
which is a
prehistoric settlement that is over
5,000 years old.
The
dwellings are all subterranean and built entirely of
stones, even the beds are stone. It has been covered
by
sand for thousands of years and is in
remarkably good
condition. The roof is missing so you
can see
everything
quite well. There are passages
connecting each
chamber and
the areas that would have covered the
rooms would
have been
grass covered. The antiquities on these
small islands
are
unbelievable - I had no idea that most
of the oldest
prehistoric ruins are in Scotland. The next day we
boarded the ferry that took us to the
Shetlands (of
Shetland pony fame). The next day we
were going to
the isle
of Noss and took a short ferry ride to
Bressay. It
is here
that we saw my most favorite sign
"VEHICLES MUST NOT
BE
PARKED IN THE TOILETS"....only the
British could say
something like that. Dave and I, being
the only
Americans
in the group, had to take a picture of
it. We trudged
down
a good distance, only to find the island was closed
on
Mondays! We decided to go to a
lighthouse where we
heard
quite a few whales had been spotted. On the way we
passed
large colonies of Puffin and Guillemots. They were
so
close you could almost touch them.
Puffin are the
silly
looking birds with orange, yellow and
red beaks that
are
related to the penguin. They are much
smaller that I
imagined. We didn't see any whales.
We then went
to
Jarlshof which is another prehistoric
settlement,
much
larger than Skara Brae and having ruins
even older.
Another
interesting stop. We saw some Shetland
ponies which
were
bred to be small for working in the
mines. That
night
we took a late night boat excursion to
Mousa which
took
about 20 minutes. We walked a good
distance to the
Mousa
Broch. A broch is a tall, drystone tower of hollow
wall
construction which are unique to
Scotland. They were
built
by iron age farmers about two thousand
years ago.
This one
was one of the best preserved and was
probably about
40
feet tall and was probably built as a
strongpoint but
may
have been also used later on as a
dwelling. It is to
this
structure that the little Storm Petrels
return, by
the
thousands, every night at dark (after
midnight). The
sight,
sound and setting of this was almost
mystical. The
next
day we finally made it to the bird
reserve on Noss
where
there is a Gannet colony that has more
birds than the
entire population of the Shetlands
(24,000). We saw
Shags,
Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and
Skuas. Every
day we
had a picnic lunch in some remote
setting but today's
lunch
is one we'll never forget. We decided to eat near a
colony
of Puffins which are probably our
favorite bird. They
were
within three feet of us and we sat there eating and
watching these beautiful little birds
for the longest
time.
I can't imagine being so close to a
species that is
so
difficult to see on land. What a
treat. While we
were
watching the birds in the Gannet colony, we saw some
people
running to the edge of the cliff (we
were quite high)
and
below were five Orcas swimming past the
island. I had
my
300mm lens on the camera and was able to get some
pretty
good shots, one of which was published
in the next
years'
brochure for the company which whom we
were
traveling. We
spent several hours in this wonderful
place. The
next day
we went to the Ring of Brogar which is a circle of
standing
stones which date back to 2500 to 2000
BC. These huge
stones are smaller than those at
Stonehenge, but a
marvel
nonetheless. How primitive man cut,
transported and
erected
such massive stones is still a puzzle.
Nearby is also
a
small burial mound. From here we went
to Maes Howe
which
is a burial mound that you can enter. It was
plundered by
the Vikings but is still in perfect
condition. The
Vikings
must have spent some time inside for
protection
because
there are still their Runes, or
writings, etched in
the
walls. All have been translated and it
shows that
they had
a sense of humor and talked about the
women in funny
terms.
I guess graffiti has been around
forever. Everyday
we saw
the beautiful scenery and on our drive
back to
Inverness,
we saw a huge herd of deer and some
Bottlenose
dolphin. We
drove passed Loch Ness (didn't see
Nessy) and Loch
Lomond
(Loch means Lake) We stayed overnight
at a
beautiful
Victorian B&B which was way too elegant
for the likes
of
us. Quite a difference from our next
destination
which was
The Outer Hebrides. We took a train to the tiny
fishing
village of Mallaig where we boarded our
tiny boat,
The
Cuma, which was our home for the next
week. There
were
seven small cabins which and community
bathrooms. Our
main
destination was St. Kilda which was the
outermost of
the
islands and the trip was quite rough.
On the way we
stopped at several islands before
setting off on the
main
crossing, hoping the seas would become
more
calm. St.
Kilda is so remote, the people were
totally isolated
from
the rest of the world and had their own
language and
manner
of living. They lived in stone houses
and their
mainstay
was the huge Gannett colony (60,000).
The birds
nested on
isolated pinnacles of rock called
"stacks" which are
surrounded by exceedingly rough water.
The men would
row
their boats to the stacks and somehow
get to the top
where
they would use lassos to catch the
birds. They did
this in
their bare feet and the "size" of which
they were
most
proud was their big toe, rather than the normal
measurement. Once civilized man found
these people,
they
exploited them and people started coming to the
island and
treated them as curiosities. They traded their bird
feathers and crafts for modern clothes
and
conveniences.
Once the people saw what the outside had to offer,
the
children left the island. The population dwindled to
30 and
the British government decided they had
to leave the
only
place these people have known. They were limited in
what
they could bring and chose to drown
their dogs rather
than
leave them behind. Once away from the
island, they
were
totally out of their element, had no
trade, couldn't
communicate, didn't know anything about
modern
conveniences
and were treated as freaks. An example
of forcing
people
from the only existence they know to a
life where
they were
miserable. A tragic story. There is a
radar facility
on the
island now and all that is left of the
original
inhabitants
is the ruins of their stone houses and
some rare
feral Soay
sheep. We journeyed to Harris (of
harris tweed
fame)
where we hiked to St. Clements which is
a fine
example of a
medieval church which was quite
interesting. We
went to
Rhum on which was a nature reserve and,
as always
while at
sea, looked for whales and dolphin. We arrived back
in
Mallaig where we boarded the train for
our trip to
Glasgow,
and then next day home.
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