Whisky, Kilts, and the Loch Ness Monster by William W. Starr

Author:William W. Starr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of South Carolina Press
Published: 2012-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

14

Inverness and Loch Ness

Back on the Scottish mainland for the first time in a week, I welcomed the sun, and though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was heading into one of the seasonally warmest and longest rainless periods in recent Scottish meteorological history. It would rain exactly once over the next fifteen days (and that was only a passing shower), and high temperatures would climb into the upper sixties and low seventies for the rest of April. I celebrated by taking off my sweater for the first time since I drove through Mull.

I was now trekking down the northeast coast of Scotland, a landscape that seemed gentler and more inhabited than the lonely, barren west coast. I drove on the A99 south through Wick, originally a Viking settlement and looking as if it hadn’t been spiffed up much since then. I picked up the A9 heading farther down the peninsula, and I was struck not only by the milder weather off the North Sea, but the increasing signs of civilization as well. Not only was this road the main avenue from the Lowlands to the Orkneys, but it showed evidence of growing settlements along the way. I spent the night in the former coal-mining community of Brora which now boasts a fancy hotel with an indoor swimming pool (rarer than a Royal Bank of Scotland that doesn’t charge fees).

On the road out of Brora after a fine breakfast, I stopped at a small convenience store to buy a Sunday paper, hoping I could find at least one while so far away from any urban area. To my astonishment I had a choice of eight including several from England. I was so pleased I bought a copy of each, and it was the elderly proprietor’s turn to look astonished.

“I like to read,” I said.

“Like the comics, do ya?” he replied.

“I just like to know what’s going on,” I said.

“That’s the last place you’ll learn anything,” he said, pointing to my mountainous stack of newsprint.

As it turns out I never got around to reading all of them because when I was preparing to turn in the rental car at the end of the trip I found two of those papers on the floor in the rear, unopened and never read.

A few miles down the road, a sign pointed out a major tourist attraction ahead, and I realized I had not nearly begun to exhaust my castle addiction. I pulled into Dunrobin Castle, driving a few yards on a driveway that expanded into a parking lot at the castle entrance. From where I sat, Dunrobin looked like the perfect fairytale castle with turrets and pointed roofs, built to a giant scale with nearly two hundred rooms inside. It was the ancestral home of the dukes of Sutherland, who were extremely wealthy landowners, influential over the centuries and responsible for destroying the lives of thousands of Scots—their dependents—in the nineteenth-century Clearances. The castle proved fascinating: expensive, tasteful furnishings, a sumptuous drawing

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.