“The Trossachs are often visited by persons of taste, who are desirous of seeing nature in her rudest and most unpolished state.” – Callander parish minister Dr. Robertson (1791).
The next stop on our visit was The Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Scotland’s first National Park, established in 2002. (Loch is Scotland’s word for lake.) The Trossachs has inspired many a poem, including several by William Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy, Samuel Coleridge, and Sir Walter Scott. In fact, Sir Walter Scott’s best selling work, Lady of the Lake, is set in and around Loch Katrine. Loch Katrine also appears in Jules Verne’s The Underground City.
The Trossachs is home to allegedly one of the most haunted places in Scotland – the Drover’s Inn.
If you are into ghosts, click here to read about all the ghost sightings that have been reported (be wary of the video though – it has a trick at the end). My mom – a major ghost/supernatural believer and avid ghost/bigfoot show watcher – wanted us to do a EVP session (still not sure what that means), but instead of riling the ghosts, we simply had a beer and made sure to be on our way long before nightfall.
Also along our driving tour, we stopped to see the Glencoe Valley, home to mountains known as the “Three Sisters.”
Afterwards, we stopped at Glenfinnan. Glenfinnan is known for two very different teenagers: Harry Potter and the Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Well known now as the home to the viaduct that appears in the Harry Potter movies (see picture below), Glenfinnan has a tragic past. It was here that the Bonnie Prince Charlie first raised his father’s standard. The monument you see in the pictures below is a memorial for the Highlanders that lost their lives because they supported the Bonnie Prince. If you are at all interested in the Prince’s claim to the British throne, click here.
Finally, we visited the Isle of Skye. Unfortunately, we had terrible weather – at one point, I truly thought I might be blown off the side of a mountain. So my pictures aren’t what they could have been – as I was trying to protect my camera from the rain – but even in the rain, Scotland is hauntingly beautiful.
At the end of our climb, my best friend – who is my forever travel partner – claimed she had a “loch” in her boot, thereby proclaiming the creation of Loch Storr, and after spending hours in the downpour and wind, we were its monsters.
The Portrait of a [sometimes] Lady 