Scottish September – Day 2

Day 2 of Scotland trip was filled with lots of stories and few stuff I only have seen on TV till date.
We had made reservations for a 2 days Highlands and Inverness Tour with Rabbis Tours.
We were in for 4 surprises:

1) Sharp 8.45am the entire group was present at the Rabbis Café, done with their breakfast and boarded the tour vehicle as per plan – Punctuality!!!
2) Tour Vehicle – A Mercedes Minicoach with a 6 + 1 gear – Comfort… (awesome vehicle. Hoping to drive it one day)
3) Heather- A sweet, knowledgeable and extremely friendly guide who while driving took us back in Scottish History weaving the stories and summarizing them at the right moment of us reaching the destination. – Excellent planning and execution
4) Scottish Music – Got to listen to a lot of Gaelic and Scottish songs and instrumentals – Cultural exposure

We departed Edinburgh and headed north across the River Forth towards the Highlands.

The first story while leaving Edinburgh was about “guard the loo” (Look out for the water).  In old Edinburgh; houses didn’t have internal toilets. So, people used to collect the slops in buckets and then throw out of the window on the streets. Before doing this, they used to warn those on roads by letting out this cry so that passengers could go off the street till the business is completed 🙂
This led to a bad epidemic in Edinburgh and resulted in creating the new Edinburgh city with proper sanitation facilities.

Another interesting story is about the Tay Rail bridge built by Sir Thomas Bouch which collapsed in 1879 due to a design flaw related to Wind loading, killing dozens and causing officials to ditch his design for the Forth Bridge. We were told that is probably how his name became synonymous with a poorly executed task; a “Bouch job” eventually gave us the phrase “botch job” or “botched job.” Not sure if the word botch existed before this happened 🙂
We were able to catch a glimpse of the Forth Bridge.

Forth Bridge

Our first stop was in Dunkeld. We visited the Dunkeld Cathedral which was closed due to some restoration work but were able to have a nice walk along river Tay.

Approaching Dunkeld Cathedral

Dunkeld Cathedral

Walk along River Tay

Next, we visited the Hermitage home to Ossian’s Hall of Mirrors.  We took a walk through the stone path to the Hall, also visited a waterfall near it and a stone bridge..

Walk to the Hall

Waterfall near the Hall

Ceiling Design in the Hall

We took a stop at holiday town of Pitlochry for lunch.

Scottish Outfits

See the chimneys. In old times higher the count of Chimneys richer the owner due to coal afforded by him/her

After a quick lunch we visited the local whisky distillery (Blair Athol Distillery). It is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland and a beautiful one too. The tour was quite informative and educative with details related to malts and blends, history of the distillery, process etc. It ended in a whisky tasting and appreciation session.
The staff friendly and knowledgeable.
For the first time I actually enjoyed the sweet smell of single malt. Even though I might never have it I now appreciate how it’s made.
There are trees outside the distillery which have a certain kind of bacteria growing on it which thrives on the fumes from the distillery. Hence the tree trunks are dark.

Next, we are off to Highland Folk Museum. En route to the museum we were lucky to spot highland cows.
The Highland Folk museum is a living museum with different walks of life of the old Scottish era. There are tailor (tweed) cottages, schools, houses from 1700s, etc. It is a big place so if you are planning to visit keep at least 3-4 hours of time to check it out.

Highland Cow

Old Scottish homes

Bed inside the home

Kitchen inside the home

Sound of Music :). Taught in Scottish school

Another surprise from Heather was a visit to the Cairngorm Reindeer farm. This herd is the only reindeer herd found freely roaming in the Cairngorm mountains in Scotland. Very friendly animals who love to eat their food 🙂 I guess there are around 150 reindeers in the herd. The farm has a cute Elf house and Santa ‘s to do list 🙂

Throughout the day Heather played us wonderful Scottish Gaelic songs and told us the story of Mary, Queen of Scots. It is like a soap opera with a lot of twists and turns: p

The day ended with us reaching Inverness and staying in a bed and breakfast home owned by Molly. It was a pleasure chatting with her, understanding her views about the referendum, her family and her travelling experiences. She was the perfect host. A sweet grandma 🙂

In the late evening we had a long walk in Inverness with a dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Another day at Inverness awaited us and we needed all the sleep we could get to explore it.