Northern Highlands

This past weekend Allen and I headed off on a journey that was planned as far as my nose.  I had secured a car and two hotel rooms in the town of Craigellachie and Thurso, neither of which people had ever heard of.  I started to get a little worried about me pushing this weekend excursion to northern Scotland when Allen's coworkers, the Scottish natives and our Scottish experts, asked us,"What's up there?"  The Northern Highlands: "...a wilderness experience of the far north...its all but empty grandeur will leave the strongest impression."  Armed with throat lozenges and Dayquil for Allen, we embarked on our trip with little more than a hope that I knew where I was going.

The first hotel in Craigellachie turned out to be charming.  I was most impressed with the fact that the hotel had real candles lit everywhere, this was a small detail that Allen thought was not that exciting no matter how many candles I pointed out.  I was also a tab bit overly excited about the heated towel rack, the complimentary robes in our bathroom, and the fact that our key had an adorable bronze fish attached to it.  Apparently, these are small things that normal people would overlook, but it all adds to the experience, I say.

Dunrobin Castle

Saturday morning we headed off to Dunrobin Castle located near Golspie in the Sutherland area.  The trees have been changing their colors from green to the shimmering yellow and golds of fall.  The Castle grounds were astounding.  As we showed up to buy our tickets for the tour, the nice gentleman told us, "Hiya, here ya go. The falconry exhibit starts in a bit."  If Allen thought the little bronze fish key could throw me into a frenzy of excitement he was not prepared for this new development.  We bypassed the castle and headed straight out to the gardens.  The Falconry site was in a corner next to the sea offering the best view of the fairytale castle while the soothing sounds of the Norwegian Sea rolled and tumbled around on the coast just over the great stone walls.  The birds were fantastic.  Eagles, owls, falcons, hawks; they were beautiful.  Andy Hughes, a professional Falconer (coolest job ever), gave us an hour long showcase of four different types of hunting birds.  The art of falconry is arguably dated back to 2000 BC or 400 AD (there is actually a fair amount of debate on this subject).  Andy explained the differences between the birds and their amazing eye sight (a falcon has 80/80 vision) and lopsided ears (owls have a lower ear on the left than on the right) which make them incredible, silent hunters.  Andy fed the birds "chicken nuggets" which I was disappointed to see  were cute, fuzzy, baby chicks.  Don't worry, they were already dead.  At the end of the presentation, Andy left the owl out on the bench so we could have pictures with him.  I felt like I was in Harry Potter and I had my own owl!  The castle was enormous and beautiful and I was on such a high from the falconry exhibit that everything we saw made me squeal with excitement.

Rush Hour

Sunday brought on a lot of driving and beautiful scenery.  Allen and I headed to Smoo Cave, which is just fun to say, to see a whooshing waterfall inside the cave.  After telling Allen we could cross the river and not get wet, I got in the car with two soaking wet shoes and we started the long drive back home while listening to Christmas music.  Don't judge us, with no Thanksgiving over here we only have one holiday in between us and Christmas.  It helped pass the time and calm us on the one lane highways.  With only a couple "rush hour" incidents with some cows and a few sheep, we made it safely home armed with stories to tell Allen's Scottish co-workers what lies to the north.

Allen in Smoo Cave

Onward to more adventures!