My Haggis Adventure in Scotland!!

Hi everyone!!! It's only been 2 days since I've been back from Scotland. I spent 8 fantastic days crusing around the many islands and made some great, hopefully life-long friends! The first couple of days were spent checking out Edinburgh before leaving on my Haggis Adventure!

This blog entry is definately more like a history lesson than anything, so if you're short of time, come back later haha... With A few photos I've put up, I've given little background stories on the historical meaning behind them, and some are a little sad, so if you're faint of heart then just check out the photos! :-)



This is one of the Tattoo Festival performances - they were awsome! Marching bands, Kiwi bands, samurai fighting, dancing....



Meet Elaine Davidson from Brazil, world record holder for body piercing in the Guinness Book of Records! She wouldn't let you take her photo unless you gave a donation. I gave her a few pounds, more than she expected, and she wouldn't stop having photos with me lol... Great lady!



This girl was completey naked, apart from carefully placed 'fragile' stickers lol... Giggity!



The first day of my tour - A shot of the 'Forth Bridge' on the River Firth - as you can see we were off to a great start with the weather!!



This monument is dedicated to the Battle of Culloden, fought on the 16th April, 1746. It was a battle between the Highland Catholic Jacobite Rebellion with Bonnie Prince Charlie, against the Presbyterian forces of William the 'butcher', Duke of Cumberland. It was one of many battles fought to force King George II from the throne. Unfortunately for the Jacobites, this was the 1st of hundreds of winning battles they had lost, and was to be the beginning of the end of their campaign.



Clicking on the photo to enlarge it will help, but you should be able to make out the words 'Mixed Clans' engraved on the stone. This is a sad story. Now, the Highland Clans had been fighting for centuries between their own clans, but stood and fought together for the cause of reclaiming Scotland from the English Menace! The battle was a messy one. Any clan to stand against the Duke was slaughtered. After the battle, bodies and body parts, were buried where they lay. Sadly, many body parts lay mixed with other clans, and as it was too difficult to determine which was which, they were all buried together. 'Mixed Clans' means 'mixed body parts' from many different clans.



Standing at the edge of Loch Ness! Did you know that apart from Nessy, Loch Ness is also famous for being the deepest Loch? Apparently, if you were to take out all the water, you could fit the worlds population inside 3 times over, and still not fill it! Pretty cool hey!



First night of Bonding at the pub! From left: Ully - some random drunk local we met who was pretty funny, Me, Lila (NY), Amy (NZ), Gavin (Aussie), Simon and Nathalie (Canada).



Our first night was spent here at Carbisdale Castle! It was pretty cool :-)



Me and 4000 year old 'Choc' - well, what's left of him! Excavated from an ancient stone age villiage, and held for display along with other bones and findings like tools at a nearby place called 'Tomb of the Eagles' in Orkney. So named, from the way stone age funerals took place. When someone died, they would be placed on top of a stone wall, and left for the Eagles to pick at until nothing but their bones remained, though sometimes bones would get carried away by the Eagles too. This was their spiritual way of gaining the wings of the Eagles on their flight to the heavens.







Here's a few photos of sunken ships and one of the many causeways built during WWII in the waters of Scapa Flow. During WWII, the Orkney Islands were used as a resting place for many British ships. In October 1939, German Commander Lieut. Prien snuck in with a German U-Boat through the many ocean gaps which make up the 90 islands of Orkney. The battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk, 800 men perishing while the U-Boat made it's escape. To avoid this happening again, massive causeways were built joining the islands together, and old battered ships were transported and sunk to form barriers around the islands as 1st point of contact for future attacks.





Couple of snaps of the ancient recently discoverd village of Scara Brae, built in 3100BC!!! Thats before the Pyramids! As you can see in the first pic, it looks like a little mini golf course! The villages were made of stone, roofs of wood and animal skin, then the whole thing was covered over with mud and grass was grown. This formed an amazing camoflage, protecting them from Viking Attacks. For some unknown reason, the area was abandoned, everything left in tact in their homes. Over the centuries the land changed and the village was lost, until 1850 when a severe storm uncovered parts of sand dunes, revealing the ancient civilisation, and it was properly excavated in 1920!



Standing in front of 1 of the Stones of Steness. Bottom row from left: Melissa, Melanie, Edwyn, Craig, Theresa, Mark. Top row from left: Don, Gavin, Amy, Cheryl, Tara, Me and Paula. Not in this photo, but Paula reminded me heaps of my brothers girlfriend Anneliese.



A distance shot of the 'Ring of Brodgar'.



Holger (from Germany) and I, standing in front of the 5000 year old Standing Stones of Callanish. From the air, the stones are positioned in the shape of a Celtic Cross.



Riding On one of the 5-6 Ferries we took crossing the islands - hehe... Heath the ladies man!



Me standing next to half of a jawbone from a whale that someone has erected in their backyard!! How cool is that! We all took photos quickly before we got in trouble for tresspassing!



Me, Gavin and a few of the girls each had a photo taken with this drunk guy who had passed out in one of the local pubs on the Isle of Harris - north of the Isle of Skye. What a sport!



One of The 'Bridges to Nowhere'. I've forgotten who, but a wealthy man bought a lot of the Isle of Skye, and one of his visions was to build roads joining North to South on the East coast of the island to enhance the growth and population. He had many bridges built well ahead of the roads, as they took longer to build, however, halfway through his venture, he ran out of money! So now there are heaps of bridges all over without a connecting road!



This was the closest I think we got to all of us being together for one happy snap! We're on the bridge to nowhere. Left to right: Jon, Amy, Lila, Me, Nathalie, Tara, Jo, Paula, Cheryl, Melanie, Don, Jamie, Gavin, Simon, Theresa, Melissa and Terry.



A cool snap of a few little houses hiding among miles of Glens of Stone.





These 2 photos are of the grave of the Jacobite Heroine Flora Macdonald, who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie flee to France after the Battle of Culloden. The top image is all that is left of her original grave stone, and the bottom is how it used to look, before its re-erection. The new one had to be erected, because she is such a well loved and worshiped woman that people used to come from all over to pay respects, and in doing so, would take with them a part of her grave stone they'd chipped away as a momento!







3 Shots here: 1st one is a bridge crossing a river that is said to have healing powers. We were told if we place our heads in its water for 10 seconds, our faces would remain this age for the next 10 years! There's a great mythological story behind these photos too - if anyone is interested in hearing about it then let me know, and Uncle Heathy will put his slippers on and tell you ;-) Bottom photos is of Mark, Me and Edwyn.





A day at the Beach! Jamie, Holger, Gavin and myself felt it necessary to go for a Dip! Seriously, it was beautiful! The top photo gives you an idea of the surrounding view of Glens we had all around us!



I'm pretty impressed with this photo - looks quite peaceful and artistic ;-) It's the old remains of a Viking Castle. I haven't really mentioned, the Vikings were the rulers of the north and invaded many areas of Scotland and Ireland. Their influence was felt everwhere, and luckily they've left some great stuff behind!



Fergis (Silent 'S') and Gavin. Fergis was our awsome Scottish Bus Driver/Tour Guide, and if any of my little stories are wrong - it's HIS fault lol...! Nah, he was a wicked guy!





Traditional Scottish Dancing! Undoubtly one the best nights I've ever had! The first photo was a dance called 'Strip the willow', can't remember the 2nd one lol.. When I ever get married, (and lets not get too carried away), that's the kind of dancing I want going on!



The Legend of the Trickster Faeries... It's said that the King and Queen of the Faeries live just beyond this waterfall, and come down every night to drink it's water. It's said that everyone who drinks this water is granted one wish, and one wish only, which will only come true if you tell it to no one. In this photo up the top of the waterfall is Simon, myself and Gavin - 5 minutes later Simon jumped across the stream, slipped on mud, and sprained his ankle! Oh the Irony!





Meet 'Hamish' the Hairy Coo, the only hand-raised Coo in Scotland! Yes, it's spelt and pronounced 'Coo' :-) Did you know, the horns of the Coo fall off each year (same as a Deer), and have been found to have Aphrodisiac qualities? Centuries ago, the shed horns would be gathered and ground into powder, called 'Coo-Cain', and were snorted through the nose! I'm not kidding! Now, a quantity of the ground horns is found in Viagra! How about that!



Does this look familiar? Click on it to enlarge..... Yes?.....No...?? It's the bridge used in the filming of Harry Potter II when Ron and Harry are flying the Car to Hogwarts trying to catch up with the train!



And that dear friends is where I say Goodbye! If you've made it this far, you're due for a well earned Cup of tea and a biscuit! Cheers!

Heath xx