Scotland
Our trip to Scotland was brief. We stayed in Edinburgh and Oban. We had Abercrombie and Kent guides for five days, including a drive across the middle of the country from east to west.
Loch Katrine in the Trossachs, Rob Roy country.
Arrival of the Sir Walter Scott, launched in 1899.
Home on Loch Katrine.
Furry friend on the Sir Walter Scott.
Wouldn’t be Scotland without him.
Mountain stream in the Trossachs.
View from the high mountain pass known as “Rest and Be Thankful”.
Valley Glencoe below Rest and Be Thankful.
Cottage in Glencoe.
Inverary Castle
Oban downtown at dusk.
Oban, Palace Hotel with a harbor view.
Oban—quiet evening.
Deep in conversation.
Oban harbor, looking toward the Isle of Mull.
Never thought I’d envy a Scottish seagull.
Reflective beauty.
Last light of a beautiful evening.
Oban at night.
The Forth Bridge, a cantilever railroad bridge with a span of 1709 feet, second longest in the world, over the Firth of Forth, completed in 1890.
A short distance to the west of the Forth Bridge are two auto bridges. The farthest is Queensferry Crossing Bridge, completed in 2019.
Glamis Castle in Strathmore valley, childhood home of the mother of Queen Elizabeth.
A closer look at the impressive turrets. The presence of ghosts is said to be often felt here.
St. Andrews. Eighteenth green of the Royal and Ancient Golf Course, immediately in front of the clubhouse.
The Royal and Ancient clubhouse.
St. Andrews.
St. Andrews. These are the ruins of the largest Catholic cathedral in Scotland, gradually demolished after the Reformation.
Looking toward the altar. It must have been an impressive edifice.
A free standing tower adjacent to the cathedral provides panoramic views of St. Andrews and the surrounding waters.
Catholic graveyard and cathedral ruins. A stark legacy of religious conflict.
In the Hebridean Islands. From the Isle of Iona, looking toward the Isle of Mull.
A Hairy Coo. Really.
Iona is a spiritual place. It became the cradle of Scottish Christianity when St. Columba founded a monastery there in the sixth century.
Iona’s tiny harbor.
The small village on Iona is a short ferry ride from Mull.
Farmhouse on Iona. Hairy Coos in the adjacent fields.
The large building on the left is the abbey, beautifully restored. Iona over the centuries has attracted many Christian pilgrims, and does to this day.
A lighthouse on the ferry trip from Mull back to Oban.