Not So Famous…

You may have read or heard that someone tried to drive a flaming jeep into the arrivals terminal of the Glasgow International Airport today.  No one was killed, but all flights in and out of Glasgow have been cancelled until further notice.

We’re not sure how this affects our travel, as US Airways is offering passengers the option to change their flight plans with no change fees if they had a flight scheduled all the way through July 6th.  They obviously anticipate that there’s going to be a problem through then, as they’re losing out on potential money from change fees, etc.

We’re going to call our Travel Insurance company and see what our options are.  They might not cover any changes we make to our origination point, as they don’t KNOW for sure it’s necessary, yet.  They may not allow such a change until the day of our flight, at which time, it might be nigh-impossible to find a flight out of Scotland, due to everyone changing their information.

We could do it anyway, and just HOPE that Access America will cover it, since we want to get home for the 4th.  :)

We’ll post more information here as we have it, but we wanted to let everyone know that we’re ok…we weren’t anywhere near the airport today, and only saw it on the telly at dinner tonight.  See you all soon!

I have had some people mention that they don’t really know what gaming is, or what types of people play Role Playing games.

To begin with, it’s not a gender-exclusive activity.  I mean, I’ve not really understood gender-exclusive activities, for the most part.  What is a “guy thing” or a “girl thing” anyway?  If a girl likes playing video games, why can’t she?  I don’t really understand what the point of limiting group activities to guy or girl things, but even if I wasn’t of that opinion, gaming is definitely gender-mixed.  I’ve had guys and girls in my gaming groups, and Kim will be playing Serenity the RPG with us, time permitting.

That having been said, what IS gaming?  Gaming is interactive storytelling, to be put quite bluntly.  What about all the dice and rolling and role playing, you ask?  Well, it’s a little more complex than storytelling, but we’ll get into it bit by bit here.

First off, I call gaming interactive storytelling, because at its heart, that is what role-playing is all about.  It’s telling a story of some sort using the medium of putting yourself in a role.  Role playing is used as an educational tool, it’s obviously a highly successful form of entertainment (seen a movie lately?  If you like, just call actors “role-players”.  lol.)  Put a group of people together, tell one that he’s a tavern-owner who charges too much for his (nasty-tasting) food, tell another that he’s a patron at said overpriced establishment, and you’ve got the beginnings of role-playing.

So what’s with the rules and the dice?  Well, it’s pretty simple, actually. Rules simulate a set of physics, basically.  Ever play Cowboys and Indians?  Or even more basic, ever play Tag as a kid? In Cowboys and Indians, or even any of the war games that I played as a boy (ok, THAT’S a gender exclusive activity, lol), the problem was always manifest in this way:

“I shot you!  You’re dead!”
“Nuh-uh!  You missed!”
“I did not, I aimed carefully!”

This can go on for hours.  The rules of the game simulate things such as, if you shoot someone, how much damage does it do, and how many shots can they take before they succumb to blood loss?  Or in the case of non-violent situations, can you use your skills as a diplomat to sway the President of a shipping guild to give you a job for less than the usual 30% cut off the top?  It’s just a way to resolve conflict of various sorts.  In the case of combat, you’re trying to determine whether the Cowboy really did shoot the Indian.  In the case of the diplomacy incident, you’re just trying to determine whether your use of your diplomacy skills made any difference in the final price of the job.  It’s just a way to simulate reality.  Various games have various rules.  Fantasy games often replace guns and technology with swords and sorcery, but the end result is the same in that they have a set of rules representing a fantasy-reality.

In the case of our tavern owner vs. the patron, we might have an incident where the patron wishes to appeal to a higher authority, so they speak with their contact at the tavern-owner’s guild to attempt to get the tavern’s prices lowered.  Now, the patron can claim that the guild demanded that the tavern owner lower his prices in the interactive story.  But does the patron REALLY have a contact with the guild, or are they just making it up to give themselves an advantage?  Rules help to cover this sort of thing.  Or what if the tavern-owner hovered in mid-air to convince the patron that he has the power to charge these prices?  Well, does the tavern-owner have this ability, or did he just make it up to give his character an unfair advantage?  Again, rules help us resolve this.

As for the dice, the much-feared aspect of role-playing games, it’s equally simple.  Dice represent an aspect of randomness.  Now, as a Christian, I don’t believe in true randomness, of course.  The Lord is sovereign over all.  However, that doesn’t mean that Christians need to fear or eschew dice.  The apostles used the casting of lots to pick the next apostle after Judas hung himself, didn’t they?  No, we acknowledge that though we may throw the dice, the landing thereof is determined by the Lord. (Proverbs 16:33)  So if it’s not random, then what it is?

Let’s imagine that I am walking across a field, and that I come across a trench that is very deep, and runs the length of the field.  In order to get to the other side, I’ve got to jump it.  It’s only a couple feet, and I figure I can probably make it, so I jump it, and land easily on the other side.  Sounds like no problem, right?  Well, what if I came across a second, visibly identical to the first? Simple.  I’ll just jump it like I did the last time.  Only this time, the grass I’m standing on is slick, the landing area on the other side is muddy and crumbly, and my knee gives out just as I leap.  This time, I fall.  The dice represents things that are out of our control.  Just because everything appeared to be the same as the original trench in my example doesn’t mean that I’ll just make it.  There are factors out of our control, and the dice represent that.  The Lord didn’t want me to make that last jump.  :) 

Dice in combat works much the same. I may be shooting a gun, but the wind is out of my control, the movement of my opponent is out of my control, and a myriad of other factors.  Sure, I can train my gun skills, and get better.  Maybe I’ll get large bonuses to my roll.  But there’s still the factors out of my control to contend with, and this is why dice were introduced to role playing games.

The basics of gaming are that you create a character, and then you play the role of that character as he or she journeys in the world that your Game Master (GM) has created for you.  Your GM introduces situations to you, and you play your character as they react to those situations.  In so doing, you create a story that no one has ever heard before.  Even if a different group of people were to walk into a tavern at the same time as your group walked into it, your subjective experience would be different.  Maybe one group engages in a game of darts, while another prefers to drink and tell jokes.  Yet another raucous group decides to get into a bar fight.  All of this can happen and how each character is played will determine what happens.  It’s like a giant version of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, except in gaming, your options are only limited by the rules of the game.  Instead of “Turn to Page 15 if you want to play cards”, you are told, “You walk into a tavern. There are people everywhere, and the only table is near a group that looks pretty rough. Some are playing darts, some dice, and there is a loud game of cards in the northwest corner of the room.  What do you want to do?”  You can sit at the table and chance that the other group is looking for a fight.  You can join the dice, dart, or card games, OR, you can do none of the above, really.  It’s up to you.  You can turn around, walk out, and find another place to spend the evening.  That is the essence of gaming.  Tell your character’s story the way you want to.  Weave the choices of your companions into your story by your reactions to THEIR choices.  The game is nearly limitless as to the story you want to tell.

This is why I don’t feel it’s gender-exclusive.  Traditionally, RPG’s have been seen as being geared toward violence, but that’s only the choice of the GM, really.  Violence is an option in most cases, sure…but then again, how is that different from reality?  Someone starting a bar fight in a game will still have to deal with local law enforcement, just as you or I would.  It depends on how the GM runs the game, and how the players react.

I have found that females in the group lend an air of civility to the proceedings.  While a group of guys might be most likely to use their fists or swords to get out of a tight spot, much like Jayne, or Mal would on the Firefly, a woman will often seek to get out of a situation by talking, or paying a fine of some sort.  As a result, a female presence in a gaming group can really change the way a group resolves the problems with which they are faced, and I love that dynamic.

Well, I supposed I’ve rambled enough, but if this helps someone to see what gaming is or is not, then it’s been worth it.

Today was a nice leisurely day, really. Breakfast was cool because she said we could come down anytime between 8 and 9am.  We didn’t have to give her a specific time.  If you’ve never stayed at a B&B before, this is not usually the case.  Sometimes, they’ll tell you when to be down.  Sometimes, they’ll give you a range of time, but they’ll want to know the night before when you’ll be down, etc.  This place was almost like a restaurant with a single exception.  She wanted to know if either of us was having porridge.  (Oats need a goodly amount of time to cook.  IMO, she cooked the porridge too long, but it’s OK.)  This was really nice.  We planned on going down late, as we’re sick of getting up early.  ;)

After breakfast, we went to Culloden Moor.  This is really where the future of Scotland was changed forever. King James (I forget which one at the moment) was a Catholic and from the House of Stuart.  (The rightful line of kings of Scotland and England.) However, England, and increasingly, Scotland, was Protestant, so a Catholic King was not to be welcomed. James was actually removed from the throne, as I recall, but at any rate, the kingship was offered to William of Orange, and the Hanoverian line of the kings of England. Charles Edward Stuart, however, was never to forget that his father was the rightful king of Scotland and England, and believed from infancy that he was destined to return the kingship to his father, and eventually, to himself.  He was born in Rome, and lived much of his early life in France, where he spent a lot of time making allies of the King of France. They would eventually support him in his attempt to retake the throne.  Finally, after years of drumming up support, the time arrived for him to head off to Scotland to retake the throne.  Many Scottish exiles and French soldiers accompanied him.

He landed on Skye, and headed to Glenfinnan to raise his standard and it was there he began rallying support from the highland clan chiefs. Most of the chiefs supported him, as they were also Catholic, and believed in the Stuart line of succession. Not all of them agreed, however, that Charles, or Bonnie Prince Charlie had a snowball’s chance in a very warm place to retake the throne.  The year was 1745, and events such as the 1692 massacre at Glen Coe was fresh in their minds. The Hanoverian Kings commanded a very well-trained and well-provisioned army.  Many of them felt this to be a fool’s errand, but supported them, as they knew he was the rightful king of England and Scotland.  The MacDonalds supported the Bonnie Prince, as did the feared Camerons of Lochiel.  The Highlanders were ready to make a dash for the thrones.

Bonnie Prince Charlie had a strong personal charisma about him, and he persuaded many of the chiefs that they had a chance, indeed, that victory was almost certain with merely the force of his personality. He was proven right early on.

As Charles marched his fearsome force south, the won every single battle.  The Highlanders fought fiercely, and the famed Highlander Charge had broken many a Hanoverian line into nothing. The Highlanders were unstoppable, it seemed.  However, the common man fighting in the Prince’s army did not know why they were fighting, really.  They invaded England, where they did not want to be.  Many of them still felt that England and Scotland were separate countries, and did not understand why they continued to march south.  They didn’t want the throne of England, and they missed their families.  Eventually, the decision was made to retreat back to Scotland, where they could re-provision and perhaps discipline their army.

They made their way back to Inverness, though they were still undefeated in battle. When they were on Scottish soil, many of the homesick soldiers could not resist the temptation to visit their homes, and the Prince’s army diminished.  Meanwhile, a force of the Hanoverian military arrived southeast of Inverness, and began the march to intercept and destroy the Jacobite force at Inverness. (Jacob is the Latin form of the name James, and Jacobite was the name given to those who sought to put James back on the throne.)

Prince Charles sought to meet the Hanoverians, but inexplicably chose Drummossie Moor near Culloden. This was a boggy ground, which would slow the famed Highlander Charge, which was the tactic that had really damaged the government troops in the past. In addition, many of Charlie’s army were disheartened, not knowing what they were fighting for, and wanting only to return home to their loved ones.

The battle did not go as planned. The Hanoverian Army, under the Duke of Cumberland, crushed the Scots and a retreat was sounded less than an hour into the battle.  Many Scots died at Culloden Moor, and to this day, the mention of the moor brings a tear to many a Scot’s eye.

Bonnie Prince Charlie had to be smuggled out of Scotland dressed as a lady’s maid, where he returned to Rome, and died there. The Stuart line has never returned to power.  The defeat of the Jacobite army was bad for the Scottish people, as it was after this that wearing the tartan, speaking Gaelic, or even playing the bagpipes was outlawed as treason. Many Scots were shipped or fled to Canada, the Colonies, Australia, etc.  This is what is known as the Highland Clearances that scattered many Scots families.

After this, we went to Urquhart Castle, which we decided not to walk around.  The entrance fee was like 10 pounds 50 pence, which is sort of ridiculous. We took a picture and headed to the Black Isle Brewery, which is an organic brewery not too far from Inverness. We talked with the brewer for a little while about what Organic brewing means to him, and how it’s different from regular brewing. (Lots of paperwork, he said.) We talked with him about his recent trip to Colorado, where he was able to talk with some American brewers, and he indicated that he had a LOT of respect for the California microbrewing industry.  While I don’t like California much, as you may know, this filled me with pride for our brewing out on the Left Coast.  :)

From here, we decided to head back to the hotel. It wasn’t a full day, but it was very pleasant, and I got to upload the rest of the pictures, while Kim took a nap.  :)

Off to Glasgow tomorrow, which promises to be interesting.  We turn in the car and head to Glasgow via train with all our luggage.  That should be really interesting, as we’ve got a LOT of luggage.  :)

This is non-Scotland news, I know, but it’s something that I’m pretty excited about, having spoken with a friend about it last night.

I’ve always been interested in RPG’s, those long time readers of my blog will know. I’ve detailed my past gaming experiences in different posts, so I’ll not bother here.

This group will be playing………the Serenity RPG!!  Those of you who have never heard of the Firefly television series, or the Serenity movie will have no idea why this is so cool.  The rest of you are jealous.  ;)

Anyway, I’ll not detail the series here suffice to say, if you’re looking for something else to watch, you should watch Firefly and then Serenity.  The series was only 14 episodes long or so, and the movie is just a standard feature film length, but it really was a good series, and Fox was really lame to cancel it before it really could explore much of what it had to offer.

I know some people are interested in playing.  We’ve got Gabe, Kim, Shawn and Ryan.  Anyone else interested in playing?  I’ve purchased a PDF of the book and game master screen, and after I read it, I’ll let my players know whether they’re going to need to buy a copy or not.  (I’ll not just print mine out…that’s illegal.)  :)

Anyway, if you’re interested in playing Serenity, comment or send me an e-mail and let me know.  I can have maybe 2 or 3 more players, as long as your schedules are flexible.

Gaming = gud.

You know, the drive isn’t all that long, really.  I mean, it’s about 2.5 hours or so, depending on how many stops you make. On the way from Skye, we knew we were going to be stopping at Eilean Donan Castle, which is a gorgeous castle, and is one of the most photographed places on earth.  Apparently, it was in ruins at the beginning of the 20th century, and someone bought and restored it to its original glory, which is exceedingly cool. Basically, it’s a castle in the middle of a loch, with an older stone bridge leading to it. I was awed by the tranquility of its location, and the inside of the castle was very cool as well.  Like most castles, photography was not allowed inside the castle, so all of our pictures are definitely from outside.

Stopping there was not a simple process, either. On the way to the castle, I realized that I really had to use the restroom, and also, we had no cash. Most everything we do in Scotland, we try to do with cash, as it’s just easier, etc. So we needed a bank, and I needed a restroom.  We knew there would be restrooms at the castle, but not likely a bank, so we swung by a couple towns on our way there. This turned out to be a fruitless endeavor, as neither of the towns we stopped in had either of the places for which we were searching. Meh…..double meh.

So we went to the castle, figuring we could at least head to the restrooms there, and we could use the credit card for entrance to the castle.  Alas, our efforts were to be stymied there as well!  When we pulled into the car park at the castle, there was a (massive) sign indicating there were public toilets. Indeed, the sign out front went so far as to say they were “OPE”.  (In big, block letters.)  However, we found that the word “OPEN” can be deceptive, as when we entered the reception area of the castle, there was another (not as large) sign indicating “Toilets closed due to essential repairs today.  We apologize for any inconvenience.”  There was a great deal of inconvenience, let me tell you.  With great strain apparent in my voice, I asked the nice lady at the reception desk where the nearest toilets would be located.  The conversation went as follows:

 ”Are you going to Kyle of Lochalsh?  There are some lovely toilets there.”

“Uh, no.  That’s 10 miles up the road from where we came.”

“Oh, that’s too bad, as I don’t know how far you’ll have to travel to get to toilets the other direction.”

OK!  Back up the road, it is.

We found the toilets, and I did not wet myself. (That was not such a foregone conclusion there, for a bit!)

The ride along Loch Ness was beautiful, and uneventful.  No blowing up of the car….no nearly being run off the road by lorries or coaches.  In fact, thanks to Kate, the GPS device, we never even got lost.  (I know, how boring!)

Let me tell you something….when the Scottish Tourist Board says a B&B is 4 starts, they freakin’ mean it!!! The B&B in Inverness is the only place we’re staying that is rated at 4 stars, and it really isn’t that much more expensive than any of the others at which we’ve stayed. The room is gorgeous, roomy….the bathroom is fairly sizeable, with a HUGE shower.  I think it’s honestly the largest shower I’ve ever been in. The curtains are thick, which is nice with the long days here.  Everything is top notch, really. I loved it, and so did Kim.

Tonight, we went to a place called The 27, where I had a Chimay Red Label from a bottle.  It wasn’t bad.  The meal I got was some sort of parma chicken or something.  Really artsy-fartsy.  :)

Wireless Internet in the room, so I’m posting a serious amount of pictures before I sleep.  :)  No idea when I’ll be able to post next.  The trip is almost over, so it might not be until I get back, but I’ll make sure it all gets up there for those of you whom we don’t see all that often.  :)

Today, we bummed around the Isle of Skye.  There’s a lot of stuff to do here, though not all of it appealed to us.  As I said before, the ancient history stuff can get rather tiresome, and that’s a lot of what is on Skye, though not all.

To begin, we headed over to the Isle of Skye Brewery. There are few awesome breweries in Scotland, as most of the barley grown here is grown for the scotch industry, but Isle of Skye is definitely one of them.  I didn’t get to tour this plant, as they were busily brewing to make up for some backorders, so we just picked up a couple of souvenirs in the brew shop, as well as a couple bottles of ale that looked nice.  :)

We headed straight from here on a nearly fruitless trip to find some Internet. I wanted to post the 5 or 6 blog entries that had been cropping up on my computer, and I wanted to check e-mail.  We started at the nearby hostel, but they were closing up for the day, so we headed into the largest town on the island, Portree.

For a large town, it’s not that large.  lol.  Everywhere we went said, “No, we don’t have Internet available, but THIS place might have it.”  We’d go to THAT place, and they’d say, “No, we don’t have it, but this other place might!”  Etc.  Eventually, we just went to have lunch at a place we’d scoped out earlier. On a whim, I whipped out the computer and VOILA!!!  We had (crappy) Internet. Seriously, it was just horrible.  After an hour and a half, I had posted all my entries.  I was hoping to upload some pictures, but that just didn’t work out, so I gave up.  It took a long time to even post the stupid blogs.  lol

From there, we went to Dunvegan castle, which is the seat of the MacLeod clan. It was one of the cooler castles we’d seen.  It wasn’t as huge as some of the others, wasn’t taken over for a military barracks, and had really only been added to. So it had a much more personal feel.  From what we read, apparently, the MacLeods still live in part of the castle, which is not open to the public.

After that, we headed up and around Waternish Point to see what we could see of the Trumpan Church ruins and the surrounding area.  The Trumpan church is really a sad ruin, when you read what happened there.  I explained a little about the church on the pictures site, but this is what happened there:

The MacLeods apparently at some point trapped many of the MacDonald clan in a cave and set the entrance on fire.  I don’t recall if any were killed, but they were definitely angry.  So when they knew the MacLeods would be worshiping in Trumpan Church, they sailed and landed near there, barricaded the only exit, and set the thatched roof on fire, burning the whole congregation alive.  One woman escaped through a window by cutting off one of her breasts, and ran all the way to Dunvegan Castle to alert the MacLeods there to what was happening.  The MacLeods came as fast as they could and slaughtered the MacDonalds while they were celebrating their victory.  Much of the church still stands, and it is a sad place.

From there, we went in search of the Island of St. Columba, which is an ancient place of Christian Worship.  There has apparently been a cathedral and chapel there since around 1000 AD, and it’s rumored that St. Columba founded it there. the cathedral and such are all ruined, but it’s a neat site.

We went off to dinner at the Pub at the Pier in Uig, where I tried every Isle of Skye brew they had on cask there.  They were all good, but I especially enjoyed the Red Cuillin, which was a Red Ale, but was much like a Scotch Ale.  Very malty and sweet.  Mmmmmm…

The Isle of Skye is as different a place from Scotland as Scotland is from the States. To begin with, it’s a very…open place.  While all of Scotland is near to the sea, not all of Scotland can see the sea. The mountains in Scotland are seriously breathtaking, as I hope the pictures we’ve posted thus far show. However, they also prevent some things, such as straight roads, short drives to anywhere, and views of the ocean.  While Skye has its mountains, they are mostly located in a northerly directions, and they are fewer than in the Highlands of Scotland. Everywhere in Skye is near to the ocean, and a view of either coast of Skye is never far away!

As Kim said when we were driving this morning, Skye is a very open place…the hills around most of the roads are more rolling than anything else.  There are also fewer trees than in the rest of Scotland. This place seems ancient, not that we’re qualified to assess any such thing, but that’s the feel I get.

Last night, we went to a castle called Duntulm Castle for dinner.  There is a Hotel called the Duntulm Castle Hotel that overlooks the ocean, and had a simply spectacular view.  They had ales from the Isle of Sky Brewery here, which was really nice.  I was able to try their Red, which I hadn’t tried yet. Dinner was really tasty as well. Medallions of filet, in a whiskey cream sauce.  Mmmmm…

Today, we’ve stopped in Portree on our way to another of the castles in the area. We’re going to see as much on our little trip to Skye as we can in the couple days we are here.

Tomorrow, we’ll be checking out of the local B&B here in Skye, which we’re not all that fond of. The place shares a bathroom with the upper floor, which is not all that uncommon, but it’s annoying when we’ve been used to having a bathroom attached to our room.  (Kim didn’t notice that it didn’t say “en suite”, which is French for….Bathroom in your room, or something.  Anyway, it could be French for, “leave your shower crap in the bathroom”, or “don’t worry about taking a 2.5 hour shower, because this is YOUR bathroom.”  I don’t know French, in case you didn’t know.

Our B&B in Inverness has free wireless Internet, which is good for me, less so for Kim.  She’s going to be severely annoyed with how much time I will spend on it.  (We haven’t been uploading pictures, as the Internet connections we’ve been picking up on so far since Kilmartin have been either flaky, or else I had to use them on someone else’s computer.  We’ll be uploading tons of pictures tomorrow, so be ready.)  :) Uploading pictures takes a LOT of time, so that is what I’m planning tomorrow night.  :)

Well, we’ve finished lunch here at the hotel where I’m stealing Internet, so we’re off!  See you all soon!

Today, we left the Fort William area with some reluctance. The Highlands of Scotland don’t take long to grow on you, and remaining in one place for a couple days, even if you do go all over from that one place, feels somewhat like leaving home. When you stay in an area, you find your favorite places to eat and drink, you talk about stuff you’d like to do there someday, and you get the feel for a place. In Fort William we had discovered the Grog and Gruel, where we ate and drank twice, who had some wonderful Cask Ales on Draught. Very nice place. We had discovered the layout of the city, and we had even attended church there.

Most importantly, though, I really enjoyed staying at Woodside B&B. Andrew and his wife were really wonderful people who made us feel more like we were at home than anywhere we’d been thus far. Andrew spoke with us at length when we arrived, explaining where everything was…told us to get in the fridge if we needed milk for our tea or coffee in the room, and showed us where the TV was if we needed to watch it for anything. He asked us where we’d been and showed real interest when I spoke about Fyne Ales of Argyle. Apparently, he used to brew his own ale back in the day, and had a neighbor who still did. We talked about breweries in the area, and it was he who told us about the Grog and Gruel. He seemed happy to meet another person (especially an American, I think) who loved ale as much as he did.

Our room there was quite large, and everything was wonderful. His lovely wife cooked us pancakes, which made Kim very happy. In fact, Andrew’s wife was from the States, and had lived in Scotland for a decade or so, so we talked about oddities we’d noticed. It was a really lovely time.

The night before our departure date, we were laying in bed reading, when there came a knock at our bedroom door at around 9:30pm. It was exceedingly odd, as B&B hosts tend to leave you to your own business when you’re not down in the common area, but I threw some clothes on and went to the door. There was Andrew, holding a pint glass of ale for me to try. He explained that the boys at the Sailing Club weren’t drinking it, so he picked up an entire cask of a locally brewed ale from Atlas Brewery called Latitude and thought I might like to try it. WOULD I?? lol. I raised the glass to him, took a whiff of the fine floral and citrus aroma and took a mouthful. Though the ale was lighter than I am accustomed to, the flavor exploded in my mouth. It was a very pleasantly hopped brew…not bitter, just everything else you expect from an aromatic and floral hop profile. It was perfect, and I told him so. He seemed pleased, and wished us a pleasant evening. Kim went back to sleep, after we talked a little, and I had a very pleasant evening indeed, having experienced the best of Highland Hospitality right outside my door.

Today, we drove to the Glenfinnan Viaduct, having missed the train ride the previous day. The nice thing about driving there was we got to actually see the steam train go over the viaduct, and Kim got some good pictures of the train. We also went to look at the Highland monument there. The Highland monument was to commemorate when Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the banner of Scotland upon his return. It wasn’t long before Prince Charlie was defeated however, placing Scotland as a distinctly Protestant nation. (The Stuarts were Catholic through and through.) The monument was nice, and Kim also got some good pictures of that.

After Glenfinnan, we decided to head to Mallaig for lunch, where we ate, and I tried my first Isle of Sky brew, which was tasty. (Mallaig is across the channel from the Isle of Skye, but they had a couple of their beers on draught. We didn’t want to mess with paying for the Ferry over to Skye, so we headed back to Fort William and over to Kyle of Lochalsh. This is the LONG way. My advice…don’t drive 4 hours….take the stinkin’ Ferry. However, it was definitely beautiful.

We’re on Skye now, and it is definitely gorgeous, though I think I’ll talk more about Skye later, as I’d like to give it the space it deserves. :) If you’re ever in Fort William, stay at Woodside Bed and Breakfast. It’s well worth it!

Originally, we had planned the whole of today to ride the Jacobite Steam Train from Fort William to Mallaig, stopping in Glenfinnan to see the Highlander Memorial and cross the Glenfinnan Viaduct, as seen in the Harry Potter movies. However, that didn’t pan out, as when we got there, the steam train was full. This was too bad, as we had really been looking forward to that trip. However, an idea struck me.

While we were looking at Castle Stalker, we browsed the gift shop there. In that shop, there was a book entitled Castles. Now, when I see books about Scotland, I always check the index to see if the Dows or the Buchanans are mentioned. The Buchanans are sometimes in there, but the Dows never are…until this book.

In the Castles book, I found that there was a castle built in Scotland called Arnhall Castle in the early 1600’s and it was sold a couple hundred years ago. However, before it was sold, it was held by the Dow family. What’s more, a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed there. (The scene with the Famous Historian, where he is murdered by a knight.) We knew we HAD to visit this castle. The sad thing was that it was near Stirling (which is somewhat in keeping with the link to the Buchanans, since the Buchanan lands are very near Stirling), and we’d already been to Stirling. However, having nothing to do since the train plans were off, we decided to head back to Stirling from Fort William. This was to be a 2.5 hour drive one way, but worth it, as I knew I’d kick myself if I didn’t visit the ruins of an actual Dow castle while I was here.

It turned out to be a VERY good thing that we had the GPS. While it called much of what we traveled “Unnamed Roads”, it would have been impossible to find the castle otherwise. We did some quick Internet searches before leaving our B&B, and all we had in terms of directions to Arnhall Castle was the latitude and longitude coordinates. I input those into our GPS, and Kate quickly plotted us a route. (TomTom names their voices, and the voice we are using is named Kate.) Even with the GPS, there was some confusion as we ended up pretty deep into Keir lands, which is who I think the Dows sold the castle to, eventually.

We ended up at a particular house on the Keir Estate, which said “Drive Slowly”, so we figured they didn’t mind us driving there. However, we approached the estate, and realized that it might be considered bad form if we were to tramp about on their lands without permission, so we knocked on the door. An elderly lady came around the side of the house, looking somewhat startled to see two younger people with American accents asking if they could look at the dumpy ruins of what used to be their family’s castle. However, she gave us some vague directions about it being in the middle of a cow pasture on the right up the road a bit. We took that to be permission and set off.

We turned Kate off, as she appeared to have lost GPS signal, which means she would be of no use to us whatsoever. We began walking, somewhat uphill. We passed a single cow pasture on the right, but there was nothing in it but cows. We saw some ruined walls on the left, but that was a sheep pasture, so we didn’t figure it was that. We walked and walked, until we came to what appeared to be a gate. However, it looked somewhat newish in the center, so we figured we’d probably reached the end of our walk, but we still hadn’t seen the ruins and were starting to get a little bummed about the whole enterprise. We walked around in the forest a little, when Kim saw a small building, but it had glass windows, which wouldn’t have been common in 1617, when the castle was built. And our searches said the place would be in ruins. So we decided to head back. On a whim, I took out Kate and turned her back on. To my delight, she grabbed signal rather quickly, and began giving out directions in her familiar, clipped, British accent. We realized, according to the latitude and longitude coordinates we had given her, that we’d passed the site of Arnhall Castle, so we headed back along the path. When we got to the walls that didn’t appear to be anything special, Kate informed us that we had reached our destination. I was on the Dow ancestral lands.

The castle was indeed in ruins, and there were sheep everywhere around it, but that didn’t stop me from feeling very happy that we had found it, something that few tourists see, and something of my family’s history in Scotland.

Mind you, I don’t know when my branch of the family left Scotland for England, and eventually to the States. It’s likely, and possible, that they left before Arnhall Castle was built. However, the Dow family is all related somehow, and while we were a lowland family, family is important to a Scot, no matter how distant. It’s likely that if the Dow clan of which I am a part had visited the castle when it was still held by the Dows, we would have been welcomed warmly and treated to a wee dram by our distant cousins. In that way, coming to the castle felt good to me. It was something I never expected to experience, even in the Drymen area, and I’m glad we made the drive all the way back to the Stirling area.

(This is all from memory, so I might get some of the details wrong. I read through and heard the story yesterday afternoon, and some of the details are already escaping me…I also have no Internet at the moment to check my facts. However, the gist of the story remains correct. Please feel free to correct me in comments.)

Scotland has never been exceedingly friendly with her neighbor to the south. Oh, as long as England was willing to recognize Scotland as a sovereign nation, they got along fine. It was only when England was asserting her will over her northern neighbors that things got ugly, as they did during the winter of 1692.

In the late 1600’s, William of Orange was King of England and Scotland, but the Jacobites in the highlands of Scotland chafed under his reign. They had only recently been unsuccessful in placing the Stuart line back on the throne in Scotland, and William was concerned that their Jacobite leanings would make for more uprisings, and none of the highland clans were as worrisome to William as were the MacDonalds of Glen Coe. Clan chief Iain MacDonald was as fiery a Scot as was born in Glen Coe, and being Catholic, he didn’t like the Protestant William of Orange.

Eventually, the government issued a decree that any highland clan chief who swore an oath of allegiance to William of Orange would be assured a measure of self-government in their daily dealings. Many clan chiefs signed the oath. MacDonald of Glen Coe was one of the last. As a last measure of defiance, he waited until the very last day, only making his way out of the Glen to Ballachulish on the absolutely last day of the decree, only to find that he actually needed to go up to Inverary to sign. At Inverary, Iain MacDonald found that the local magistrate was away visiting relatives in the south. He was told that he had to go to Fort William to sign the decree. (Fort William, or “an Ghearasdan”, as the Gaelic speakers refer to it, is approximately a half-hour drive through the lovely highlands of Scotland from Glen Coe, and only about 20 from Ballachulish. Iain MacDonald did not have the luxury of driving 60 miles per hour, and his journey was made longer by his circuitous route.) When he arrived at Fort William, he signed the decree, and made his way back to Glen Coe, assured that his signature would guarantee his family’s safety, though it was approximately a week late.

John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, and William of Orange’s secretary of state, hated the highland clans, and most Scots with a passion. He determined that he would not accept Iain MacDonald’s signature and filled out an order sending a contingent of soldiers (mostly from the Campbell clan) to Glen Coe with orders to quarter with the MacDonald’s there.

The Campbells and the MacDonald’s had long stolen cattle from one another, and were as close to enemies of one another as any clans really got. Clans frequently stole cattle from one another, and raided one another’s food stores. It was common practice, though no one usually got hurt. However, the feud between the MacDonalds and the Campbells was an old one, and they distrusted each other immensely.

Soon after Iain’s arrival home to Glen Coe, the Campbell soldiers showed up. Iain did not trust them, but 2 things constrained him from turning the soldiers away:

1. Iain MacDonald had signed the decree, and meant to honor it. He didn’t know if these soldiers were there as sort of a tax on his people that he had not been informed about or what, but he was determined to not be the cause of a break in the decree.
2. The Highland Way is to offer any sojourner food and a dram of whisky. This rule of hospitality was common in all highland clans, and it was this rule that the Campbells invoked upon their arrival.

No matter what their distrust, the MacDonalds welcomed their highland brothers into their homes, quartering the soldiers throughout the settlement of the glen. The mountain passes into the Glen Coe settlement were pretty well snowed in, so the Campbells were stuck in the Glen whether they wanted to be there or not. However, accounts relate that the soldiers and families of the glen made the best of it. No matter what the differences in the past, their common ancestry and practices took over and they were soon jesting and arguing about methods for brewing and distilling uisge beatha (water of life…a.k.a. whisky), and what breeds of cattle were the hardiest. They sang and told stories around the fire at night. They drank, and they renewed the bond of brotherhood between highlander and highlander.

John Dalrymple had plans for those soldiers, however. They were there to gain the trust of MacDonald. When the passes were clear enough to get a messenger to Glen Coe, Master John sent his orders to the commanding officer there.

The orders were simple: Kill everyone in Glen Coe, leaving no man woman or child alive. Do not bother the King with prisoners.

Only 38 men, including Iain MacDonald, were killed that day. Whether some of the soldiers refused to carry out thier grisly orders, or the Glen Coe natives just knew too many ways out of the glen, there were those who survived. The fact remains that many of the men DID carry out their orders; after wintering with the MacDonalds and receiving the cup of fellowship from their hands, and the warm bread and meat from their hearths, they turned and slaughtered those to whom they had pledged friendship.

To this day, there is a distinct anti-Campbell feeling among many Scots. The Campbells also fought against their brothers at Culloden, I believe, where the Scottish armies were massacred by the English. While everyone is a member of the United Kingdom now, get a Scot who is interested in history to talk about Culloden or Glen Coe, and you’ll definitely hear a disparaging word or three against the Campbells, to this day.

Even Scots abroad have this feeling when they have never been a native Scot. My wife’s family is close to another family in town. When my wife (then my girlfriend) was telling this family about me before I had met them, she mentioned that I was Scottish in ancestry. One of the patriarchs of the family who we call “Pa” said, “He’s not a Campbell, is he?” He remembered Glen Coe. He remembered the massacre.

We went to Glen Coe today, and the majesty of the glen is tough to forget…as is what happened there in 1692. It is a symbol of why the Scots are now a part of the U.K. I believe, as do many, that the Scots could have remained a sovereign country had they banded together and fought with their legendary passion and spirit. I believe that by force of will, they could have turned back the English and remained free. But they did not band together. The clan way fragmented any force that could have opposed the English. The Campbells were not the only clan who were lured by the English’s promise of lands and power. Many clansmen refused to fight under a leader from an opposing clan. Unity was the one thing that their Clan System made difficult, and without a single charismatic leader, such as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Robert the Bruce, or William Wallace, the Scots fragmented into their smaller clans, and made the work of the English all that easier.

It’s easy for me to sit here in the highlands of Scotland and criticize what they could not do. The fact remains that the English murdered many Scots. This was not the end of English cruelty to the Scots, either. Before I return to the States, I’ll write of the Battle of Culloden Moor, and the beginning of the Highland Clearances. That is another of Scotland’s tragic stories.