Spectacular Scotland
Wellies and umbrellas are a mainstay of spectacular Scotland. We had no Wellies but we certainly made use of our umbrellas often throughout our visit to Scotland this summer.
Pat and I have enjoyed our two hiking trips to Europe with Backroads in the past so we signed up for the week long hiking trip to the Western Highlands. Once again, we had a ball.
We flew to Glasgow and then traveled to Inverness the following day where we would be meeting up with our small hiking group. Inverness is regarded as the capital of the Scottish Highlands and the happiest place in Scotland. It may be because it is built around the gorgeous River Ness.
Our trip began in the rugged and wild countryside just north of Torridon. Our first long hike took us up between Laithach and the famous Beinn Eighe, a massive ben (mountain) where I saw dramatic landscape of soaring pinnacles, cliff and valleys formed by glacial erosion.
One of my favorite hikes was up an old hunters' tracking route toward Loch (Lake) an Eoin with red summit of Maol Chean-dearg mountain reflected in the water.
In the Isle of Skye, we walked along stunning coastline and up to a high point with soaring vistas of the Cuillin Hills and the Scottish mainland.
After our hiking trip, we headed to Scotland's second largest city, Edinburgh. The city's historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdom's second most popular tourist destination, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. We loved walking in the Old Town and checking out the views of the city from high locales.
A highlight of our trip there was climbing Arthur's Seat with Pat, Jay, our son and Molly, our niece; both joined us for a few fun-filled days in Edinburgh. Molly took the fun photo below of our family at the top of a very windy Arthur's Seat.
We ended our trip where we began it, in Glasgow. We loved visiting the Riverside Museum of Transport designed by Zaha Hadid, and one of the oldest Colleges in the world, the University of Glasgow. Below also see one of the many bridges in Glasgow over flowing water.
We even got to see Orographic, a new outdoor performance from leading physical theatre performance troupe Oceanallover fusing otherworldly choreography, live music and sculptural costume design inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s landscape paintings and humankind’s relationship to mountains. It was a truly wild performance, both mesmerizing and haunting as they traipsed through the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Combining a week of hiking with a week or so of sightseeing was ideal; we heartily recommend it.