A Truly Impressive View

It may sound strange, but one of my favourite parts of our trip to Scotland was our drive across the country. There are some truly impressive landscapes in Scotland and I’m not sure I can do justice to them with words. A picture really is worth a thousand.

After our trip to Dunnotar Castle, we spent the night in Aberdeen. The next morning we departed for Urquhart, but we decided to take a longer route to see more of the country. We drove all the way north to Inverness, then back south along Loch Ness.

The dominating feature of Scotland is its mountains. They are everywhere and they are fantastic. Sometimes they jut out of a flat space, flat on top but sheer on the sides, covered in brilliant green grass.

Sometimes they’re craggy and capped with snow.

But they’re always awe-inspiring.

I can’t count the number of times we looked out the window and marvelled at the unbelievable landscape passing outside the car windows. It makes me wonder if the people who live there ever start to regard their landscape as normal and boring.

Perhaps even more impressive than the mountains were the occasional houses that popped out of nowhere. I can only imagine how wonderful it must be to live in a house with a mountain looming in your back yard and rolling open fields in the front. My friend Rowena is particularly fond of the idea of a house surrounded by all of nature’s wonders, so we turned it into a game. Every time we found one of those lonely houses with an impressive backdrop, we told her we’d found the perfect home for her.

(Rowena’s future house.)

Not far from Urquhart, we stopped at a cafe and gift shop for lunch. It was a fantastic little tourist spot with a metal Nessie statue out front where we posed for pictures. And inside they sold all manner of little Nessies. Needless to say, I brought one home. I think my favourite part was the weather stone.

We spent the afternoon at the Castle, then headed for Glasgow. There were plenty of interesting sights left on our journey, including a narrow road next to the loch that was under construction. It seemed a little dicey to us and I think we’re all glad we don’t have to traverse such roads on a regular basis. Late in the trip we passed through a moor, once more full of soaring mountains, but also sporting a brown, saturated landscape we hadn’t seen elsewhere.

We drove for miles through the middle of nowhere, but weren’t surprised to find a few houses sprinkled through the desolate landscape.

(Not Rowena’s future house.)

We ended our road trip in Glasgow, where we spent the night. We visited a fabulous restaurant called Bothey’s and on the way back to the hotel I found my first and only Tardis outside of Wales. During our brief stay, Scotland imparted to us a great many memories. It found a place deep in my heart, and there it will always stay. If money were no object, I would live among those soaring green mountains in a moment. There’s something about that place that makes my muse sing as soon as I breathe the cool mountain air. Without a doubt, my husband and I agreed we had to return to Scotland at least once before we left England. And so we did.

(Apparently it’s an ice cream stand in the summer.)