Oban and the Isle of Mull
The Pictures!
Monday, April 7, 2003 (cont.)
Our first stop from Kyle was Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most recognized castles in Scotland. Both the movies Highlander and The World is Not Enough (gee, Dad, how's that for two of your favorites?) were filmed there! It's very pretty and is chock full of family things, because the MacRae family still owns it. I'm not exactly sure how often they stay in it though. Even though the castle dates back to the 13th century, it was restored in the 1920s as a summer home for the MacRaes. (See pictures) We got a discounted tour for being with MacBackPackers. From there we started the trek towards Fort William, making a stop at Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. More people die attempting to climb it every year than on Mount Everest! This is only because most are fooled by the climate as you head farther up, and many start climbing in shorts and tee-shirts. Mari and Deanna are planning on going back in May to climb it, fully prepared of course! We also saw a loch shaped like Scotland along the way to Fort William (see picture). We stopped at the Fort William hostel to drop people off and pick up more people who were heading to Oban. Our next stop was Glen Coe, site of the horrible 1692 MacDonald massacre (read more by clicking that link). This was by far the prettiest part of section that we had seen so far, and my favorite. Our guide Graham just parked the bus on the side of the road and sent us exploring for an hour. There was a great waterfall across the road that I explored with Emily, a friend we made along the way. Deanna and Mari started climbing and never looked back (see picture). Emily and I climbed up a little bit, but mostly sat and took in the views. It was wonderful there. By this time is was pretty late, around 6:30 or 7, so we piled back into the bus and made towards Oban. We stopped really quickly at a castle that someone lives in for pictures, and then were on our way again. We got to the Oban hostel around 8 and settled in. Most people were leaving the very next morning for Edinburgh so no one stayed out very late. (And since we left so early the next morning, we didn't get to say good-bye to our new friends!) We made dinner in the huge kitchen and attempted to play Hearts, but that didn't work so well. Traveling is very tiring!
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
This was only only full day in Oban and we really wanted to explore the Isle of Mull, right off the shore. We found out the night before that the first ferry over leaves at 7:45 so we got up early and headed over to the dock. To our dismay, all passengers are required to be on board at least 10 minutes beforehand. So as we arrived, the ferry was already pulling away. So we went to the ticket window and got out tickets for the next one at 10. Since we had a lot of time to kill, we climbed up to McCaig's Tower, which crowns Oban as you can see in that link. It looks exactly like the Colosseum in Rome and the view was very nice. We had the place to ourselves since it was so early. We each climbed into our own little window/section and enjoyed the sights. We went back to the dock and boarded the ferry, which was huge! We got seats on the top and it was one very cold, windy trip over! When we got off on Mull, I think we were expecting a town or something, but there were only a lot of coach buses for the senior citizen tour groups and a TIC. So we went in and asked what we could do some such a nice day. The girl suggested two castles that were up the road, only about 4 or 5 miles. We got the info and headed off. The first one, Torosay Castle, was only a mile away, after a lovely little "Forest Walk." We took the tour, and the inside reminded me of Eilean Donan, since the family still lives there (on the restricted top floors) and all their pictures and heirlooms are displayed. There are also lovely gardens surrounding the whole place so we wandered around those for awhile, and ate our lunch overlooking the fountain. Walking up the road further, through lots of farm land with hairy coos (see pictures), we finally reached Duart Castle. It's right on the coast (we had seen it from the ferry) and so Mari decided she'd rather explore that than go inside the castle. Again, it's another family castle, home of the MacLean clan, and chock full of family history goodness. Both the movies Entrapment (with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones) and When Eight Bells Toll (with Anthony Hopkins) were filmed here and they had great pictures from the filming process. It took awhile to actually find Sean but we did! :o) We walked back to Craignure to catch the ferry back and dealt with crazy, sugar-high kids whose moms kept giving them money for more candy. Erg. Anyways, we got back, found the giant Tesco, got dinner supplies, and made a lovely curry dinner. We even splurged and went to see Catch Me if You Can. Tomorrow we were off to Glasgow!
Wednesday, April 9, 2003
Since there was no MacBackPackers hostel in Glasgow (grrrrr) open this time of the year, we were on our own for transportation. We inquired about train tickets and found it was just about the same price as the bus. We still had a little while before it was scheduled to leave, so we walked up the road out of Oban to check out the "haunted castle." It was nothing spectacular, so we came back and ended up shopping in Tesco, which had a clothing section. We caught the train, got our table seats, and played cards. The trip was uneventful, but now we were in Glasgow!
How did we fare from here? Click and find out!
Next Stop -Glasgow!
Go Back to: Pitlochry - Inverness and Loch Ness - The Isle of Skye
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