7th – 9th Aug 2005
"Which language is that?” should be the question in you mind when you read the subject of the mail. Well, friends its the good old english but Scottish 'Highland' English. Thats where we (along with Yash, Sapna & Smita) had been to this long bank holiday weekend - The Scottish highlands and lowlands.
On friday after office we left Reading and reached Edinburgh on Saturday morning via London. Once we checked into the rooms which we had reserved beforehand, we freshened up and left for the Princes Mall. Here we plainly roamed around, had pizza and had a long walk of the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile in Edinburgh is so called because it has the Queen's official residence at one end and the street stretches exactly for a mile. The Royal mile is made up of a lot of street artistes displaying their various skills - music, throwing fire in air, standing still like a statue and drawing caricatures - and pretty little shops which sell Scottish stuff. Following the walk with a lovely dinner we retired early as "tomorrow was a long day".
Sunday early morning we left Edinburgh by the Timber bush Tours for a tour of "Inverness, Lochness, Glencoes and the Highlands". Our guide was a scot by the name of Robert, who had a very good knowledge of Scottish history. We passed through a lot of Kirks (Scottish word for Church or Wayside Chapel) and Lochs (Lakes are known as this !!). The history about the famous rivalry between the clans - MaCgregors and Campbells is absolutely riveting to hear. The Campbells supposedly invited the MaCgregors clan heads for a holiday and killed all the 40 of them during the night. This germinated hatred towards the Campbells by the MaCgregors that continues even to this day. One American student was denied a room (last year!!!) in a hotel because the hotel was run by a MaCgregor and the student was a campbell. We stopped for breakfast at a small restaurant where a Hamish (a big mountain bison) was being bred. After breakfast we moved towards Glencoe - a nice open land (Glen = Open land) among the mountains. We passed through the beautiful Stirling Castle. With the drizzling rain on the outside and music of bagpipes and drums this ride was a very memorable one. The scots, like us Indians, have a different song for different occasion. Every time Robert used to play a song he used to tell the meaning of the song and the occasion when it is sung, which made us to enjoy the song more.
After Glencoe we moved towards the famous Loch ness - where the mysterious Nessie has been sighted many times. Enroute we passed the huge Caledonian Canel which is made up of three Loch - Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and the Loch Ness (Caledonia is the name given to Scotland by the Romans). The most astonishing part was that the water in Loch Ness is black in colour !!! We took a cruise on LochNess to the Uruqhart Castle. This castle is a total ruin but the cruise was an enjoyable one. Luckily for us the sun was beaming at us in full glory and so we were lucky to reach back the bus without dripping wet. Unluckily we were unable to see the famous Nessie though we all purchased momentos to remind us of Nessie. Taking the coach again we headed towards Fort Augustus - a small industrial town in the highlands and from there to Inverness. Inverness is the last city when we go northward from Edinburgh into the north region of Scotland. There are a lot many small towns after this but no cities. After a roundup of Inverness we headed back home via Invergarry and Perth. Enroute we had small snack stop at one of the village pubs. Here we saw both goals scored by Manchester United against Newcastle and had vegetable samosas !!! We reached back Edinburgh and felt richer with the knowledge of Scottish highlands.
Monday morning was comparatively cooler than sunday, in the sense we had to leave at 09:45. The tour we were going was "The Rosalyn Chapel, Da Vinci Code, Myths & Mysteries". Our guide was Calon, a staunch supporter of the Templar Knights. To begin with we went to the famous Rosalyn Chapel where the Holy Grail is supposedly present. To understand the mystery of the chapel it is essential to know the history of the Holy Grail. Most of the history is mentioned in Dan Brown's famous novel "Da Vinci Code". The Templar Knights were the warriors who started off with helping people moving from one place to another and protecting them from robbers. In due course of time they became very very rich - infact, richer than the king. The Sinclair Clan was one of the templar knights and it was the Sinclair clan who built the Rossalyn Chapel. For years together this chapel was a private place of worship for the Sinclair clan. Before the chapel was built the Holy Grail was supposed to have moved from King Solomon Caves to the Rossalyn Chapel. The Holy Grail is not a cup (as many still presume) but the holy lineage of Jesus Christ. According to the Templars the Holy Grail is the body of James (supposedly the son of Jesus). Calon says that the chapel was built with a purpose and the purpose is to maintain the lineage (in other words - The Holy Grail) intact. There is a big vault under the chapel where the Grail is supposed to be currently present. No one is allowed to enter the vault because though everyone knows about it - no one has found it. The bible (I havent read it but this is what he said) talks about the second coming and the change of the world's order after the second coming. According to the Templars the "second coming" has been mis-interpreted by many. The second coming is the re-birth of the lineage and the Templar Knights are ensuring this by patronising the Rosalin Institute which is just 2 miles away from the chapel. This institute was in the news in recent times - The institute where Dr.Wilmut successfully cloned Dolly, the sheep. The Templar Knights are waiting for the day when Human will be successfully cloned after which the grail will be used to continue the lineage of Jesus Christ and the Second Coming to be achieved!!!! Most of the part of Da Vinci Code is repeated but the ending. After the mysterious Chapel of Rossalyn we went around the town of Rosalin and then headed to a lowland town of Pebbles. A town which can be called as the Quintessential English Town, we had our lunch here and then headed onto a Wishcavaer distillery. Wishcavaer is the Scottish term for Malt Whisky. We went to the Glenkinchie distillery - a lowland malt distillery. We took a tour of the facility, saw how fresh barley is converted into alcohol of aroudn 80% and also took a taste of the famous scotch whisky of Scotland. Returning back to our rooms by around 2000, we checked out and left Edinburgh for Reading by the 2200 coach, exhausted to the core but enriched by the rich history of the Scottish Highlands and enthralled by the mystery of the lowlands.
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