Day 3

We spent most of our third day making it back to Edinburgh. But we did stop a few times. Highlights: the beatiful Glencoe. This glen used to be a MacDonald village inhabited by hundereds of people. The story of the end of that village goes that the King of England was annoyed at the MacDonald leaders for being slow to sign something stating their devotion to him. So he asked the men of the Cambell clan to go kill them. That Winter, the Cambells came to Glencoe and asked for shelter. The families kindly took them in, but after a few days, in the middle of the night, they got up and murdered everyone they could find. You can still see the old road that ran through the village, but all the homes were burned. It's a very sad story, but a beautiful valley.














Next, we stopped to hear this piper play:














Finally, we went to the Wallace Monument. The Victorians built this in honor of William Wallace during a time when old Highland Scotland was being romanticized. It's a pretty big tower at the top of a big hill:




















I didn't go inside (too expensive), but it was still pretty neat. After that, we drove home. I went straight to Edinburgh University Theatre Company auditions, which was stressful. I ended up getting a part in a one-woman show! More on that later...

Bascially, I recommend visiting the highlands. I've never been so in love with any place I've ever seen. It's uniquely beautiful and all the history makes it even more magical. Even if that history is bascially people killing each other. I have even more stories of violence, English/Scottish, clan/clan and Scottish/Viking, but I won't bore you. Suffice it to say I had an awesome trip.