Today was a day-long tour around the island. We started out by heading towards the Old Man of Stor – supposedly a part of the giant that instead of protecting his people made a deal with the devil to control the minds of mortal men. The other giants, the good ones, came and killed him with the help of men, and Satan came to claim his soul and the Old Man of Stor rock formation is what remains of the giant Stor. We could have done an extended hike up the hill, but a bunch of the girls didn’t wear appropriate footwear and Ewan said that it wouldn’t be safe. I was super pissed at the girls wearing fashion boots and heeled wedges to a day when we were supposed to be hiking all over the island.
Anyways, we took some lovely pictures, the waterfall was supposed to be a fairy waterfall, and then moved on to another river. This river is said to be in the same mountains where the Scottish warrior queen Scáthach trained heroes. There are a great many legends and such about the area and the queen, but after our guide told us the story, he said that the river was supposedly renown for keeping people looking young and beautiful if they put their faces in. And because he wouldn’t ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do, he stuck his head in the river for 7 seconds. And yes, I stuck my head in the river for 7 seconds. Hopefully I’ll be beautiful! I was one of only 4 people (all the rest guys) who actually stuck their heads in the water. When I asked one of the Australian girls why she didn’t she replied that she would have, except she spent half an hour blow-drying her hair that morning. Really people. Who is it exactly that you’re trying to impress. We’re in the highlands of Scotland here people. So anyway.
Our next stop was in the little town of Portree (Scot’s Gaelic for “King’s Port” – where Charles I (?) came ashore to make the highlanders pledge allegiance) where I did some shopping. I bought myself something called a Heather Gem. Heather gems are made by collecting the stalks of the heather plant, cleaning them, dying them, and then using 80 tons of pressure to cement them into a stone-like block. The block is then cut, rounded, laquered, and placed into jewelry as a heather gem. So I’ll always have a little piece of Scotland with me.
Our next stop was at a place called kilt rock. It was by the sea and some very lovely cliffs and there was a rock that looked a lot like a kilt. The rock was formed by cooling lava, as a lot of Scotland used to be volcanic. We were then given and awesome demonstration of kilt folding and wearing. The long kilts, the ones we were shown, had pleats in the back (like the more commonly worn short kilts) to keep things warm in winter and cool in summer (air pockets in the pleats) and a lot of extra fabric that was pinned over the shoulders. This could be pulled over the head and the back greased with animal fat therefore providing camoflage and a rain slicker. Additionally, the extra would be fashioned into various pockets to hold things or a back-pack like device to carry children or large game. The little bag worn in front would be used to carry oats, which if they didn’t get wet would last forever. Back in the day, the oats would be pressed into shape under the armpit of the man about to eat them. Not only did this provide a convenient shape to eat the oats, but the man’s sweat would add salt that he had lost during his time in the wild. Yum yum. If the man needed more fuel and couldn’t afford to kill his cow, he would take a knife and cut the cow enough to make it bleed, mix the blood and oats, cook it up, and eat the blood pudding, thereby getting the same nutrients as he would from a steak. I tried blood pudding. It didn’t agree with me. But all in all, a very education and fun experience. Additionally, the Scots could remove their kilts by untying just one knot. Very handy, according to our guide.
From kilt rock we drove up a huge mountain to take some pictures and grab some coffee. I found a lamb and he seemed to be kind of hurt – he was limping – so we took pictures of and with him. We got back to the bus and there was a border collie on it scaring the Chinese girls up front. So I took a picture of that too. Then it was back down the mountain to a castle at the northern-most point of the island.
The castle had belonged to the MacDonald clan, but a particularily nasty chief came to power and through a series of terrible happenings, his only son was thrown out the window of the castle by a maid and killed on the rocks below. The clan chief had killed her child so that she would only nurse his. Apparently she didn’t like this plan. It’s said that because he abused love (of a MacCloud woman), beat her so badly she lost an eye, and sent her back as ‘damaged goods’, every generation there is a MacDonald born with only one eye. My camera ran out of batteries at this point which was a huge shame because our next stop (after a bathroom break at a curiosity exhibit) was the fairie glen.
This was probably my favorite stop of the day. The fairie glen is surrounded by exceptionally strange hills with lots of little mounds all over them in concentric circles. The largest and rockiest hill is said to be the fairie castle. A local man, hundreds of years ago, was said to believe in them so much that he went to play the bagpipes in front of the castle all the time, hoping they would invite him in. He was such an extraordinary piper, the fairies did come out and invite him to play. They asked him if he knew the rules and he said yes, yes, I want to come in. But after 6 solid days of playing, he simply couldn’t play anymore and asked the fairies to leave. He noticed on his walk home that things looked a little different. He had twice as many animals, things were slightly shabbier, and the door was a different color. When he knocked on his door, an exceptionally old woman opened it. She was his great-great granddaughter. While it had only been 6 days in the fairie world, 200 years had passed in the world outside.
Our guide showed us the spiral circle that if you wanted to make a wish you walked the spiral to the center, left a gift for the fairies, and then walked out backwards. Awesomely enough, my camera revived for about 5 seconds and I took some photos blindly (the display wouldn’t turn on – not enough juice), which I was very happy about. Just about everyone made a wish and we ended up getting back to the bus very late. Ewan wasn’t too worried about it, as long as no one took anything from the glen. The things there belong to the fairies and they get very upset when things are taken. A couple years back an American girl took a rock from the glen and awhile after her tour the company received a letter containing the rock, begging them to put it back for her. She’d had nothing but absolutely terrible luck since taking it. Two weeks later they received an email thanking them for putting it back. They hadn’t let her know that they returned it, her luck had just changed overnight.
After the glen we headed back to the hostel. I made a little dinner for myself and did some reading and charged my electronics. I stopped off at the pub to say hi to everyone but didn’t feel like staying. Andy and I ended up walking down by the shore trying to find the seals and otters that supposedly beach there. We didn’t see any but I collected some great shells. Afterwards, fleeing from the midgee death, we headed back to the hostel. I took a quick shower and turned in for the night, as the next day had an early start as we headed back to Edinburgh.
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