Roads and Ruins; 3 days riding Scotland.

[repo]

seeing the catherdrals reminded me of "pillars of the earth" by Ken Follett


can't wait to ride over there....

[stevebtx12]

Awesome pics and a great report! Thanks for sharing...

[dwayne]

And more whisky!

On the ride over to Dallas Dhu, I took a wrong turn. Even though I realized it early only time and low fuel kept me from continuing down this beautiful little road.













Dallas Dhu was a small distillery that hadn't been extensively updated for over a hundred years, until it shut down permanently in 1983. It was taken over by Historic Scotland (a foundation that also preserves many castles and other significant properties) and they turned it into a whisky museum. The pagoda style roofs that you see are the malt drying kilns, which means that they actually made their own malt. The more modern distilleries now buy their malt. Malt was dried on screens over peat fires.











I continued on to Culloden. It was at Culloden where the fight for a Scotland independent from England came to an end in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie was defeated in battle.











The line of blue flags represent the Jacobite lines, there are red on the other side of the field to represent the English lines.



Some of the heather by the interpretive center was still in full bloom.



My vision of riding into the quaint town of Inverness ended abruptly in a traffic jam. It turns out Inverness is a city, so I turned and rode out of Inverness to the west. I fount a B&B near Contin with a view of the Highlands in the distance.



This ended day two.

[gaspipe]

Beautiful.

[8Superman]

I love Scotland. The castles are awsome!

[Sod Buster]

Great pics, and report, thanks!

[FotoTEX]

Just returned from Scotland, with the weak dollar it is around $9.00 per gallon. But worth it. Scenery makes us for high fuel price. Also excellent scotch. Weather can always be iffy, but adds tp romance of the place.

[tuckerdt]

I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and appreciate the information regarding bike rental in Cupar. I visit family about once a year in Dundee, Milnathort, and Kirkcaldy, and always think about renting a motorcycle instead of a car. Now I'm thinking I could have a cousin pick me up at the airport, go to Dundee and drop off my luggage, then go over to Cupar and rent a bike. It all seems so simple. So, thanks for the great inspiration!

[ThumperDRZ]

Amazing pictures - with medieval history to boot.....Thanks for the tour

[Chr!s]

[quote=dwayne]After a huge breakfast, I headed off to find the ruins of Elgin Cathedral. Fortunately a wrong turn sent me in the direction of Lossiemouth. Lossiemouth is a quaint fishing town. Notice that I didn't say quiet. There is an RAF base there, and another two or three close by.





Fantastic pics!! I spent 12 years working at RAF Lossiemouth and you've just taken me right back. I used to love hooning around the same roads you've just explored. There's a flat just to the left of the The Clifton bar where i used to stay, very convenient my head hurts thinking about it. Happy days

[dwayne]

Dang it! I always forget at least one picture.

This is a still from Dallas Dhu



After another huge breakfast, I decided to continue west to wards Ullapol. It was a good choice. After following the river, the road winds it way into the Highlands.

It was cold enough that I had to wipe the frost off the seat in the morning, but it looked like it might be clearish to the west.















The higher I got, the more spectacular it became

[jimmydeanh]

[dwayne]

Time forced my to turn around before seeing the ocean. I cut the corner to avoid Inverness and went through Clannich to get to Drumnadrochit. Drumnadrochit is the closest town the Castle Urquhart.







The flag you see below flies at many locations in Scotland, and is it's flag. It is sometimes called the Saltire, for the cross that St. Andrew (Scotland's patron saint) was crucified on, as legend has it, sideways. The old golf town of St. Andrews is, of course, named for the saint.





On the way in you find this trebuchet that was built sometime around 2000 for a TV special on siege engines.



The lake you see behind the castle is the famous Loch Ness.





Castle Urquhart is a busy place, it gets buzzed by RAF Tornados at 200 feet off the deck and has piles of people visiting it.



But like any place, if you poke around in the corners and bide your time, you can make the place look deserted and peaceful.





The weather was typically Scottish. Cool and showery one second and sunny the next. By the time I got to the top of the tower the clouds had lowered and it was difficult to get a good picture.









I headed back to Drumnadrochit for food and fuel

[touche]

My God.... is it on earth ?

Marvelous pisctures, what am atypic ride

[battep]

Fantastic pics , so much more vivid than the Scotland I travelled through, the cloud never seemed to get more than 10 feet off the ground.