Scotland

Isle of Iona

Saint Columba founded an early Christian settlement on this tiny island in 563 AD. It is regarded as the ‘Sacred Isle’, the birth place of Christianity. In 600 AD a Celtic tribe, later known as the Scots, reached Scotland from Ireland. Shakespeare’s Macbeth was killed at the battle of Lumphanan in 1057 by King Malcolm III who, together with his English queen, Margaret, founded a dynasty of Scottish rulers. On the Isle of Iona are the ruins of a Benedictine Nunnery and the burial place of 48 Scottish Kings including the infamous Macbeth.

Atlantic Bridge

There is a bridge in Scotland, built in 1792, called the Atlantic Bridge. It traverses where the Atlantic tidal waters meet the Clachan Sound and is located south-west of Oban in County Argyll. It connects the west coast of Scotland with the Island of Seil which is the birthplace of Princess Diana’s mother.

Just over the bridge is the Tigh an Truish Inn. The name means house of the trousers and comes from the period after the 1745 rebellion (Bonnie Prince Charlie attempted to regain the English throne for the Catholic Stuarts) when kilts were banned. This was the place where islanders heading for the mainland were said to have swapped their kilts for trousers.

Glasgow Cathedral

The city of Glasgow grew up around the Cathedral founded by St. Mungo in the 6th century. This Cathedral was the only Scottish one on the mainland to survive the Reformation (break from the Papacy) intact. It is regarded as a perfect example of pre-Reformation Gothic architecture. The site was blessed for Christian burial in 397 by St. Ninian. In the following century St Mungo guilt a simple church. The current building dates from the early 13th century. The title “Cathedral” is still used historically, however, now it is the center for the Church of Scotland.

Castle Urquhart and Loch Ness

Castle Urquhart, Loch Ness

Between 1200 and 1600 Castle Urquhart served as a magnificent Medieval fortress on Loch Ness, rising from the Great Glen. It’s history, like most of Scotland’s, is bloody and the castle changed hands between the English and Scottish many times as well as being the subject of skirmishes and invasions by Scottish clans particularly the Grants and MacDonalds. In 1689 the last Stewart King James VII of Scotland was exiled and the Grants sided with William of Orange and held off a garrison of Jacobite supporters. When the Grant soldiers left they destroyed the castle to prevent the Jacobite reoccupation. The castle was never repaired and between plundering and weather it was reduced over the next few hundred years to ruin.