The first weekend of October the IFSA Butler team organized a trip for our program to go on a tour through the highlands. It was jam packed with activities and we were on a tight schedule trying to get to all of the scheduled destinations.
We departed from Edinburgh at 7:30 am Friday morning and headed North. Our first stop was the Hermitage, Dunkeld to hike to a waterfall on the River Braan.
We departed from the waterfall and continued to drive North, stopping in Pitlochry for lunch. We then arrived at Blair Castle, which is said to have been started in 1269. Inside the castle, all of the rooms were decorated with most of the same furniture that was used in the house. It was decorated beautifully with extravagant moldings and embroideries. It looked exactly like the castle in Downton Abbey. There were also beautiful gardens with a big pond, and several statues.
After we departed Blair Castle, we had a 2 hour drive to our hostel in Inverness. The hostel, which was more like a hotel, was huge and able to accommodate all 110 of us! We had pizza delivered to the hostel for dinner and walked into town to explore Inverness.
The next morning, we departed the hostel for Culloden Battlefield, the site of the last pitched battle to place in the United Kingdom in 1746. The English defeated the Jacobite soldiers, all members of several different Scottish clans, and kilts and bagpipes were ban in Scotland for years to come.
We then traveled to Leault Farm to watch a sheepdog display and learn more about Scottish farming. Neil had 24 sheepdogs that he trained himself, all with individual whistle commands. The dogs can gather the sheep and keep them together from the walk back to the barn. Neil also competes with his dogs. The competition includes one dog having to slalum 3 sheep in between cones in the fastest amount of time. Neil is the most decorated trainer in all of Scotland and has won over 50 competitions. Neil's wife is American. She was studying abroad in Scotland and decided she wanted to stay and live on a farm. She ended up marrying Neil and they now have 3 kids, and all 24 dogs are welcome in the house. I can't imagine how much dog hair must be in that house. At the end of the demonstration, they brought out puppies that were only 2 weeks old!
After the sheep farm, we went to the town of Aviemore, UK's most visited ski resort during the winter months, for lunch. We then departed for the Glenfiddich Whiskey distillery, where we got a tour of the distillery, learned about how they brewed their whiskey, and had a taste testing. Glenfiddich is now the world's best selling single malt. It is sold in 180 countries and makes up 35% of all global single malt sales.
After the distillery, we returned to the hostel, quickly changed and departed for dinner as a group. All 110 of us were able to eat in the same restaurant, although, it wasn't one I will be taking my parents back to! After dinner, we hung out in the hostel for the night.
Our last activity on our tour through the highlands was a cruise on the Loch Ness, which is the deepest and 2nd largest loch in Scotland. We were all on the lookout for Nessie, the loch ness monster, though there were no sightings of her.
On our way back down to Edinburgh, we stopped at Glencoe and had a beautiful view of the Three Sisters.
It was a great trip, with good weather and tons of things to see. It got even better when 30 minutes into the drive home, someone puked on the bus............
pictures from Norway and Dublin to come soon!!
