Somewhere and sometime back I had read about the Scottish Highlands as being a pure and unadulterated terrain of stunning beauty and a land of Glens and Lochs.. I had the good fortune of seeing it firsthand this last week when I holidayed in Northern Highlands with my wife and inlaws and my co sister's parents.
We started off with a brief stop at the Lakes in Cumbria (Windermere) for some picnic breakfast before driving to Edinburgh along the scenic route. A great drive across northern Cumbria and Yorkshire before getting to Scotland. After spending a couple of days in Edinburgh, drove to a small village on the outskirts of Alness about 25 miles north of Inverness.
As Charles Nicole said,
Oh, Scotland fair. Land of the free,
Where we've got the Thistle so dear,
Likewise the Lily, the Hawthorn Tree,
An' the sparkling water so clear
Everywhere we went we saw a country full of sparkling waters, Thistles and Hawthorne trees that took our breath away. The drive up to Durness was stunning for the sheer geography of the terrain. The smoo Caves were stunning and though we missed our chance to explore the caves, we did get a view of the stunning waterfalls inside the caves.
Truly for me I quote
"An' tho' I yet may be from home,
However far that it may be,
Thro' all the places that I roam,
Scotland will still be dear to me"
