Pupletts in Sweden: Scotland and England - Part 3 - Clootie Wells, Loch Ness, Urquhart, Eilean Donan and Isle of Skye (31 Mar)

Day three started with us waking up at the "Clootie Well" car park. We'd had a good night sleep and after breakfast, I decided to find out what a Clootie Well was.

It turns out that a Clootie Well is a place of pilgrimage in Celtic Areas, a well or a spring that is used to make prayers to saints, nature spirits or goddess. In Celtic, a Clootie is a strip of cloth or a rag.

In order to make a prayer, the pilgrim dips the rag, or cloth in the spring and then ties it around a tree. When the rag rots away, any illness the person has is said to disappear also.

While the kids and Kris finished breakfast and began preparing the motorhome for the next day, I checked out the spring.

Camped

There were a few cloths tied to trees along the path up to the springs

The path

As I started walking there were a few cloths tied up, some brightly coloured strips of shirt, or socks. There wasn't too much though and I was thinking about heading back


Then there started to be more..

and more...

And then I actually hit the spring site... Wow!

The spring

It started to look like Tomas' room after he is told to put his clothes away...

My contribution - a small strip of handkerchief

I'm glad no-one saw the area before we camped (it was dark) as it probably would have freaked the kids out, but it was a pretty cool sight.

With one final glance over our shoulder, we were off towards Loch Ness..

Heading out of the Highlands

Another of Scotland's lovely two-way roads

This rather blurry sign says "Welcome to Loch Ness"

Loch Ness


Loch Ness

Loch Ness

To answer the question before it is asked: No, we did not see any Loch Ness Monsters, the only monsters were the three in the back of the motorhome arguing over who had stolen who's sock. It was easy to see how the rumours could have started though - the Loch is situated on a fault line and is very deep (~230m deep). Because of the tributaries that flow into it, the water is very silty and visibility is only a few cm below the surface. In addition, the water is never still, instead small wavelets pop up in all directions, making dark lumps as they rise and fall.

The Scots definitely take advantage of the tourism though, you can buy stuffed Nessies, snow globes, pewters models and even "Wanna see my monster" condoms.

Loch Ness exhibition centre

Situated on Loch Ness is the beautiful castle ruin of Urquhart Castle. Originally the site of a Pictish fort, Urquhart was built around 1230 by the Durward family who were put in place by Alexander II. t was captured by Edward I of England in 1296. It then became a Scottish royal castle, and ruled by the Grant family from 1509. It was raided extensively by the McDonald clan, who in one raid in 1545 took:
3 great boats,
3,377 sheep,
2,355 cattle,
2,204 goats,
395 horses,
122 swine,
64 geese,
3,206 bolls (700kl) of oats,
1,427 bolls (311kl) of barley,
60 ells (56m) of cloth,
12 feather beds with bolsters, blankets and sheets, tables and other furniture,
A chest containing £300,
20 pieces of artillery with gunpowder,
stands of armour,
doors, locks and yetts (iron gates),
2 brewing vats,
6 roasting spits, and
5 pots and 6 pans.

The Grants did not use Urquhart as their primary residence so it began to fall into disrepair and with raids from the McDonalds and the Covenanters the castle was ransacked and robbed often.

When Oliver Cromwell invaded, the castle was not garrisoned by the Scottish. It was only garrisoned again in 1689 when the Catholic King James VII was exiled and replace with Protestant King William II and Mary II. The Jacobites (a political group wanting to restore James VII to the throne) laid seige to the castle and rather than yield, the Grants filled the gatehouse with gunpowder and exploded it.

The ruins were picked over by locals for building materials. The castle ruin was eventually inherited by Caroline, Countess Dowager of Seafield, who donated the castle to state care upon her death.

The pictures below show the progression of the castle

500s - 1200s

1300s - 1400s

1600s

Details of the ruin and restoration

The visit started out of sight of the castle, in a shop and small exhibit:

List of places mentioned in the 1509 charters of Scotland

Model of how the castle would have looked

The kids standing next to trebuchet ammunition - those would do a fair bit of damage!

The papers the kids are holding are question sheets - most of the Historic Scotland Trust Castles that we visited (Urquhart and Castle Campbell) had quizzes for the kids to do, which had them counting stairs or reading signs - great for keeping their interest. For entry to the castles we bought an Explorer Pass in Doune castle that allowed free access to all castles owned by the Historic Scotland Trust for 3 days in a 5 day period. We used it for Doune, Urquhard and Castle Campbell and saved money (it was £65 and the entry per person to each castle was about £9). It also included the expensive castles - Edinburgh and Stirling, but those were ones we sadly missed.

After looking through the exhibits and answering the first of the questions we watched a short movie about the history of Urquhart before the curtains opened showing a stunning view of Urquhart castle overlooking Loch Ness:

Long shot of the castle

The Grant Tower

The kids were excited to reach the castle (or maybe to answer the next quiz question)

This is the guidebook map of the castle

In the map above the areas are:

Summit - Site of the old Pictish Fort
Upper Bailey (Service Close) - housed stables and smithy
Doocot - Housed pigeons for meat
Smithy - remains of the smithy
Water Gate - Access to the Loch
Gatehouse
Ditch - Cut from rock to defend the vulnerable side of the castle
Site of the drawbridge
Nether Bailey - Access to great hall and chapel
Chapel - footings of where the chapel stoof
Great Hall cellars
Great Kitchens
Inner Close - Courtyard for the Grant Tower
Kitchen - for Grant Tower
Grant Tower
Castle Toun - town outside the castle to service the castle
Kiln

In the gardens there was the framework of a trebuchet that was constructed and fired for a tv show:

When we reached the castle, the first thing we saw was the remains of the gatehouse:

The stones outside the walls are the remains of the gatehouse tower overlooking the drawbridge site (8 on the map)

A chunk of gatehouse - kind of the giant equivalent of that piece of lego that has fallen off that everyone treads on

Cameron inserted into the photo for scale

The views over Loch Ness were pretty awesome

6- The Gatehouse
Entering into the gatehouse was pretty cool. Most of us took the normal path,but Tomas was Tomas and decided to try to find an alternate way:

The gatehouse (item 6 on the map)

This is the track for the portcullis

Scratches on the wall where soldiers sharpened their weapons before a battle

This is where the portcullis mechanisms would have stood - on a wooden platform here. Also served as a murder hole to drop things down on attackers

Passing through the gatehouse lead us to the prison and Warder's Chambers to the left of the entrance:

The pit prison

The Constable's Lodging was above the prison and gatehouse

Might have been a little drafty...

The area outside of the shot above would have been the 'Castle Toun'

Working in order now from the map:
1 - The summit.
This was the site of the original fortification. It gives a great view over the Loch and is well protected by its height and location. (as per the kids quiz there were 80 steps from the service close to the top of the summit):

The Summit

Looking down at the castle from the summit

Looking down over the Loch

2- Upper Bailey (Service Close)
Just inside the main gates and below the summit. This area housed the smith and stables - now ruined.

This is the room where oats and grains would have been dried. The fires here would have kept the rooms above warm

There wasn't much left of the stables:

I'm guessing the horses escaped - well those that weren't stolen by the McDonalds

3 - Doocot
I told the kids that the pigeons here would have been held as carrier pigeons to carry messages. Nope. They were food, nothing like a nice sky-rat to fill the hunger pangs. I did note that not a single pigeon was listed as being stolen in the McDonald's raids...

In the Doocot answering a quiz question

4 - Smithy
Another ruin, the smithy was believed to be a multi-purpose building:

5 - Water Gate
This was the main access to the Loch. Most visitors and goods would have arrived by water in the days of the castle. Of interest is how little defence there is on this gate compared to the main front gates, however it is small enough to prevent an army from storming it.

7 - Ditch & 8 - Site of Drawbridge

This was the clearest picture of the ditch I had - ditches aren't as photogenic as castles

9 - Nether Baily & 10 - Chapel
Only the footings remained of the chapel:

11 - Great Halls Cellars and 12 - Great Kitchen

13 - Inner Close and & 15 - New Kitchen

It is believed that this this kitchen served the Grant Tower:

15 - Grant Tower
This 5 storey tower would have been the main residence of the Grant Family and gave some of the best views over the Loch:

Looking from Great Hall to Grant Tower

Alana looks very impressed at being asked to pose - well it was cold and she wanted to get on with the next quiz question

Looking down over the rest of the castle - summit in the distance

Gate preventing anyone from walking through the wall in that location

Looking down on the kitchens and great hall

Looking back past the gatehouse to the visitor centre

Private chambers

Angry face or the ruined wall of the private chamber - you decide

After finishing up at the Castle we visited the Loch Ness souvenir stores and then headed towards the Isle of Skye. On the way we stopped at Eilean Donan and picturesque castle on a tidal island where Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh meet. It is named after Donnan of Eigg a Celtic Saint who was martyred in 617. It was founded in the 13th century. We didn't go into the castle as it was getting and late and it was rather expensive, but we got some great photos:

First view of the castle

Eilean Donan

Tomas trying to hold the castle up

Cam being a natural poser

The bridge to the castle

Castle

After passing the castle we drove onto the Isle of Skye. This was pretty amazing, and the landscape reminded us of Iceland - lots of extreme mountains and rocky areas:

The bridge falls off to nothing! Oh no! We're going to die!

Well maybe not

We decided that since we had a little more daylight we would head down towards our next stop, looking for somewhere to camp along the way. Unfortunately the GPS decided that we wanted to drive to the extreme south point of the island and take a ferry across to the mainland.

We panicked, not knowing whether it would be running and how much it would cost for the motorhome so we turned around and drove back to a forest we had seen earlier.

The road into the carpark was pretty rough but it was a nice quiet and secluded place to sleep for the night:

It was Kinloch Forest and the site of a Scottish Dark Skies zone (area with no artificial lights - for star watching) and a set of old ruins. Kris was pretty disappointed to camp in a dark skies area and fall asleep at 7pm before it was even dark..