Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Scottish Highlands Tour - Luss, Lomond, Argyll: July 12, 2016

Scotland sure is a beautiful country! We started our tour by driving to the small town of Luss on Loch Lomond:




Lindsay and Mardi on the shores of Loch Lomond:






The town of Luss has an old church called the Luss Parish Church:



The "hog backed" grave stone in the foreground is of an 11th century Viking and is believed to be the oldest marked grave in the UK:





St. Conan's Kirk (church) is located on Loch Awe. It was built in the 19th century to look like a much older church.






The ceiling timbers are believed to have been from the HMS Caledonia and HMS Duke of Wellington:





This "effigial monument" of King Robert the Bruce is believed to have an actual bone fragment of the king. The face and hands of the statue are in alabaster, which is kind of creepy looking in person!




Note the dog gargoyle chasing the rabbit gargoyles:





Then it was off to Kilchurn Castle. We had a long walk through a marshy area, and noticed some sheep shearing on the way:





The long walk as seen from the castle:




Kilchurn Castle, built originally in the 15th century, and this version built in the 17th century.







Found this engraving of the castle from 1846...it doesn't look much different now!



There go Jill, our guide Dave Thomas, Mardi, Lindsay, and Hal:




That roundish pedestal-looking thing in the foreground is actually an upside down tower that fell off the top of the castle:




Lindsay making herself at home:









Jill:






Heading back to the car for our next stop:




The town of Inverary, where we had a nice pub lunch (fish 'n chips) at the George Hotel:




Dave, Jill, Mardi, and Hall approaching Inverary Castle, built in the 18th century and currently the residence of the Duke of Argyll and his family. Some of Downton Abbey was filmed here:






We saw a similar "arms room" in Windsor Castle, but photos weren't allowed inside:




Some cows enjoying the endless supply of grass on the grounds of Inverary Castle. That tower at the top of the hill is the Folly at Dun na Cuaiche. It was a project ordered by a previous castle resident to give employment to the locals during hard times:




One of our few family pictures on this trip!





 On the way back to our ship we stopped at another "million dollar" view:








No comments:

Post a Comment