Scotland - 1997

In 1996 we saw the movie Braveheart, set in 13th century Scotland, and fell in love with the scenery and countryside.  Misti’s ancestry, on her mother’s side, is Scottish and she’s always had a yearning to visit her ancestral home in Gask, near Sterling.

In May, 1997 we made plans for a three-week trip to Scotland.  We flew to Glasgow, by way of London, picked up our rental car and headed to Loch Fyne, in Inveraray, a little over an hour out of Glasgow, where we found a bed and breakfast for the night.  Our usual travel strategy was to fly into a major city, get our rental car at the airport and then drive on to a small town, where we could rest for a day or two as we got over jet lag.

We next set out for the Isle of Mull, which we reached via ferry from the town of Oban.  The picturesque town of Oban (means “Little Bay of Lorn”) is the main ferry crossing to Mull, and is called the “Gateway to the Hebrides.”  Before boarding we visited the Oban Distillery, one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, that produces a smoky malt whisky.  This was the first of several distilleries that we visited over the next few weeks. 

Mull is the second largest island of the Hebrides, after Skye and the fourth largest island surrounding Great Britain.  The main city is Tobermory, home to Mull’s only single malt Scotch whisky distillery, Tobermory.  (Note:  Scotch whisky is always spelled without the “e”).  The distiller is one of the oldest in Scotland, founded in 1798, and of course, we did a tasting there, and even bought a bottle.

A ten minute ferry ride from Fionnport on Mull  took us to the tiny island of Iona, famous for being the cradle of Christianity in Scotland.  The island is the site of an important monastery founded in 563 by the monk Columba, who had been exiled from his native Ireland.  The monastery played a crucial role in the conversion to Christianity of the Picts, and Iona became the center of one of tbe most important monastic systems in Great Britain and Ireland.

After Mull we drove to Fort William, the gateway to the Scottish Highlands.  Fort William sits at the base of Ben Nevis, at 4,400 feet, the highest mountain in Great Britain.  The Highlands scenery is magnificent and is where the 1996 movie, Braveheart, was filmed.   We went to Glen Coe, part of the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area, home of Scottish mountaineering and site of the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, when thirty-eight members of Clan McDonald were killed by government forces.

Of course no visit to Scotland would be complete without seeing Loch Ness, the home of Nessie, the sea monster.  Loch (means “lake” in Scottish) Ness is the second largest loch in Scotland, the largest being Loch Lomond.  But because of its depth, it’s the largest lake by volume in the British Isles.  It contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined.

Loch Ness is near the town of Inverness, which we wanted to see, and where we visited my sister’s brother-in-law, Jack and his wife, who lived there.  We told Jack that we were certain we had seen Nessie: she jumped out of the lake and we took all sorts of photos, but unfortunately none of them came out.  We stayed a night with them, drinking scotch until the wee hours, and learning firsthand about local Scottish lore.

Next was the Isle of Skye, named after the old Norse skya- meaning “cloud island,” a Viking reference to the mist-enshrouded hills.  It’s the second largest of Scotland’s islands, and the scenery is stunning, with velvet moors, jagged mountains and towering sea cliffs.  Skye is one of Scotland’s top three tourist destinations, alons with Edinburgh and Loch Ness. 

One highlight of Skye was a visit to Dunvegan Castle, the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland, the headquarters of the clan Maclead, and continuously occupied for 800 years.  We had a memorable lunch at the Three Chimney’s restaurant, reputed to be the best seafood in Scotland.

As we continued to explore scotch whisky distilleries, the next one was Talisker on the Isle of Skye, established in 1830, but rebuilt in 1900 and 1960.  Talisker was the favorite whisky of Robert Louis Stevenson, and in 2007 won “Best Single Malt in the world.”  Another was Glennmorangie in Tain, Ross-shire, whose distinction is having the tallest stills in Scotland.

For our Scottish whisky exploring, we saved the best for last.  Speyside, located between the Highlands in the west and the farmlands of Aberdeenshire in the east, has the largest number of distilleries, about fifty, more than half of all the distilleries in the country. 

We chose to visit two of the larger and more well-known distilleries, McCallum and Dahlwinnie.  At Dahlwinnie, they had a whisky tasting competition and Misti entered along with several other people.  Even though Misti isn’t much of a Scotch drinker, she identified several different taste components and walked away with the prize.

One purpose of our trip was to investigate Misti’s ancestry.  Misti’s mother’s maiden name was Oliphant, and we began with a visit to Sterling where there was a registry of Scottish surnames.  Misti had an old tapestry, handed down in her family, which was of the Oliphant family estate, called the Auld Hoose at Gask, in a town called Gask.  The registrar helped us locate the tiny library in Gask, where we found information about the Oliphant family including a thesis written by an American student on the subject of Misti’s family.  We were told that the lands came into the Oliphant family by way of a grant from King Robert the Bruce in 1317, that the house was built in 1679 and that Bonny Prince Charlie stayed there in 1744.

 We were directed to a minister in the town’s church, who gave us the address of the estate, and who called the current owners to ask permission for us to visit the property.   

We drove up a very long driveway to the estate house, went to the door, where there was a dead rabbit in the doorway, as if out of a hunting magazine, and were greeted by the owner.  Turns out the current owners are British, of the Patterson’s banking family, whose family bought the property from the Oliphant family more than one hundred years ago. 

We strolled through the grounds, finding a number of Oliphant tombstones, and two chapels, and felt we had learned and seen enough of Misti’s ancestry, and continued on our trip to Edinburgh.

We spent two days in Edinburgh, Scotland’s delightful capital, which reminded me of a smaller, easier to manage and more-friendly London.  We visited the magnificent Edinburgh Castle which is home to Scotland’s crown jewels, used in the coronation of Scotland’s rulers.  We also visited Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano that has an excellent view over the city.

From Edinburgh, we drove back to Glasgow where we boarded our flight for the trip home, thus ending our Scottish adventure.

Art Faibisch, June, 2019