Hunters Quay: A Journey

Scotland has never disappointed lovers of mystery and atmosphere.

This land works a subtle spell with its swirling mists, its changing light, its cold, evanescent lochs. This is the land of the elusive Loch Ness monster, the romantic Walter Scott and off course; the land of scientists, inventors, explorers and philosophers. A wind-swept, rain-soaked world of highlands, glens and moors, rugged coastlines and clusters of islands, a world apart from the appealing symbols attributed to it by nineteenth-century fashion: kilts, bagpipes, tartan, shortbread biscuits, Gaelic, golf courses, whisky and here reality is wed with fantasy, never more dramatically than in the imposing presence of its splendid castles and the deep lochs and undulating hills, an amalgam of history and legend.

If you’re planning a trip to Scotland, make sure you fit it in one of the famous Highland Gathering that take place across the country. Based on ancient clan traditions, the games celebrate all things Scottish, so expect piping and dancing as well as the “heavy events”, which include hammer throwing and caber tossing.

Scotland's stunning scenery, history and breathtaking highlands.

                             The farmland of Fife.                                                                        The farmland of Fife.

As green as its golf courses, cold and crystal-clear like its lakes and rivers, volatile as its mists, as golden as its whisky, austere like its tartans, as solitary as the disquieting notes of its bagpipes, strong and rugged like its unconquered castles, fleeting like its ghosts.

                 The Valley of Corgarff Castle                                          River flowing towards Kentallen Bay has charmed poets and

                                                                                                     artists, men of letters and aristocrats, kings and queens.

Scotland’s magic is fully revealed when the works of man are dwarfed by the splendour of nature in the wild.

Its scenic beauty is often stunning: Rivers and Lochs, Windswept villages, Waterfalls or isolated homesteads.

Water holds the key to Scotland and its majestic scenery: the waters of its lochs, its hundreds of rivers and its eight hundred islands; the water which soaks through its soil and makes its fields and pastures fertile; the rushing water challenged by salmon as they battle their way upstream to give life to a new generation.

Dryburgh Abbey stands in a tranquil spot on the banks of the River Tweed.

                  Hunters Quay - Dunoon - Argull & Bute

There is no better way for tourists to experience the wild natural beauty of Scotland than with “bed & breakfast” in a home deep in the heart of the countryside.

                                  Kyles of Bute.

In 1848 Sir James Clark, Queen Victoria’s personal physician, had recommended the dry air of the Scottish mountains as a remedy for the rheumatism which already afflicted the young queen.

Stirling, main town of the Central region, its looked upon as the gateway to the Highlands.

     Stirling Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park

                        

                                          Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow George square. George Square is considered the heart of modern Glasgow.

George Square is considered the heart of modern Glasgow, statues abound here (with figures of the Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, James Watt and the national poet, Robert Burns) but pride of place – high up on the central column – has been given to Sir Walter Scott. Fronting the square is City Chambers, the city hall built in Venetian Renaissance style to a design by architect William Young; the building was opened by Queen Victoria in 1888.

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Glasgow has many eating and drinking places, self-styled café with elegant and original interior décor. Culturally, Glasgow is a very lively city, certainly meriting its nomination as European City of Culture.

Events in Glasgow organized annually include drama and music events, Scottish opera (at the Theatre Royal), Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet and off course its huge shopping centres.

Always a great place to go shopping, Glasgow has acquired huge new shopping centres, all offer an almost infinite variety of sales outlets, boutiques, eating places and department stores.

Now standing on the site once occupied by St. Enoch railway station (demolished together with the adjoining hotel), in the square of the same name, is St. Enoch Centre, a futuristic shopping centre created from steel, glass and mirrors

E d i n b u r g h

Gracious city. Towering over North Bridge is the imposing of buildings erected at different times in history and used through the centuries as the city’s fortress, armoury, arsenal and prison. It was Malcolm III Canmore, the monarch who elevated, from the 11^th century onwards it was also seat of the monarchy.

 Edinburgh

Edinburgh

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Orkneys- About 70 islands (only 23 inhabited) make up the archipelago of the Orkneys. The first settlements in the Orkneys date back almost 5,000 years. A remarkable testimonial to the history of these isles is the Ring of Brogar, on Mainland island: this great circle of 36 stones (originally there were 60) formed a ring about 985 feet in diameter, surrounded by a ditch. While the function of stones (believed to be as old as Egypt’s pyramids) can be only conjectured, they are undoubtedly a breathtaking sight.

Skye is the largest of the Hebridean islands. The approximately 8,000 people who make up its population speak mainly Gaelic.

Balhousie Castle, In Hay Street, Perth, beside the fair City’s North Inch. Balhousie Castle is home to the Museum of The Black Watch, Scotland’s most senior Highland Regiment, and houses the treasures of two and a half centuries of distinguished service to the Crown.

Oban is a popular summer holiday resort on the west coast (many ferries and cruise ships to the Hebrides set sail from its port).

A famous landmark in Craigellachie, situated at the confluence of the rivers Spey and Fiddich, is the elegant iron bridge built there by Thomas Telford. But the town is best known for its distilleries: malt whisky from the Craigellachie distillery (founded in 1891). The Macallan distillery, established in 1824, is also located here.

Macduff, on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, in the ccounty of Banff.

When you go to the supermarket or Small stores, don’t just grab the nearest bag of potatoes or slab of cheese – look for the Scottish Provenance: there are hundreds of Scottish produced lines in our shops nowadays. Scotland has some of the best natural produce and most skilled food and drink producers in the world. Products that stand for quality, for beautiful unspoilt landscapes, clean air, pure water and all the traditions of good, honest husbandry.

We are blessed in Scotland with an array of ingredients that are the envy of the rest of Europe. Not just for their unquestionable quality, but for their astonishing diversity, from our seas, rivers and lochs, we enjoy lobsters, langoustines, oysters, crabs and magnificent fish, most notably, of course, the wild salmon (and consequently, smoked salmon too).

The Red Cuillin outliers, Beinn Dearg Mhor and Beinn Dearg Bheag, rising above the township of Torrin, are reflected in Loch Slapin.

      Duddingston village and loch, with little france beyond.

                The cliffs and sea stacks at Duncansby

Corra Linn near New Lanark. At 90 feet, it's the Biggest of the falls of Clyde. 

           Village of Hunter's Quay - Dunoon - Argyll and Bute 

An interesting painted, shaped stone nicknamed ‘Jim Crow’. Nobody really knows the origin of its name though some think it was called after the son of one of the families who owned a house in the vicinity. Some however, think that the stone looks like a jackdaw, the smallest bird of the crow family, and the name comes from the poem Jim Crow, the Jackdaw of Rheims.

               Sailing near Dunoon, Argyll and Bute,

                     Picture donated by Paul Travers.

                                   Balmoral Castle 

A Scottish cottage looking directly across Loch Shieldaig to the Torridon mountains behind. 

                    Loch Torridon and the south Torridons. 

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The Famous Highland Games, gathering are held throughout Scotland, involving many different contests: feats of strength like tossing the caber and tug o'war, races and playing of bagpipes. 

Scottish dancing with all the contestants wearing typical Highland dress.

Water - be it in the sea, lochs, rivers or streams- is an omnipresent and vital part of the Scottish landscape.

 

    Beautiful landscapes. Visitors are stunned by this beauty.

Stirling...

The Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig, with Stirling Old Bridge in the foreground.

Stirling

      Stirling Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park

 G L A S G O W ..

Within the confines of the university a long-established custom continues: in keeping with tradition, many Scottish marriages are celebrated beneath the neo-Gothic vaults of the university chapel. The bride conventionally attired, the groom and male guests wear ceremonial dress, with kilts in their clan tartan. The city of Glasgow is still a symbol of the inventive talents of the Scottish people. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries an extraordinary number of outstanding men lived and worked here: Adam Ferguson (a forerunner of modern sociology), John Napier (inventor of logarithms), James Hutton, Roderick Murchison and Charles Lyell (founders of modern geology), James Clerk Maxwell (who discovered the laws of electrodynamics), Lord Kelvin (main contributor to development of the second law of thermodynamics , whose name is still used as a unit for measuring absolute temperature), William Cullen, John and William Hunter (who revolutionized gynaecology  and  surgery), Andrew Duncan, James Young (who introduced the use of chloroform in operating theatres) and best known of all Alexander Fleming (discoverer of penicillin).

Partly hidden by the bridge over the River Kelvin and thick vegetation are the building of Glasgow University, the second oldest in the region, founded by Bishop Turnbull in 1451.

                                 Glasgow National Gallery

                    Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

 Glasgow Art Gallery. The imposing and sedate exterior of the Art Gallery and Museum is softened by its setting: a specious park to which Glaswegians flock on sunny days. Glasgow was also the birthplace of a very prominent architect of the early 1900s: Charles Rennie, Mackintosh, an exponent of Art Nouveau, he left many fine works in the city, to name some of his work; the Glasgow School of Art and Queen’s Cross Church.

 The heart of Glasgow

 Glasgow

  The capital of Scotland

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, one-time stronghold of the picts, rebuilt in the 6^th century by Edwin, king of Northumberland. A strategic site many times contended by Scots and English, it stands 377 feet above sea level, on the top of a steep and rugged volcanic hill

Edinburgh

Edinburgh

With its many shops and department stores, Princes Street in Edinburgh is the main shopping area of Scotland’s capital city. About a mile long, it separates the Old Town from the New (built on the north side of the castle between 1760 and 1840).

In the northernmost part of the Highland region, Close to Durness and the fishing village of Tongue, the freezing-cold wind that sweeps across beaches and clifftops -  often reaching gale force – is a reminder that the North Pole is not so very far away. This is the realm of puffins, seals, coots, plovers and many sea birds. Not far from Durness are several of the area’s main attractions: Smoo Caves (the first of the three caverns can be entered on foot and explored for just over 330 feet), into which tumbles the Alto Smoo stream, creating an underground waterfall; the beautiful beach of Balnakeil, where there is a thriving community of craftsmen skilled in marquetry, woodturning and production of silverwares; a ruined 8^th century church built by St. Maelrubha (who brought the Christian faith to this part of the world) and a small graveyard with some intriguing tombstones.

Sky is the best known island of the Inner Hebrides. Together with the Outer Hebrides – also called the Western Isles – the archipelago comprises over 500 mostly uninhabited islands. Situated like the rest of the Hebridean islands in an ancient volcanic region, Skye has a landscape characterized by valleys and high peaks (particularly renowned are its Cuillin Hills, not far from the south east coast), mainly of granite rock. As well as tourism, fishing and farming, a major contribution to Skye’s economy comes from production of tweed: cloth made from pure Scottish wool, until 1930 still coloured with vegetable dyes.

The lochs, rivers and burns of Scotland, where salmon and rainbow trout live.

A week’s fishing on one the many ‘beats’ on rivers like the Spey, Tay, Forss, Tweed and Conon can be a holiday of a life time.

The impeccable greens of the world’s most celebrated golf course, at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, draw champions and novices alike.    

                                     Gourock

The lighthouse at Isleornsay with the towering bulk of Beinn Sgritheall on the mainland behind.

Dunoon - Argyll and Bute  

Leith Hall…  This grand mansion house, now owned by the National Trust, is at Kennethmont near Huntly in Aberdeenshire. Built in the 1650s and added to over the centuries, it was owned by the Leith-Hay family. The gardens contain two pictish symbol stones.

Kenmore… Between the east end of Loch Tay and the main gates of Taymouth Castle, the little village of Kenmore owes its form, charm and architecture to the mighty Campbells of Breadalbane, once the ruling lairds hereabouts. The parish church and the adjacent hotel, where Robert Burns wrote some lines over the fireplace during a Highland jaunt, date from 1760 and the local bridge from 14 years later.

                         Dunstaffnage Bay near Oban

North Berwick's Scottish Seabird Centre invites visitors to a Moon Watch. Explore the moon from the Telescope Deck with the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh.

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