July 5-Alicia Smith

Day Three in the Highlands

Yesterday was our last day to scope out the highlands before we traveled to our new destination, Glasgow. 8 a.m. came quickly and we all forced ourselves out of bed, got ready, packed up, and left the Bazpackers Hostel. After packing our luggage and ourselves onto the tour bus, we arrived shortly to our first stop at the battle field of Culloden, which is located a few miles outside of Inverness. The battle of Culloden took place on April 16, 1746. It was the final clash between the Jacobites and the British in which the Jacobites were greatly defeated. A key reason to their defeat was due to their lack of resources, including weapons and food. The field had blue flags on one end, representing the Scottish, and red flags on the other, representing the British. There were memorials spread throughout various places of different people and clans. The field was extremely marshy, filled with thistles, tall grass, pot holes and caverns. Sadly, it was easy to see how the Scots got abolished by Duke Cumberland’s army in such bad battle conditions. It’s hard to imagine being low on resources and energy and trying to run through grass that was up to one’s hips!

After Culloden, we headed off to Loch Ness. When we got there, we had the option of taking a boat tour. Although it was tempting, especially on such a nice, sunny afternoon, a few other students and I decided to save our money and explore the area by foot. We started off by having lunch right along the side of a canal. This was extremely interesting to watch, especially since I had never seen one in action before. We all watched while about 6 smaller sized boats would go into a section that was closed off by gates. The gates would control the water level in order to slowly lower the boats down to the next section so that they could then pass through to the next section. It took around an hour just for the boats to get all the way through. Although a tedious wait, it was fun to learn how it all worked. I took pictures because I thought my dad (aka Toddles) would especially find it interesting. After all of the canal excitement, we walked down to the Loch where we enjoyed the view. Unfortunately, we never saw any signs of Nessie.

After Loch Ness, we made our way south through the highlands. The highlands were unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was filled with luscious green hills, lochs, rugged mountains and tons of sheep. A few of the mountains we saw included the British Isles and the three sisters of Glen Coe. Around 6 p.m. we strolled into Glasgow. Right away I noticed that Glasgow is quite different than Edinburgh. Glasgow is very modern and looks more like an American city. The University is especially modern with such unique architecture. My favorite part about campus is our dorm rooms because we each have our own room with our own bathrooms :) Although it seems as though Edinburgh is missed by many, it is great to have change and Glasgow seems to go especially well with the new material we are studying about immigration.