Inveraray, No Not Inverness

From our room this morning, looking out one window was brilliant blue skies, and the other was gray cloudy skies - so we didn't know what weather was in store for us today. In Scotland if you don't like the weather, you just wait 5 minutes. I think that is code for: it rains every 5 minutes in Scotland.

We drove in circles today due to a bunch of road closures all leading to where we wanted to go. Then we hit several areas with road construction and one where we sat hardly moving for 30 minutes. Fun stuff!

I went back and forth on whether or not to test our luck this morning - and decided to go with it. My goal was to see Finnich Glen outside of Glasgow, but it is a tremendously popular spot and only 3 cars can park there. Everywhere else nearby is marked "emergency vehicles" only and I read they enforce it. Somehow, despite there being several cars in the no parking area, we lucked upon one of the three parking spots!

This magical location, known both as Finnich Glen (the name of the gorge) and the Devil's Pulpit (the name of the rock formation in the gorge), appeared in TV's Outlander and also in Outlaw King. It's not signposted; however, if you make the effort, it is a hugely rewarding spot for both photography and nature lovers.

Finnich Glen is not what you expect to find in Scotland - but Claire (from Outlander) and Robert the Bruce (Outlaw King) managed to find this magical place too

You have to make it down the steep steps called "Jacob's Ladder".  Careful, they are very slippery!

Someone kindly put a rope up

I have climbers blood in me.  My boys would be so proud!  I was hugging the wall to get to the other side. You can go in the water but it is waist deep. While the rocks are slippery with shoes on, in your barefeet they are grippy.

The views walking through the gorge are amazing

Next we headed to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park to climb Conic Hill for its view over Loch Lommond.

Loch Lomond – 24 miles long – is Great Britain's largest lake. Its biggest claim to fame is its role in the beloved folk song: "Ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ye... For me and my true love will never meet again, on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond."

Fun fact: After the disastrous Scottish loss at the Battle of Culloden, when Jacobite leaders were on trial in London, often in pairs, they were given a choice: one to die and the other to live. The song is a bittersweet reassurance that the condemned will take the spiritual "low road" back to his Scottish homeland, where his soul will be reunited with the living.

Loch Lomond was made famous by the song "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond".  Loch is the Gaelic word for lake, and there are over 31,000 lochs in Scotland.

The hike to Conic Hill is along the 2nd segment of the 96-mile West Highland Way (a trail that is a similar concept to the Hadrian's Wall path). The trail is a total distance (r/t) of 2.5 miles (~2hrs). It is short but steep. The views from the top out across Loch Lomond and its many islands are truly incredible.

Map showing the way up to Conic Hill. Start from the back of the car park in the town of Balmaha. 

The Conic Hill hike is steep but not hard

Walking up to Conic Hill

The top of Conic Hill the that bump on the right

We ended up only going two-thirds of the way to the lower view of Conic Hill, still quite spectacular but surely not as impressive as the top.

We ate lunch across the road at the pub at Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha. About 100 hikers showed up as we were leaving, scattered all around the tables inside and out. Where the heck did they all come from?

Look at how incredibly green Scotland is!  A83 has gorgeous views.

Our destination was Inveraray and its castle. When asked where we were headed to in Scotland, I stopped including Inveraray - because I kept being corrected to "Inverness".

For those of us Americans who don't know how royalty works over here, a Duke is a step right below Royalty. The Duke who owns Inveraray Castle, the Campbells, is entwined with it. Queen Victoria's 4th daughter married the 9th Duke of Argyll - the 1st time in 350 years that a member of the royal family had married outside royalty.

When you are Torquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th Duke of Argyll, MacCailean Mor, 'Son of the Great Colin' a dignity aquired from his ancestor, the mighty Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow (knighted in 1280), you get to live here in Inveraray Castle. (And if you are part of the cast of Downton Abbey, you get to film here.)

Another Fun Fact: Today there are an estimated 13 million Campbells around the world who can claim kinship with the present Duke, wear Campbell tartan, and call Inveraray Castle 'home'. This clan relationship is mind boggling to me!

This elaborate display of arms in Invereray Castle's armory hall comes from the Argyll Militia and was used at the Battle of Culloden.  This clan was on the winning side.

To celebrate our battle for independence, the Fourth of July, we sat in the rain listening to a band from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Whooo hooo go Kenosha!