The Esthetic of Lostness: Epic Celtic Adventure

Part 5

I love scotch. Scotch scotch scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly, mmm mmm mmm.
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An Encounter with Tree-Throwing Scottish Monsters
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There can be only one.

This blog follows days 5-7 of the Epic Celtic Adventure.

Whew. Loads to catch up on with this one.

So, where did I leave off? Oh yes! Going to sleep in Stirling. So. We were driven to the airport by our truly saintly innkeepers Tom and Mandy, and spent the next four ours on the train. It took four because the only way to get a train to Oban was to first take a train back down from Stirling to Glasgow, and then back up from Glasgow to Oban. Now, four hours can be a terribly long time on a plane, but since we were on a train, it was a much different experience. It was four hours to read, listen to music, and gaze out the windows at the gorgeous countryside. And man, it was beautiful. Rolling green hills, ruined castles, shimmering lochs, ahhhh. Scotland is wonderful.

So, we made it to Oban, and the first thing I was struck with was the sickly sweet fish smell of the ocean. The second thing I was struck by was the beauty of the place. Oban is a small town directly on the coast of western Scotland. Out in the distance are the islands of Mull and Iona, and all around are the western foothills of the Highlands.

Oban is home to one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, the Oban Distillery. Established in the 1790s, they make a superb 14 year old single malt whiskey. Mom and I took the tour of the distillery, where we learned their process for making whiskey, from when the grain is dried over a peat fire, to its wash, to where the wash is mixed with yeast and fermented, then distilled, then placed in casks and aged for fourteen years. Apparently, every year that a barrel of whiskey sits aging, it looses 2% due to evaporation (“the Angel’s portion” according to the Scots), so by the time it reaches year 13, it’s down to ¾ of the original barrel. We were given a tiny sip of a barrel of 13 year scotch, and it literally was like drinking fire. The alcohol content on their whiskey is about 65-70% when they barrel it, so it was incredibly potent. It’s much more drinkable by year 14, however, because they fill in the missing ¼ with water, bringing the alcohol content down to a much more reasonable 40-48%. We were also given a dram of this, the Oban 14 at the end of the tour, and it was excellent.

The next day we set out to the isle of Mull. It was a beautiful 45 minutes of ferry ride over to the island, and when we got there, low and behold! the Mull Highland games were taking place that very day! So needless to say, we hopped on a bus and headed around the island to them. While the girls watched the dancing, I rushed over and caught most of the heavy events. I saw the 16lb hammer toss, the 54lb weight for distance, the shot put (one guy beat the local record while I was there), and of course, the caber.

The Highland Games are officially the most manly sporting events in the history of everything. For the uninitiated, the Highland games consists of huge men throwing heavy objects like rocks, cast iron weights, sticks with weights on the end, and trees. The games were created as a way for the warriors to stay in shape and train when the English outlawed weapons in Scotland. I had a fantastic time.

The next day, we got up, and headed for the hills. This time via bus, we went to Glenco in the Highlands of Scotland. Glenco is famous (unbeknownst to most of you) as being the location of Hagrid’s Hut from the Harry Potter films (other locations from each of them were filmed there as well), as well as sets from Rob Roy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and, of course, Highlander. Unfortunately all of these sets had long since been dismantled so we weren’t able to see them, but we were able to see the Highlands themselves, and that was more than enough for me.

Glenco was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. I had a picture of the Highlands in my mind that was more like the section of the Alps we had driven through on a trip a long time ago, very dark and threatening. The bits of the Highlands we were in was far different from that. It was open and sunny and beautiful, absolutely breathtaking.

*yawn* Ahhh! So that’s all for now. I’ll write more tomorrow if I can, and tell you all about our last day in Scotland, and the beginning of our adventures in Ireland. Much love to you all.