Biel On The Go

Travel blog about trips to wonderful places around the world

Day 4: the amazing Scottish Highlands and Loch Ness

The day started very very well. We took the hairy coo.com bus tour and it was from 8-8 and our guide was Allan, a local Scottish guy.

Allan told us a few fun facts:

  1. the saying “armed to the teeth” has a different meaning nowadays, but it originated here in Scotland in the highlands. There is a river called Tieth next to a castle in the city of Doune we drove by. Hundreds of years ago, when merchants wanted to approach the castle to buy/sell stuff, they had to surrender their weapons at the river Tieth, which was located before the castle. At the time, the saying was “armed to the river Tieth”. The rest is history.
  2. The movie Braveheart associated this term with William Wallace, but in reality in Scotland, this term is associated with Robert de Bruce. When Robert died, he ordered his heart to be taken off his chest and to be brought to battle. That is where the name brave heart comes from.
  3. In Braveheart, Robert de Bruce was pictured as a coward but in reality he was a very brave man and considered by Scottish people as a hero.
  4. The movie Braveheart was filmed in the highlands of Ireland and not Scotland due to tax reasons… the Scottish people do not like this…
  5. In real life, Robert de Bruce and William Wallace never met. When William Wallace was brutally killed, and quartered, his body parts were transported to all the corners of England to set an example, Robert de Bruce saw this and decided he would continue the fight Wallace had started.
  6. The famous battle of Stirling Bridge in the movie has no bridge on it…
  7. At the end, despite of all these flaws, the Scottish people still like the move Braveheart because it generated GBP300mio in revenue in Scotland. 😀
  8. The “Balmoral Palace” visible in The Crown in Netflix was filmed in a house in the highlands we drove by. This house was the inspiration for the Queen to build a 100% copy, just 25% larger, at the location were the real Balmoral is located. I did not take a picture because there were too many trees, but it looks beautiful. Here is the link to the house.
The bus, the hairy coo!!!
The street of a small village not far from Edinburgh when we arrived on the bus for a first stop. It’s called Callander and this is where the Beatles did “hide” for around 2 weeks when they were trying to escape from the frenzy of London. For 2 weeks they had normal lives until they were spotted and the news was called.
Some very nice buildings.
The Scottish highlands.
The beautiful lake, or should I say, Loch. In Scotland the lakes are called Loch, and there are freshwater and saltwater lochs. In total there are 35000 lochs here. You can tell them apart depending of the existence or not of seaweed as the shore.
This place, or very near here, is where Skyfall (James Bond movie) was filmed. The final scene at supposedly the house where James Bond grew up. This place is simply beautiful, this picture does not do justice to this place. It is called Glen Etive.
Glen Etive used to belong to Ian Fleming, James Bond creator. When he passed away, Sean Connery bought this estate and returned to the people of a Scotland with one condition: nothing should be ever built in this area to avoid destroying its natural beauty. The only thing that exists here is a bench where Ian Fleming used to stand and watch the beauty of the scenery.

Watch this YouTube video to appreciate the beauty of this place.

Here the link to the view from the bench.

Us at the shore of a loch.
Beautiful mountains and highlands.

We were at loch lochy, the Loch Less, where the famous monster was spotted in the 30s.
From Edinburgh until Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands
We arrived at the cruise Loch Ness!!!

We are on the boat!!

Ness!!!!(it is a sticker but it still looks cool!)
The village of Fort Augustus, at the beginning of the Loch Ness.
We had reached a quaint Scottish village, Pitlochry! It is so beautiful!!
The hairy coo!! This is a local cow which actually serve only as a pet, the meat has no fat and therefore is too hard. The milk is very thick, almost like cottage cheese… so, a pet. Nevertheless, cute!
Sir. Walter Scott Monument by night
Beautiful skyline. In the upper left corner the Edinburgh Castle.
Stairs to royal mile

The tour started at 08:00 and ended at 20:30h. We are tired now, le’s grab a final fish&chips and let’s get back to the hotel to rest.

(UK 2025)

gnchudek

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