DAY FIVE: Scotland’s Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Museum of the Isles

Today, we drove nearly 200 miles into the stunning landscapes of the Scottish highlands.  After a few hours on the road, we arrived at the 23-mile long, dark, deep and murky Loch Ness, said to be one of the most storied sites in all of Scotland as the home of legendary Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. We didn't see her but it was still a fun - but very cold day.

Later, we arrived for a short stop at the Eilean Donan Castle, featured in the James Bond movie “The World is Not Enough,“ before crossing over a relatively new bridge connecting the mainland with the Isle of Syke.  Here we visited a 20,000 acre estate with a museum preserving Highland history, explored historic gardens – dated in part to the 1790’s - and visited the Armadale Castle ruins, dating back to the 19^thcentury.  

We are once again driving on the left side of the street the same way we did in Guyana (formerly a British country).  According to our guide, “you drive on the right side of the street … we drive on the correct side!”  If it hasn’t been mentioned before, we are traveling through the UK in a very large bus along narrow streets. At times it seems we are not more than 3 inches away from oncoming traffic.  Good drivers but scary, just the same.

The bagpipe player in Edinburgh – when he heard we are from Utah and noticed we weren’t imbibing – asked if we were Mormon, then told us his brother in Ireland is an LDS Bishop.  Not surprisingly because of the huge lifelong production and consumption of alcohol, the number of Church members in Scotland and Ireland is very low.  In fact, the mention of Scotland on the church website is not listed individually but is included with much of Great Britain … and Ireland, although mentioned separately, has only 3900 members.