Holiday in the Highlands - Part 3 (Eilean Donan Castle and Castle Moil)

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!  

-John Muir-

I'd have to agree with that. (Just click on the pictures to enlarge) We woke up to such a beautiful Sunday morning! If it's this enjoyable in the winter, I can't imagine what it must be like during the summer. Sunday we decided to see some castles. First we went to Eilean Donan Castle. On the way there we stopped at a couple of viewpoints. From one, we could see Strome Castle!

Can you see it on the hill? From the big, white house look just behind and to the left.

We were trying not to laugh as I pushed the button and ran around a fence to stand by Steve...look natural...

Eilean Donan Castle has a live webcam on their website. We paid for the tour (about 6.50 each), which was totally worth it. We even got to see the "secrete rooms" and look through the spy holes! So fun. The castle has such an interesting history. It was actually in ruins for a time and then rebuilt using what was left of the walls instead of tearing it down to start new. The caretakers, the Macrae family, still live there in the East Wing. How cool is that? Also, there were some movies filmed there. From their website:

Eilean Donan has starred in many films - including;

• Bonnie Prince Charlie starring David Niven (1948)
• The Master of Ballantreee starring Errol Flynn (1953)
• The New Avengers (1976)
• Highlander (1986)
• Loch Ness (1996)
• James Bond - The World is Not Enough (1999)
• BBC One Television Idendity (1997 - 2002)

 My pictures were taken during low tide, so it seems like there isn't much water.

After touring the castle, we popped into the cafe for lunch. It was pretty good food, but the coffee was from one of those machines that does the instant latte stuff, which wasn't good. Go somewhere else for coffee. From there we went across the bridge to the Isle of Skye to see Castle Moil (ruins). We didn't walk over to the castle because of the tide, but it was still a great view!

Bridge to the Isle of Skye

On our way home we saw a sign for a monument and decided to stop to see what it was. We're impulsive sometimes.

Robert Frost, anyone? We took the one on the right... most traveled. I don't think Robert Frost considered how not fun it would be to get lost.

The rest of the drive back to Ardoch Bothy was so lovely. The colors just amazed me.