The weather has turned around and although I would not call it perfect it was an acceptable mix of clouds and sun (and right now, as I sit writing this blog in Glasgow the sun is streaming through the window making my hotel room very cheerful).
I spent the night at the south end of Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Scotland, which is a distinction in a land that has so many lakes. The lake is 630 feet at its deepest, 23 miles long, and generally less than 1 mile wide, but toward the south end it broadens to perhaps 5 miles, along the alignment of the Loch Lomond fault, which is the official boundary between the Lowlands to the south and the Highlands to the north. The lake takes its name from Ben Lomond, a 3,000 m plus mountain that frowns sternly over the Lowlands, as if challenging them. But more about this a little later.
To honor DJ, who is a big admirer of William Wallace, I drove 30 miles east to see the National William Wallace Monument, a tower/castle built in the late 1880’s to commemorate the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, where Wallace defeated the English army by a clever maneuver. The vale of the Stirling River is the natural path that an invading army would follow to move into the Highlands but at this point a roche moutonnee forces the river against a cliff of basalt over sandstone, so the English were forced to cross to the south end of the river by the Stirling Bridge into land enclosed by a big meander of the river. Wallace, who was directing the battle from the top hid his warriors on the neck of the meander on one side, and on the north side of the bridge on the opposite side, so the English army had no room to maneuver or escape the trap and got destroyed. Needless to say, the fiercely independent Scots are very proud of their national hero (and of their King Robert De Bruce, and the outlaw Rob Roy, and basically of anyone who has fought for Scotland’s right to self determination).
Incidentally, I learned that what I call roche moutonnee is here called a Crag and Tail formation. As I think I already told you, they are hard rocks that were sculpted by the glaciers, with the “tail” being the side from where the glacier was coming from, and the “crag” is the side on the stoss side, where the glacier plucks at the rock giving it the aspect of a herd of mountain sheep perched on a cliff (hence the adjective moutonnee). Practically every castle and abbey in Scotland sits on top of one of these hills. I took this opportunity to get the nature walk I had been craving by walking the forest all around the monument.
On the way back to Loch Lomond I thought it would be nice to visit the lake in the comfort of a cruising ship, so I booked a two-hour excursion, that I sweetened with a bottle of hard cider and some munchies. It was a lovely cruise, and I felt honored when we crossed the Loch Lomond fault (very obvious because of an alignment of islands and a change in the morphology of the Highlands). These hills were the site of one of the bloodiest clan wars between the MacGregor (Highlanders) and the Calhoun (Lowlanders). Apparently the MacGregor were outnumbered two to one, but they fought with such ferocity that they carried the day. Unfortunately, in the grip of blood lust they then proceeded to butcher the women and children, which was definitely not cool with the council of clans, which proceeded to erase from all memory the MacGregor clan (and as far as I know they are still banished from Scotland).
A 4 or 5-year old boy came to me toward the end of the cruise, gave me a serious look over, and then stated categorically “You were asleep”. Ah, from the mouths of babes. Yes, it was going on 2 pm and I had to take my customary nap. Little imp should also be taking a nap, I thought.
I took a drive up the valley of the Argyle Forest, another spectacularly glaciated valley, but there was some landslide mitigation going on, and the traffic was backed up, so I parked, took a couple of photos, and turned back to head into Glasgow.
Unfortunately, I entered Glasgow at 5 pm, and the worst of
rush traffic, and I missed my freeway exit. So I had to get out of the freeway
and cross through downtown (where it seems that every other street was blocked
off due to construction). It was like my own personal tour of the old town,
which is full of statues, towers, and monuments (including its very own
miniature version of the Big Ben). I took many turns, but eventually made it to
my hotel at a decent time. I think tomorrow I will leave the car here, take a
bus to downtown, and then buy a day pass for the Hop On - Hop Off tourist bus.
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