Halloween Haunt

This is the Rosely hotel in Arbroath in county Angus. I went up to this area on the 31st of October to complete my second teaching placement, this time in a p2 class (5 and 6 year olds). Driving up from Edinburgh with a fellow student named Moyra, we were more than a little taken aback by the sight of this place. An old Victorian mansion, this place has definitely seen better days. Used as a base for hunters that come over from other European countries (there were Italians and Germans at the time), this place would make a top ten spookiest spots in Scotland survey for sure.
The walls are covered in pelts and animal heads. Moyra and I had a hard time containing our laughter upon walking in.
Right outside my room.
I didn't notice this at first, but it appears to be a stairway leading to the turret. Scary, as it was right beside my door. If the hideous beast wanted to come down and get me, I was easy pickings.
I guess the cleaning lady wasn't tall enough to reach this. Good thing I only spent a week here.

Happy Halloween

Although Halloween is not as popular in Scotland, these Canadians would not be held back from celebrating.

Sayard was a teacher who couldn't handle the stress,

and Neil was an old time journalist.

Nicola, Sayard's Scottish pal.

This is Alexandra, a Canadian, who is in Primary with Neil.

"The Three Sistas", Sophia, Carli and Bobbie. These ladies are all in primary as well, and also hail from Canada.

Nicola, Annabell and "too cool for school" Andrew, from Sayard's History class.

Sayard and Carrie. As you can see she has quite the smile, which she carries around with her all the time.

The hosts with the most.

Sayard and Katy gettin' primitive.

Neil and Nicola, fast friends.

The history class at its finest. Not the cliched picture of historical academics.

I swear they weren't posing.

Lochwinnoch

Here it is, Sayard's ancestors home town of Lochwinnoch. We made our way there on a foggy and rainy day.

This is Lochwinnoch United Church, maybe Sayard's family once walked through those very doors.

Neil trudging up the old farm road.

This might seem inane to most, but we just liked this view.

We start our journey into the moors to find the ruins of the Meikle family home.

The stare down from high up on the ridge....this is war!

Seconds later the fog rolled in.

Neil tried to find the hut in the fog. "I think it's this way...no wait, this way....."

As you can see, we were completly lost. We began our descent, having giving up hope of finding the hut in the heavy mist. Luckily we happened upon Seumas Harris, a local farmer. After we explained our situation, he was happy to lead "the way home".

Standing in front of all that remains of the Meikle family homestead.

This is a view of what would have been the inside of the house. Abandoned for 200 years, it's a wonder anything remains.

Overjoyed to be here!

With the wind and fog that we experienced at this spot, there is little wonder why the family made the move from this isolated place to Canada in 1812.

A view of the moors as we walked back from the hut. Seumas was nice enough to invite us in to his home for a cup of tea and some storytelling. His father gave us some insight of the area as well as some tales from WWII. We unfortunatly don't have any photos of the two men, but suffice to say they as well as their house were "rustic".

Party at Pierre's

This is are friend Pierre from Montreal. He is over in Glasgow studying to become a teacher as well. We went to visit him and he was so happy he actually danced.

These are some of the guys he has befriended over there.

And these are the girls.


This was only the begining of the night, and he claims to be a non-smoker.

Road Trippin' with Sayard and Nicola

Here we are in North Berwick, a quaint little harbor town south of the Firth of Forth, and about 20 minutes outside of Edinburgh. There has been a harbor in this town since the 1100's.

Here Nicola and I are standing in front of the ruins of St-Andrews Kirk. This town saw a stream of pilgrims passing through on their way to the city of St-Andrews. They would stop and visit this Kirk on their way. (Kirk is Scottish for Church)

This is Dirleton Castle, which was built late in the 13th century. The original building was destroyed in 1314 by the Scottish hero Robert the Bruce, as he was wanting to keep it out of the hands of the English during their fight for independence. It was rebuilt several times throughout the 14th and 16th century. The ruins you see today was the work of the evil Oliver Cromwell, who bombarded the castle with canons in retaliation to the Scottish uprisings against England.

Isn't Nicola doing such a great job of guarding the castle? She is in my History class, and was nice enough to take me on this lovely excursion through the Scottish country side.

Here I am standing in the courtyard of the castle. I was quite excited to be here, as it was my first taste of a real old castle. Inside was gloomy, grimmy, and a bit scary just as any good castle should be. I had a great time running around imagining what it must have looked like back in the day.

Majestic.

The castle is surrounded by quite a famous garden. It has won a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the longest herbaceous border....what ever that is?????

Here is the inside of Rossyln Chapel, famous thanks to the book 'Davinci's Code'. This is the front part of the chapels ceiling. The building is covered in intricate carvings, and one could spend hours looking at each nook and cranny.

Rossyln Chapel was built in the 15th century, and has strong connections with the Knights Templar. Many believe that the chapel is home to the Holy Grail and other Holy treasures brought back from the Crusades by the Kinghts Templar. There is also rumored that beneath the chapel is buried 15 to 20 knights dressed in full armour. The mysteries of this chapel has intrigued people for centuries, and plays a key role in why the chapel was left unharmed during the reformation. This is the back end of the Chapel's ceiling.


This is the famouse Apprentice pillar, where it is said the Holy Grail is buried within. Another interestng story is associated with this pillar. An apprentice decided in his masters absence to carve this pillar. When his master returned, he was so angry and jealous at the young man's masterpeice that in a fit of rage he murdered the boy. Spooky stuff.

Due to some renovations being done on the chapel the outside is covered by a barn like structure. While I couldn't get any nice photos of the outside, we were able to climb up the building and get a view from the top of the chapel. This is a view towards Penicuik, where Nicola is from.

Sayard at the front entrance.

Our Highland Adventure

Here is my good man Hamish. He is the most popular of all the Highland Cow, and calls the town of Dunn his home.

Neil and Hamish eating their scones.

Here is Neil and fellow Canadian Graeme at Loch Lubnaig

Loch Lubnaig again.

Not much of a picture, but this is a cairn which commerates the massacre of Glencoe. The English were having trouble controlling the Clans in the mid 17th century, so William the Orange made all the clan chiefs swear alligance to him. However one part of the clan MacDonalds had trouble getting the message thru, so William the Orange decided to make an example out of them by having the Campbell Clan sent to massacre every man, women and child. Clans still had a tradition of showing complete hospitality to each other. So when the Campbells arrived the MacDonalds put them up and feed them for 12 days,but on the 13th the killing began. Obviously many of the Cambells could not bear to kill their fellow countrymen whom they had got to know so well, and only 38 were killed. To this day the name Campbell, in Glencoe, is still frowned upon. One pub we passed actually had a sign above its door reading "No dogs, No Campbells".

Neil taking in the scenery of Glencoe, as the rain hits him sideways

Amazon or highlands.....amazon or highlands.....????

This is the view we saw as we entered Glen Nevis, located in the Western Highlands.

Neil standing in front of the falls of Glen Nevis. Scenes from the movie Braveheart were filmed at this location.

The group on our way out.

Magical.

Here is the world famouse Loch Ness, and if you look really hard I swear you can see Nessie.

The man behind this enterprise gave up his regualr life as a insurance salesman to spend the last 15 years looking for Nessie.

Partying it up, Inverness style.

Here is Graeme and our tour guide Carwyn, both of whom are in Sayard's History class.

Here is Katie, also a Canadian from Sayard's History class, and Carwyn who you met in the last picture. As you can see he seems to have had a bit to drink, and this being after he declared "Guys I'm only going for one pint, as I do have to drive you all around tomorow."

A lovely view of Inverness in the early morning. This is the captial of the Highlands.

Imagine trying to give directions to this place. I'll have to brush up on my Scots Gaelic while I'm here.

A view of Glen Affric, a National Reservation.

More of the same.

Hi there!

Neil almost fell into this, quite scary, but afterwards funny.

Scotch pines, they live to be 500-600 years old. They used to cover most of the land mass of this part of Scotland, but now only cover 1% of the land.

Heather, this plant grows almost anywhere and everywhere in the Highlands.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. As you can see there is some significant damage, as it was bombarded by the English during the Jacobite Rebellion.

A view from the Walk of Bruar, a picturesque journey into the woods.

Our last stop on the trip, dirty and tired but extremely satisfied.