Good thinking Gadget,
To anyone who hasn't been to Scotland - "Do so now". It has everything you could want.
I would absolutely love to visit my old haunts once again. Unfortunately I wont be able to, but I hope yo don't mind me making a few suggestions over the next few days/weeeks/months.
I know this sounds like a tall order but if you try you can do, so why not try to aquire accomodation at somewhere that evokes the relevant atmosphere - a place of interest and history. I can immediately envisage a place like Kinloch castle on the Isle of Rhum. Sounds unlikely but believe me these things are possible.
Rhum is one of the small isles, a group of the Inner Hebrides which are the islands one sees on the road from Fort William to Malaig on the west coast of Scotland.
Rhum was for many years known as the forbidden island due to it's intense privacy - the private owners ( Bullough's) took over from the traditional owners the McLean's who had cleared the once thriving population and built their home, Kinloch Castle. The luxurious castle with its ballroom, elaborate Great Hall and unique and complicated showers, proved a unique and secluded venue for private parties with a guest list to be envious of. apparantly guns were often fired at approaching boats to discourage the curious - thus the 'Forbidden Island'.
Suddenly after one visit they locked the doors and left, never to return, leaving music and instruments by the stands in the gallery, in the ballroom and wine in the cellars.
Today, the Castle, still as it was when the family left, is a perfect example of Edwardian life, including superb furniture and fittings, a Steinway piano, and one of the few operating Orchestrions (automated organs operated by rolls) in the world. not to mention to some members )who shall remain anonimous) the unique collection of victorian porn thatI am told is there.
After the family left, the island was bought if I remember correctly by the Nature Conservancy and access was still severely restricted, the only people allowed being researchers and a small number of walkers and climbers.
I was lucky enough to visit Rhum twice. Once in the 60s and again in the 70s when we visited the Mausoleum at Bay of Harris. It goes without saying that the Mausoleum belonged to the Bullough family. However, a more poignant reminder of the past is the nearby common mans cemetery, where a brief inspection reveals whole families dying with days of each other of the plague.
Now try to tell me that this wouldn't be a memorable holiday.
Denn
Poll