Scotland, Summer 2005

I have a poster paper in a conference in Edinburgh, and the department is paying for me to fly out and present it in the poster session. With one free ticket to Edinburgh, Nancy decided to come, too. She's touring around Scotland while I'm in the conference, and we added a couple days on either end to explore some together.

The Trossachs

After landing in Glasgow, we drove north in the the Trossachs for a couple of days before heading to Edinburgh. (The Trossachs are a beautiful mountainous region famous as the home of Rob Roy.)

Inchmahome is an old ruined priory on an island in a lake (the only lake in Scotland--the rest are called lochs).

Nancy at Inchmahome.

Casey at Inchmahome. At this point, I've slept 8 hours out of the last 60, 4 of which were on the plane, so I look a little tired.

View from Ben Ledi
We also climbed a mountain in the Trossachs: Ben Ledi. While only 2800 feet high, it somehome meets my definition of mountain. We started our day at 800 feet and climbed a circuit up a ridge on one side and down a ridge on the other. This is a view from near the top, looking west towards Loch Lomond (the famous loch in the Trossachs). The views became even more spectacular as we got to the top, but it started spitting rain, so I didn't take any pictures.

Nancy on Ben Ledi
Nancy resting partway up.

A view from about halfway up.

Sheep attempting to look noble
On the way back down, it stopped drizzling long enough for me to take a picture of this wooly beast with the peak socked in in the mist above. I think this is just about as close to noble as a sheep has ever looked.

A Walk Along the Coast from Gullane to Dirleton

We took a prety stroll along the coast of the Firth of Forth.

Nancy and a lighthouse
Nancy on a rocky beach with a lighthouse in the background.

At the end of our walk was the ruins of Dirleton Castle.

Gardens
The grounds of the castle had nice gardens.

Casey in the gardens
This is me in front of some more gardens. The camera refused to focus on me and focused on the flowers instead, which is why I look weirder than usual.

Edinburgh

While I was in the conference, we were staying in Edinburgh. I didn't have time to do much in the city, so I didn't take any pictures (Nancy went all over, but didn't take the camera with her). We do, however, have a picture of Edinburgh Castle as it appeared out the window of our apartment:

Edinburgh Castle through the apartment window

Stirling Castle

I skipped an afternoon of talks to go with Nancy to Stirling to see the castle.

This is Stirling Castle as viewed from near the train station. Like all proper castles, it's built up on a hill overlooking the city. The castle is the buildings you see on the very top.

This is the bowling green inside Stirling Castle with the old castle gates to the right.

Stirling View
The best part of the castle was the views. This is the view in the direction of the Trossachs, and the high peak may well be Ben Lomond.

A tower monument to William Wallace
Across the valley from the tower, we could see the tower monument to William Wallace.

Casey in Stirling Castle
This is me in Stirling Castle with the rural lands to the south behind me. The wind was quite strong, so my hair was flying all over the place.