Looking Forward at the Past
Standing in front of the Eilean Donan Castle (pictured on the home page of this site), looking down the Sound of Sleat to the Isle of Skye in the distance.	Portree is one of the two main towns on the Isle of Skye; here is a view of its waterfront with lovely pastel-painted buildings.
The Highlands are home to a small, very shaggy variety of cattle, or as pronounced in the vernacular, "wee Heilant coos".  Here are some near the graveyard where Flora MacDonald, rescuer of Bonnie Prince Charlie, lies buried.	The next town after Portree on the island is Uig.  Here, on the road leading into Uig, is a view up the "Fairy Glen".
In the beautiful Glen of the Coe River, part of our group took off on a hike up to the Lost Valley.  Here's the group getting ready; not pictured are Ed (changing into his shorts on the bus), Janet (off somewhere getting a picture, no doubt) and myself (standing behind the camera, of course).	A view of our hiking destination: the Lost Valley high up one side of Glencoe.  It's a wonder my knees didn't start complaining right then and there!
A small stream runs down the side of Glencoe from the Lost Valley, and our hike was essentially along side of it until we crossed it quite high up.  Here a small falls appears as the stream negotiates the way down.	Another view of the stream; notice the small fall on the left.  We crossed the stream just downstream of the huge rock on the right.
Yet another view, this time on the way down, of our guide stream.  By this point you should have figured out that I "collect" waterfalls!	A view of the Falls of Dochart in the village of Killin.  Loch Tay is very unusual in that it drains two different directions:  the River Tay flows from the east end of the loch to the Firth of Tay on Scotland's North Sea coast, while the River Dochart drains from the west end through Loch Lomond eventually to the Atlantic on the west coast.
Another view of the Falls of Dochart in Killin.  It's very possible that my family's Killen ancestors originally came from Killin (or its vicinity), as we know they were Scots who settled in the area of Belfast during the Ulster Plantation in Ireland.  Although completely unproven, I like to think of Killin as an ancestral village anyway - it's a lovely place to be able to claim!	One last view of the Falls of Dochart, looking under the road bridge from which the other photos were taken.