Schotland 1990

In 1990 studeert Michael Informatica aan de Universiteit van Utrecht, met zijn studievrienden Erwin en Hayo trekt hij in de zomer een paar weken door Schotland. Ze reizen met de Hyundai Poni van Michael en nemen de boot van Hoek van Holland naar Harwich. De tent wordt de eerste dag opgezet op een camping in Inveraray. Inveraray is een 18de-eeuwse stad met gewitte huizen en het kasteel van de hertog van Argyll.

Het eerste kasteel dat bezocht wordt is Kilchurn Castle. Op dat moment kon het kasteel nog over de weg bereikt worden. In 2003 heeft Network Rail de hekken die Kilchurn Castle vanaf de oostkant (via land) bereikbaar maakten afgesloten. Op de foto het kasteel vanaf de oostzijde, over het toen nog in slechte staat verkerende weggetje.

Het kasteel is rond 1450 gebouwd door Sir Colin Campbell, de eerst Lord van Glenorchy. Toen was het een torenhuis van vijf verdiepingen met een tuin omgeven door een buitenmuur. Tegen 1500 heeft aan de zuidkant een uitbreiding plaatsgevonden en in de jaren 1500 en 1600 werd verder uitgebouwd.
Toen het werd gebouwd, lag Kilchurn op een klein eiland in Loch Awe. Dit eiland was nauwelijks groter dan het kasteel zelf. De meeste bronnen suggereren dat het kasteel toegankelijk was via een lager of onderwater gelegen weg: als je vandaag de dag naar het kasteel kijkt kun je zien dat bij het blootleggen van de loch in 1817 het water niet ver gedaald is.
Kilchurn's ontwikkeling kreeg een onverwachte wending in 1681. In dat jaar werd Sir John Campbell van Glenorchy de eerste Earl van Breadalbane. Hij wilde gebruik maken van de onrustige tijden en besteedde een groot deel van de 1690s met het omzetten van Kilchurn Castle in moderne barakken waarin 200 man aan troepen gehuisvest konden worden. Als gevolg hiervan is het drie verdieping tellende L-vormige blok aan de noordzijde toegevoegd.
Tegen 1698 was de regering begonnen Fort William te veranderen in een stenen Fort van het houten gebouw dat geplaatst was op de kop van Loch Linnhe in 1690. Wat de plannen van Sir John Campbell met Kilchurn Castle ook geweest mogen zijn, ze zijn omver gegooid door de vestiging van Fort William. Het kasteel werd gebruikt als garnizoen gedurende de Jaconite rebellie in 1715 en 1745: maar de pogingen van de familie het kasteel te verkopen aan de regering waren niet succesvol. Ze vertrokken in 1740 and verhuisden naar Taymouth Castle in oost-Scotland, om hun tijd te spenderen aan het ontwikkelen van hun Perthshire bezittingen. In 1760 was het kasteel zwaar beschadigd door bliksem en volledig verlaten. De overblijfselen van een kleine toren, die nog onderste boven rusten in het centrum van de binnenplaats, is het bewijs van de ernst van de storm. Het kasteel staat op een laag rotsplateau aan het eind van een landpunt in moerassig gebied welke uitkomt in het noordoosten van Lochawe. On the northwest side of the spit, the River Orchy enters the loch. The water level of the loch was originally higher, flooding the spit and forming an island upon which the castle stood. The plan of the castle is roughly rectangular with the width running southwest to northeast and with the southern corner cut of on a diagonal. The earliest surviving part is the keep or Tower House, the main part of which was built between 1440 and 1460 when the plateau was probably enclosed with a barmkin wall of which only the southern diagonal portion remains. The tower stands in the eastern corner of the courtyard. The entrance was through the vaulted ground floor of the tower. Above was the Great Hall which had a wooden ceiling which would not have been as ornate as the later ceilings at Carnassarie. Above the hall were two more stories of rooms and a garret which gave onto a parapet walk. Towards the turn of the 15th to 16th centuries a Laich Hall or large dining hall was built along the inside of the south diagonal wall of the courtyard with one end near the tower, no doubt because the Hall in the tower was too small for the retainers and guests of the family. About a century later a second storey was added to this hall. However, little now remains of the Laich Hall. During the third quarter of the sixteenth century the tower parapet and roof-house were remodeled and circular corner turrets added. A further addition was made to the north side of the tower, evidently private chambers, but of this later work nothing identifiable remains. In 1616 the newly heightened Laich Hall was joined to the Tower House by a new range containing two vaulted cellars over which were a chapel and attic. The final phase of construction was carried out by the first Earl of Breadalbane. Round towers were added to the north, south and west corners of the heightened barmkin wall and a range of barracks built along the northwest side and linked to the tower by an angle at the northeastern end. A new stair tower was added to provide more gracious access to the southwest side of the Tower House. The castle seems to have been little used after it was garrisoned in the 1745 Jacobite rising. Evidently the tower was struck with lightening in the early 1770s after which no repairs were carried out to the roof and the fabric rapidly deteriorated. Some masonry repairs were crudely done after 1887 but these unfortunately destroyed or obliterated some original features. The masonry of the whole structure was re-pointed in recent years. The lands of Glenorchy were originally in the hands of the MacGregors of Glenstrae and passed to the Campbells by marriage in the 14th century. Sir Duncan Campbell, the future Lord Campbell, granted the Lordship of Glenorchy to his younger son Colin in 1432. Colin of Glenorchy's father-in-law, John Stewart Lord of Lorne, signed a charter in 1449 `apud castrum de Glenurquhay' (at the castle of Glenorchy) so that by that date some form of castle had been built on the site, possibly in the form of the Tower House and barmkin. Sir Colin's son, Sir Duncan, added the Laich Hall and his grandson, another Sir Colin (1550-1583), who had succeeded two elder brothers and so was 6th of Glenorchy, built four angle turrets and the north wing to the Tower House. The 3rd and 4th Lairds had died in the castle in 1523 and 1536, so it is clear that Kilchurn was the principal home of the Campbells of Glenorchy for about an hundred years. Then, in the second half of the 16th century, the family increasingly lived at Fincharn on their Perthshire estates. Until Sir Duncan's violent feud with the MacGregors of Glenstrae in the first decade of the 17th century, there was a line of MacGregors appointed as Keepers of Kilchurn. Sir Duncan, who succeeded on his father's death in 1583, was made a Baronet in 1625 and died in 1631, having made fairly extensive improvements to the castle. Besides building several other tower houses from Barcaldine to Balloch (now Taymouth), Sir Duncan `of the seven castles' put a second floor onto the Laich Hall at Kilchurn and joined it to the tower with a further range which included the chapel and stair to the courtyard. The castle was briefly besieged in 1654 and was garrisoned by Sir John of Glenorchy, 1st Earl of Breadalbane, in support of the government action against the 9th Earl of Argyll's invasion of 1685. The barracks on the north side of the courtyard were added in the 1690s and used in 1708, 1715 and 1745. The Campbell knights of Glenorchy who later became Earls and then Marquises of Breadalbane, expanded their estates eastwards into Strathtay, becoming for a time almost as powerful as the Earls and Dukes of Argyll. But towards the end of the 19th century a decline set in through gambling and poor management which has resulted in the loss of all the lands and the destitution of the family. Kilchurn was the last to go, sold in the 1980s to a romantic consortium after 500 years. In recent years teak stairs have been installed to allow access to the upper levels of the tower, greatly increasing the interest of a visit and the range of views up Glenstrae and Glenorchy and across the loch to Cruachan. Kilchurn is in the care of the Department of the Environment and is open to the public in summer.

Natuurlijk werken ze ook de omgeving een beetje en wordt er genoten van het uitzicht over de rivier Orchy.

Het volgende bezochte kasteel is Carnasserie Castle near Kilmartin. Built between 1565 and 1572 on the site of an older building, Carnasserie Castle is on a ridge above the Kilmartin valley. The car park is just off the main A816 road, heading towards Oban, so visitors have a climb up a pathway to reach the castle itself. Carnasserie was built by John Carswell who became Bishop of Argyll and the Isles in the reign of Mary Queen of Scots. He translated John Knox's "Liturgy" into Gaelic which became the first book ever printed in Scots Gaelic. Carswell held the lands and the castle on behalf of Archibald Campbell, the 5th Earl of Argyll. A motto above a doorway reads " God be with O Duibhne" - the archaic name for the chiefs of the Campbells of Argyll. The panel also contains the Earl's coat of arms as well as the royal arms - the Earl of Argyll married a daughter of King James V. The Earl took over the castle on Carswell's death in 1572. It is now owned by Historic Scotland. The castle was badly damaged by the MacLeans and MacLachlans when the 9th Earl of Argyll took part in the Monmouth Rising, a rebellion against King James VII in 1685. Nevertheless, there are still fine stone carvings and a magnificent fireplace to be seen. Handsomely situated above the west side of the valley about a mile north of the village of Kimartin, Carnassarie commands the southern approach to Loch Awe. Standing at the edge of a benchland or raised beach partly clothed in mature deciduous woodland, the setting is dramatic. The design included a keep or tower on the edge of the slope, with a domestic range of three stories running west and terminating in a tower stair and entrance door projecting to the northwest. The keep tower has a vaulted cellar with a well. Above is a handsome hall with a garderobe in one corner and spiral stair in another. The two larger windows look south, while a smaller one gives a view across the valley to the east. The fireplace in the north wall has a finely carved surround in the renaissance style. The ceiling would have been of beam and board construction and likely painted with heraldic, mythological or biblical designs. Above the hall were two floors of bedrooms and a garret with parapet walk and round corner turrets. The ground floor of the west wing included vaulted cellars and a kitchen. In the latter the arched fireplace and wall-oven remain well preserved, as does the water conduit from the outside, whose presence shows that the well in the tower was for emergency purposes only. Over the kitchen and storage cellars was a long hall whose windows were enlarged at some point. This great room would have had a stone flagged floor, a fireplace, walls hung with tapestry or plastered and painted in imitation, and a beamed and painted ceiling. Over the hall would have been more bedrooms or barrackrooms, likely having dormer windows with carved stone gables. The style of carving is of a quality not found elsewhere in Argyll at this period. The obvious renaissance elements in the design indicate that Bishop John Carswell, who built the castle for the Earl of Argyll, had been inspired by the work of the masons used by James V at Stirling where he had served as Chaplain. John Carswell obtained Carnasserie by charter of sale from Archibald Earl of Argyll in 1559-60. He may well have been a descendant of the Campbells of Corsewall in Wigtonshire. Born in about 1520, John was immensely tall even when he graduated from Saint Andrews university in 1544. He later became Chaplain to the Earl of Argyll. The powerful fifth Earl succeeded his father in 1558 and, while generally supporting his sister-in-law the catholic Mary Queen of Scots, was one of the proponents of the reformation of 1560. John Carswell seems to have followed the Earl in his attempt to avoid civil war by remaining in touch with both the Queen and the protestant Lords of the Congregation. Even after the reformation of 1560, he was made Bishop of Argyll and the Isles by Mary Queen of Scots in 1566. Carswell first made his home in Argyll at Kilmartin where he is believed to have been the builder of the small castle or fortified house before starting construction on Carnassarie. Bishop Carswell became a Gaelic scholar and is best known for translating the prayerbook of John Knox into the Gaelic, the first book ever printed in that language. He was not a popular man locally and was called `the heron' for his height and stoop. He died in 1572 after two marriages and two children. His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Campbell of Inverawe. His daughter by the second marriage, Christian, became the second wife of Dougall Campbell of Inverawe whose first wife and children had been hung by a raiding Maclean. She later married Bishop Neill Campbell, Carswell's successor at Carnasserie. In 1643 the Earl of Argyll sold Carnasserie to Dougall Campbell, younger of Auchinbreck, who enjoyed its palatial splendor for 42 years. Then during the 9th Earl of Argyll's invasion of 1685 the castle, still then the most sophisticated building in Argyll, was burned by Lachlan Maclean of Torloisk. The ruins came to belong to the Campbells of Kilmartin, cadets of Inverawe who had been granted Kilmartin, and possibly also Carnaserie, in 1674. They were obliged to sell in the 1820s and their estates, including Carnasserie were bought by their neighbors the Malcolms of Poltalloch. The Department of the Environment are custodians and the castle is open to the public.

Standing Stones. Temple Wood Stone circle Argyll, Strathclyde Nearest town: Lochgilphead Nearest village: Kilmartin At this circle 13 stones are placed over a cairn This almost perfect circle -12m (40ft) in diameter- was the focus for centuries of burials. The circle, restored, is shown in its final form with 13 stones, almost covered by a cairn of stones. Through the excavations (1929 and 1974-9) the sequence of structures has been established; the earliest construction was a circle of 22 stones. Two were decorated with concentric circles and a double spiral. Various burials were made in and around the circle. Two cairns were constructed outside it. Beneath them were cists containing burials. On the paving of the west cairn was a layer of earth and the tooth of a 4-6 year-old child. Around the end of the 18th century a hoard of coins, presumably medieval, was found near the centre of the circle. The trees around the circle were planted in the late 19th century and the site was given the name Temple Wood. E and NE from this circle are the three cairns of Nether Largie, and about 1.6 km (1 mile) SE from the site there are also the Ri Cruin and Dunchraigaig cairns.