Scotland, Part 2

GLASGOW


Central Square


The River Clyde


Walking towards the University district


St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life & Art


Glasgow Cathedral


Glasgow Cathedral

LOCH LOMOND


Loch Lomond


Honestly, Waldo Lake is much better


The picnic area

STIRLING


Stirling Castle ramparts


The entrance gate


Castle courtyard


The palace


Robert the Bruce


Castle walls


Interior of the Great Hall


View of Stirling from the castle. You can see Stirling Bridge towards the bottom, and the William Wallace monument on the hill in the distance.


The battlefield where William Wallace defeated the English in 1297


Stirling Bridge - obviously a reconstruction since the original was destroyed during the battle

ROSLIN


Rosslyn Chapel, and the current efforts to preserve it. This was the final stop in the movie The DaVinci Code.


Exterior carvings


Chapel interior


The Crypt beneath the chapel


The Apprentice Pillar


Really detailed carvings on the ceiling


More impressive carvings


Supposedly each of these carved blocks are a coded message left by the Knights Templar


The Green Man


They carved all this out of stone. Wow.


If you decide that the carvings around the window are maize, then it's proof that the Earl of Orkney led a group of Templar Knights to North America long before Columbus even thought of making the trip, since maize was not introduced to Europe until a couple hundred years after these carvings were done. Others argue that the carvings are just stylized wheat or strawberries.

INVERNESS


The River Ness


Some churches by the river


Inverness Castle


Burial mound in the countryside

LOCH NESS


Urquhart Castle, on the banks of Loch Ness


The ruined castle keep


The grounds outside the castle


Urquhart entrance gate


Inside the castle grounds


Loch Ness, seen from Urquhart Castle


The loch, just before the rain moves in


Rainbow


Cruising the loch. No Nessie sightings.