Veronica and Monica's Mommy Abandonment Tour 2008

Even more serene than I'd imagined it in Sword of the Highlands.

It's a small island, and Monica and I were able to walk the entire perimeter.  It was impossible to walk through a landscape like this and not picture some raging Highlander galloping through the woods on horseback!

I couldn't help but think about the scene in Sword of the Highlands, where Lonan found Magda along the Inchmahome shore.

A final shot of Inchmahome.  I didn't want to leave...

We were lucky enough to have an actual (kilted!) Scotsman as our guide.  Here's a shot of Iain Watson, of Doodlebus tours.  I can't sing his praises enough.  Assuring us that Scotland has no rules against trespassing, Iain took us to Finlarig, an early 17th-century castle in Perthshire.  It once belonged to a Campbell, and now is a fixture on somebody's private land.  Can you imagine having this in your backyard?  It's in a dangerously ruinous state, so unfortunately we could only peek in and around the structure.

A beheading pit just outside the castle.  Up close, you can still see the remains of metal shackles in the corner.  Men would kneel before the pit and you can imagine what transpired from there.

Another shot of Finlarig, with the beheading pit in the foreground.  There's Iain sharing what was surely some very wise and informed tidbit.  Either that or he was cracking a joke in his best Monty Python voice...

Inch Cailleach is a lovely little island that, for generations, was used as a Clan Gregor burial site.

Inch means "island" (think Inchmahome) and cailleach refers to the Celtic crone goddess of winter.