I am recently back from two weeks in the UK. My wife Heather and I flew into London, took the train to Glasgow to meet up with two of my hiking brethren, and proceeded to walk the West Highland Way. We took six days to do the entire 96.5 mile route, from Milgavie to Fort William, through the Scottish Highlands. Then it was a quick trip back to Glasgow, train back to London, and flight home.
Rather than write a big travelogue, I am sharing my favorite photos, music, and poetry from our trip. Photos below at the end of the post.
I will also offer a short playlist of songs I put together. No bagpipes, fiddles or Scots Gaelic, rather, good music by Scottish Bands. I am a huge Simple Minds fan (they are from Glasgow, and I got to see them in person in Seattle this past May – so so good!), so there are a couple of their songs that bookend the playlist, sandwiched with bangers:
I also like to pick up a book of poetry to read when I travel – something that is of the people, culture, and landscape. To briefly define the Scottish ‘voice’ in poetry, it would be to witness beautiful (bonnie) landscapes, feel some despair, and make a melancholic joke about it all. The book I picked up is titled Three Scottish Poets: MacCaig, Morgan, Lochhead and it was perfect. Here’s an example:
My Last Word on Frogs, by Norman MacCaig
People have said to me, You seem to like frogs.
They keep jumping into your poems.
I do. I love the way they sit,
compact as a cat and as indifferent
to everything but style, like a lady remembering
to keep her knees together. And I love
the elegant way they jump and
the inelegant way they land.
So human.
I feel so close to them
I must be froggish myself.
I look in the mirror expecting to see
a fairytale Prince.
But no. It's just sprawling me,
croaking away
and swiveling my eyes around
for the stealthy heron and his stabbing beak.
Here are my favorite photos from this walk. I took all these with my OM System TG-7, which proved a very fun and capable camera. I appreciated that it would get soaked in my pocket from rain and I didn’t have to worry about it.
To close, here’s me experiencing Devil’s Staircase, on a particularly lovely Scottish Summer afternoon.