Well, the castle in Inverness was definitely not as impressive as the one in Stirling. As it turns out, all of the castles that could be called “Inverness Castle” have been repeatedly destroyed over the centuries, and so the current castle is actually quite modern, having been built during the 1800’s if I’m not mistaken… in other words, it really wasn’t built for any kind of military defense or as a personal palace, but rather as local government office- the Justice of the Peace has offices there for example. It does command quite nice views of the river Ness, but unfortunately the best location for these views is from a tower that the public can access on any day other than Tuesday- the day I was there.
Fortunately however, just underneath the castle is a great museum called the iMAG which is free/donation for entry. The museum starts with a section on natural history- beginning with the formation of the Earth billions of years ago, and following the geologic processes surround what would eventually become the Scottish Highlands until they eventually emerge from the sea a few million years ago and arrive at their current position in the Northern Hemisphere.
From there they pick up the story with the first human settlers to arrive in the region, around 8,000 years ago- or around the 4,000’s HE. Back then the English Channel was dry land, and it was possible for migrating human populations in Europe to move all the way up to the receding glaciers in the north of Scotland. By the 5,000’s there was sparse population basically everywhere in the British Isles, and then by the 6,000’s the people who lived there were building mighty stone henges and other permanent edifices that mark the existence of civilization. The 8,000’s was the beginning of the Bronze Age in the region, and then the 9,000’s starts a very important era to modern peoples: the adoption of Celtic culture in the region, as ushered in by the arrival of Iron Age technology from further east. At the beginning of this cultural adoption there may have also been a relatively small migration/colonization/invasion force from central Europe who pushed directly all the way up to Scotland- without necessarily disturbing the people who lived in what is now England, Wales, and Ireland; and that these people are the Picts- early Celtic transplants to Scotland, before the later general adoption of Celtic culture by the rest of the region’s pre-existing Bronze Age populations. This is also the beginning of history, in Scotland (as opposed to pre-history, or the difference between eras from which there are no contemporary human records, and eras when which there are).
Some of the Picts were the Caledonians that the Romans fought as they invaded their way north through the island of Great Britain, and ultimately Rome decided that it was not worth the trouble to fight all the way north, building Hadrian’s wall instead between 10,122 and 10,127 HE. Then around 10,500 HE, Celtic peoples from Ireland (who now had become their own unique sub-culture of Celt called the Gaels) began colonizing western Scotland, eventually establishing a kingdom called Dal Riada which pushed against the native Picts to the north and the Britons to the south (also Celtic people, but of more recent adoption of the Celtic culture, and more Romanized by the occupation). It’s also around the 10,500’s that Christianity first makes any significant headway at converting local populations in Scotland.
Note that the Romans had referred to all Gaels by the term Scoti, which was likely a latinized version of some Gaelish word that referred to some group of them, but as the centuries passed, the term came to be used exclusively for those Gaels in northern Great Britain, particularly those of Dal Riada- meaning that the inhabitants of Dal Riada are the so-called "Scoti Tribe" and vice versa. The Latin term for the Dal Riadan Gaels survived into what was becoming English, and so the English name for the place and people has become Scoti in character.
Around the 10,650’s a Germanic people called the Angles established a powerful kingdom in northern England called Northumbria, which managed to conquer the Scots and one of the last remaining fully British kingdoms- Strathclyde, in what is now the area around Glasgow; but the Angles were then stopped by the Picts in 10,685 HE, who then consequently gained hegemony over the Scots of Dal Riada, and in 10,756 HE over Strathclyde as well. Despite the considerable military successes of the Picts, the Gaelic language of the Scots and their other cultural features began to take hold throughout greater Pictland- perhaps thanks to the spread of Christianity which had taken hold in Ireland earlier than it had in what would eventually be Scotland.
In 10,794 HE the Vikings attacked, and continued attacking until into the 11,000’s. This spurred on the Kingdoms of Dal Riada and Pictland, which had recently been loosely allied but distinct, to unify under the leadership of a Scot (Kenneth MacAlpin) in 10,843 HE, shortly after the king of the Picts had died in a battle the two nations fought against the invading Vikings. This new, united kingdom was called Alba (so named for MacAlpin’s heritage) and represents the beginnings of Scotland as a new nation- one with Pictish, Scotish, British, Angle, and even some Viking heritage. Now particularly under the leadership of a Scot, the Gaelic language and culture became predominant throughout all of Alba.
The museum continued to follow the story of Alba as it eventually came under the influence of the relatively newly unified nation of England by political stratagem in 11,174 HE, how Scotland fought for its independence during the time of Willaim Wallace of “Braveheart” fame (right around the turn of the century to the 11,300’s), and then how Scottish royalty ascended to the throne of England through marriages in 11,603 HE. From there it covers the Jacobite rebellions (the last of which was in 11,746 HE) and then continues on into the Victorian era (11,837-11,901 HE).
All in all it was very interesting, and I’m glad that I took my time going through it and making notes as I went, as I feel like I understand the Scottish history *significantly* better than I did before. After finally leaving the museum, I got back in the car heading south, back through the Cairngorms. Sadly this time was less beautiful, as there was quite a bit of fog and rain that made the journey scarier- but thankfully I’ve also been growing increasingly accustomed to driving here, which offset these new negative factors a bit. Eventually I got pretty hungry, and decided to make a slight detour to Perth to find some food. It was great to stretch my legs a bit and walk around the downtown area of Perth, but sadly I didn’t get to see very much else of it besides the Indian restaurant I went to- which was fantastic.
Soon enough I was back on the road, headed to Glasgow once more. I got to my new hostel which overlooked the Clyde River, and made friends with my roommate there, Guy; whom I believe was also on vacation, but from his job teaching English in Spain. We ended up getting into a long and very interesting conversation that ranged across multiple subjects of socio-political-economic nature; to be honest I probably rambled away at him a bit. All of the driving around and wandering in museums by myself has meant that I’ve done *significantly* less talking each day than I normally do at home, and I think I was just a little bit over-enthusiastic to have significant conversation, haha. Guy was really cool though.
I ended up going out into the city again, trying to find some food and maybe a drink, and the chance to meet more locals, but I ended up being somewhat violently disappointed. First of all, other than a nightclub I passed that looked like it was literally overflowing with 18 year-olds, there seemed to be literally nothing open except for McDonalds and PizzaHut. I was somewhat astounded- for the reputation in America that Scots have for drinking, everywhere that I’ve been has had what I would describe as exceptionally tame drinking and nightlife scenes.
I continued walking around for a while in vain search, when as I started to work my way back down the hill towards the river again, a taxi cab drove past me with loud male laughter coming from it. Suddenly something seemed to be coming right at my face, and I instinctively ducked- turning away towards the brick and stone wall behind me. A bottle filled with some kind of liquid, presumably beer, flew right past where my head was, and shattered to tiny pieces against the wall. A confetti-sized piece ricocheted at me, nicking my cheek just slightly, and liquid splashed back from the wall onto my jacket. The cab kept going a short distance, and then stopped- probably about 30m away from me. I was stunned that this had just happened, but I realized that I needed to prepare myself for a rough time, so I walked out into the middle of the road behind the cab (but still at about the same distance from it) and just stared at the cab while holding totally still in something of a “gunfighter” pose I suppose it could be described. I heard yelling from inside the cab, but I couldn’t make out what was actually being said. It might’ve been the cabbie yelling at the passengers who threw the bottle, it might’ve been the passengers yelling at the cabbie to keep going, it might’ve been the passengers yelling threats at me. I don’t know. So I stood there, silent and motionless- preparing myself to be as intimidating as possible if they did get out of the car looking for a fight, and preparing myself to fight with as much aggression as possible if I failed to intimidate them into standing down- especially if there were multiple of them, which seemed likely. Fortunately (at least for me, I can’t speak for the driver), the driver did eventually keep moving, first to the next stop light, which was red; and then to the next one, also red; before turning out of sight. I stayed in place in the road during all of that- hoping that if my assailants looked out the back window and saw me still standing there in the road it might give something of a “Terminator” impression, but who knows what they actually thought- or what anyone would’ve thought if they had seen me standing there- but the streets were completely empty and quiet after that.
I ended up getting a Big Mac at McDonalds, feeling somewhat defeated to have flown across the globe to eat American fast food that I don’t even eat when I’m in America; but relatively pleased with how calmly and confidently I had responded to whatever amount of danger I had just been in, or perceived to have been in. Side note: Glasgow must have either a strong Rocky Horror Picture Show cult or a strong drag community, because there were quite a few people dressed up at the McDonalds who seemed to be having a grand time, which was fun to watch.
This morning I ended up sleeping in quite a bit, which meant that when I finally did wake up I was in a horrible rush. What made things worse was that there had not been an opportunity to charge either my phone or tablet overnight, and so both were totally, 100% dead this morning. As such, when I jumped into the car, I put my phone on the charger and then had to navigate myself purely by signs and instinct back to the Glasgow Airport to return the rental car- and was doing it on practically fumes for fuel, as I had gone with a “return empty” option while booking the rental. Despite making some wrong turns, I managed to make it to the return terminal, and with one minute to spare to avoid paying for a whole additional 24 hours plus a late return fee! I returned the car, went inside the airport to a Starbucks, and charged my electronics while also booking my train tickets to London for that night, and a hostel to stay in when I arrived.
I took a bus back to Glasgow where I met up with Rachael once more to talk about how my adventures had gone, and then I dropped my bag off at Glasgow Central Station’s lockers so that I could grab some food while I waited for my delayed train to depart. I found a great little “Mexican” place across the street from the station, and feeling obligated as a San Diegan, I ordered myself a burrito, but with haggis for meat, and an Irn Bru to wash it down. It was pretty damn good, actually.
Now I’m nearing the end of my train ride to London (which has been delayed several times do to problems on the track ahead apparently?) but I’ve enjoyed having the time to catch up on the writing. Next stop: Euster Station, and then the famous London Underground!