For many people around the world, the Highlands 'are' Scotland, living up to their picture-postcard images with majestic scenery, awesome wild places, towering mountains, ancient pine forests and broad expanses of dark and shimmering loch. They are all this, of course, and much more besides.
Frankie Miller (born Francis John Miller, 2 November 1949) is a Scottish rock singer songwriter
and vocalist who had success in the 1970s. Miller was raised at Colvend Street,
Barrowfield, Glasgow with his parents, Kathy and Frank, and elder sisters Letty and Anne.
He attended Sacred Heart Primary school . He was an altar boy in Sacred Heart Chapel. He
also played football for the school team and Harmony Row Boys Club. He wrote for and
performed with many influential recording artists and is best known for his album Full
House, the single Darlin' and his duet on Still in Love with You, with Phil Lynott. In an article
published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1978 Bob Seger remarked that Miller, "was a huge
influence" on him. He first became aware of the power of rock and R&B through his mother’s record
collection. She had a fondness for Ray Charles while his sisters introduced him to Little
Richard and Elvis Presley. He identified instinctively, with Little Richard’s flamboyant
aggression, once saying "The music was alive, exciting, I loved it. I realised later that I could
get my own aggression out through music. R&B and Soul Music, I just knew was what I really
loved". He started writing songs at the age of nine after being given a guitar by his parents
and wrote "I Can't Change It" when he was just twelve years old, this song was later
recorded by Ray Charles.
For many people around the world, the Highlands 'are' Scotland, living up to their picture-postcard images with majestic scenery, awesome wild places, towering mountains, ancient pine forests and broad expanses of dark and shimmering loch. They are all this, of course, and much more besides. Capital of the Highlands and the only major urban centre in the region, Inverness is an obvious springboard for exploring more remote areas - north to wind-lashed Cape Wrath, at the very northwest tip of the mainland, with it sheer cliffs and sand-filled bays bearing the brunt of frequently fierce Atlantic storms; south to the beautiful expanses of Glen Coe via the Great Glen; or west to the remote and tranquil Ardnamurchan peninsula with the beautiful 'Road to the Isles' running to Mallaig and Skye beyond. Skye is one of the most popular holiday spots in Scotland and is famed for the harsh peaks of the Cuillins and the bizarre rock formations of the Trotternish peninsula. Wherever you roam, you'll find outstanding natural beauty: Glen Coe, the Cairngorms National Park, Ben Nevis, Ardnamurchan, Glen Affric - the list is as long as the Great Glen itself. And though it's natural to picture the Highlands as a mountainous region, there are also miles of coastline and intriguing islands to explore as well. Here you can have your own private sandy beach with shimmering turquoise waters and nobody else to be seen for miles around. Then there are the amazing flat lands of the Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland, one of Europe's last great wild places. Not surprisingly, wildlife flourishes in such great wildernesses and you can see dolphins, whales, eagles, deer, otters and much more besides. The inspiring landscape and the tranquillity and space which it offers are without doubt the main attractions of the region but if you like the active life, the Highlands also offer unsurpassed opportunities for top-class mountaineering, climbing and off-road biking, along with a host of other outdoor pursuits. This is particularly true around Fort William and Lochaber which proclaims itself 'the Outdoor Capital of the UK'. If you prefer your holiday at a slower pace, the region's many historical sites, remote castles, distinctive culture and language and welcoming towns also prove a major draw in their own right.
Argyll Forest Park welcomes visitors all year round and offers forest walks, mountain paths, spectacular views, car parks and picnic areas, cycle trails, horse riding and fishing. Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park (Scottish Gaelic: Pàirc Nàiseanta Loch Laomainn is nanTròisichean) is a national park in Scotland centred on Loch Lomond, and includes several ranges of hills, the Trossachs being the most famous. The park is the fourth largest in the British Isles, with a total area of 1,865 km² (720 mi²) and a boundary of some 350 km (220 mi) in length. It includes 21 Munros (including Ben Lomond, BenLui, Beinn Challuim, Ben More and two peaks called Ben Vorlich), 20 Corbetts, two forest parks (Queen Elizabeth, and Argyll) In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands.
Kilchurn Castle
Most of the guide books tell you that you can get to Kilchurn Castle by boat from Lochawe during the summer months. The boat leaves from a landing by the Railway Station, and good parking is available at the bottom of a steep track that descends from the main road a little west of the Lochawe Hotel. You can also access the castle by land from the east. In 2003 a problem arose with this long established landward access to Kilchurn Castle, but this has now been resolved Kilchurn is possibly best appreciated by walking around the headland on which it stands. It looks very different from different angles, and the barracks are in stark contrast to the medieval feel of the tower on the south side. Internally you can appreciate much of the castle, though access to the viewpoint at the top of the main tower involves some unusually tight and steep steps and a narrow squeeze round a corner. Possibly the most spectacular feature found within the castle is the top of a tower struck by lightning in 1760. Unless you know what you are looking at this can be mistaken for a stepped circular podium in the grassy courtyard: an odd feature but not a remarkable one. What you are actually looking at is the top of a corbelled-out circular tower, blown completely off its base by a lightning strike. The top of the tower landed in one piece, upside-down in the castle courtyard. Only by seeing it for real can you begin to appreciate the ferocious amount of power that must have been needed to move it to its present location.
Eglinton Country Park
After 568 years of Montgomerie tenure, the 560 hectares (1,400 acres) that remained in the family ownership were sold to Robert Howie of Dunlop for £24,000. Many of the estate buildings were ruinous, but much of the landscape was undamaged. Agriculture efficiency and urban expansion were to transform the estate that had been one of the most admired in Scotland. Timber extraction on a massive scale was the first task of Robert Howie & Sons on their purchase of Eglinton in 1948. The subsequent establishment and improvement of extensive pastures culminated in the building of Eglinton Park Farm near the top of Belvedere Hill. The policies of Eglinton Castle had become a substantial dairy farm. Twenty years later, the town of Irvine was already spreading into the farmland. This expansion was augmented by the designation of Irvine New Town.
JOHN LOW PHOTOGRAPHY
©ESTABLISHED SEPTEMBER 2008©
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