Day 3, Part 3: Thursday, June 8, 2000

Next stop was at Armadale where Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald took refuge. Armadale is actually closer to the North Pole than Moscow. There is a gardens, the remains of a castle/palace, a museum, and a shop. All of these were associated with the Clan Donald Centre. (The Clan MacDonald were descended from one of the sons of Donald after whom the Clan Donald is named.) There was a little slide show that was kind of thought provoking. The clan chief of the Donalds was at times the leader of all of the clans. At various times they made pacts with English kings which, from the sound of it, sounded like they were betraying the rest of the Scottish people for their own gain. The slide show seemed to imply that the Donalds had been misunderstood. The clan leaders revoked the leadership the Donalds. That was the difference between the English and the Scottish. The English had a king that could whip the English lords into line if needed. The Scottish leaders did not have that power.

The pictures below are of an arch in the garden next to the palace. As you can see, I became somewhat fascinated by the arch.

After dinner we walked around. It was very windy. We looked in some windows with the Gairs and walked out on a pier from which we could see our hotel in the distance. Below is a crossing sign that we thought was unique.

We must have been pretty close to the Arctic Circle, because it stayed light until about 11:30 p.m.