Crianlarich: Soaking up the beauty of nature

Scotland’s famous for a few things: Scotch whiskey, haggis, bagpipes, kilts… It’s also famous for its rugged, beautiful scenery, and perhaps one of the best-known and most romanticized regions in the country are the Highlands. The Highlands are named the Highlands for two reasons: the fact they’re in the northern section of the country (to the south are the Lowlands, not surprisingly) and because of all their rolling hills. The hills are what drew us to the Highlands (that and the fact that Faeth enjoys the cheesy ’80s flick Highlander).

At first, we planned on visiting the Isle of Skye, which is far north in the country, but that proved too difficult to plan. Then we found a place south of Edinburgh, but it turned out the hostel had gone out of business. Finally, after surfing the internet the night before we had to leave, we found Crianlarich, a 200-person town three hours north of Edinburgh that billed itself as the “Gateway to the Highlands.” By this time, we were pretty tired of cities and people, so this Podunk town in the middle of nowhere was just what we wanted… and it was amazing!

The "Gateway to the Highlands"

 

We arrived in Crianlarich Monday afternoon. The hostel was nearly deserted, just the way we like it (we even had the room to ourselves one evening). After unpacking our bags, we headed out to explore nature. If you followed the highway through town (blink and you’d miss it), you could circle around a hotel and find a trail that led along a creek through a field of wild flowers. In the background were those famous Scottish hills, rising majestically above the horizon. They filled me with wonder at the God who formed them. Our God is even more awesome than the mountains He created, and if He can speak such majesty into being, surely He can be trusted with my hopes and dreams...

“Ah, Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee” (Jeremiah 32:17)

 

Such grandeur makes me think not of my insignificance but of God's great significance

The next day, we set out to hike Mt. Ben More, the highest hill in the area at nearly 4,000 ft. above sea level. We were told to walk two miles along the highway (it was surprising how many cars streamed by) until we found a path up the hill. However, the only path we found led us around the base for two hours before abruptly ending in a dead end. It was only after we backtracked to the beginning that we noticed a tiny dirt trail winding up the steep hill face. It was more of a sheep trail (and indeed, we did see big-horned sheep wandering around) than a real hiking trail, and before we’d made it a quarter of the way up the trail disappeared into mud. I suppose I should have suspected something when I noticed how all the other climbers we’d seen had been dressed in hard-core mountaineering outfits and we were in tank tops and tennis shoes. I didn’t really want to spend the next two hours hiking through mud to reach the top, so I gave up and headed back down the slope. I know Faeth would have continued on to the top, but I didn’t want to ruin my only pair of walking shoes. Instead, we found our way to a small lake and enjoyed the scenery there.

Ben More is the highest of the "Crianlarich Hills"

Our last day was definitely the most exhausting day, but we also saw a lot of beautiful scenery. There’s a trail that runs along Crianlarich called the “West Highland Trail.” We weren’t able to hike it all, since it’s 93 miles long, but we probably hiked at least thirteen. We wove our way through the woods, walked along rivers and through pastures, stumbled onto waterfalls and even came across a Celtic graveyard. Nearby, we found the ruins of a 13^th century church founded by the first Christian missionary to Scotland, St. Ninian. I really enjoyed wandering around and drinking in the beauty of nature. I think sometimes, it doesn’t matter where you’re going exactly as long as you enjoy the walk. It was good to take a few days and recharge without the hustle and bustle of a crowded city.

Maybe someday we'll make it all 96 miles!

That evening, Faeth and I treated ourselves to a Viennetta. If you’ve never had it, imagine lasagna made out of ice cream: layers of crisp chocolate and creamy vanilla. Our family used to have it all the time when we were little, but it stopped being distributed in the U.S. nearly fifteen years ago. We vowed that we’d find it when we were in Europe, and we did.

And it was just as good as we remembered.

 

Afterwards, we played card games with the staff at the hostel. One of the workers, Neil, taught us how to play Whist. We had a really good time—I wish we’d known they liked cards earlier! All in all, it was a very good ending to a great three days. I’ll take nature over the city any time. Sometimes, you need to get off the beaten path to find something truly special.