We had a day-long excursion yesterday as passengers on a 15-seat bus into the Highlands and as far as Loch Ness. I knew my recent indulgence in most of season 1 of Outlander would pay off. Our cheeky, lip-pierced, tattooed tour guide and driver, Chaz, made numerous references to the show during the journey northward.
She began the drive asking each of us to share a little about ourselves, taking the piss in a good-humored way whenever she saw the opportunity. She filled us in on Highland history and the failed Jacobite Rebellion, pointing out filming locations and references from Outlander and inadvertently revealing spoilers (I now have an idea of the terrible fate awaiting the MacKenzie clan if my hunch proves correct about them being loosely based on the real life MacDonalds).
The Highlands did not disappoint. If you squint as you peer into the misty forest and over moss-covered rocks, you can almost see the fairies flitting between the pine trees and skittering over rocks. According to Scottish legend, the fairies can be impishly mischievous and downright malevolent. Some Highland Scots used to believe that if their baby was born sickly or off in some way, the fairies had stolen the perfectly healthy infant for an imposter and would leave their baby in the forest overnight so that the fairies could come swap back out. As one can imagine, this did not end well.
We made our way past the Caledonian Canal, the lock system the Scots built in the early 1800’s to connect several lochs (lakes), which made trade and travel much safer and easier (and infinitely more profitable); instead of facing the treacherous North Sea, traders and travelers could now stay safely tucked within the glens.
The northernmost lake is Loch Ness. I had no idea how deep it is and almost entirely unexplored. The bottom drops off immediately from the shore, its deepest point being 230 meters or 755 feet, deeper than the average depth of the North Sea, able to completely submerge the Eiffel Tower with room to spare. It’s largely unexplored, not only because of its depth, but because visibility is nearly zero, due to the high concentration of peat particles in the water. Universities come from all over the world to take DNA samples from the bottom, still discovering creatures they had no idea lived there. Maybe Nessie dwells far below?
Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glencoe, the backdrop for the setting in Skyflall
*Clarification on loch: A loch can refer to any of the following: a natural lake, freshwater lake, sea inlet, or firth (a narrow inlet or the sea, or estuary).
My Corner of the Village 