Destination: Scotland
Monastery Travel: ‘There Was, I Thought at the Time, no More Foreign Place I Could Visit’
by Michael Yessis | 06.14.07 | 11:05 AM ET
Slate’s latest Well-Traveled chronicles Inigo Thomas’s journey to Pluscarden Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in northern Scotland. Thomas doesn’t quite declare monastery travel a trend, but he writes that more people do it than one might think. “If monasticism isn’t thriving as it did in medieval Europe, neither is it dying,” he writes. “Going on retreats to monasteries, whether they are Christian or Buddhist or semimonastic institutions, seems more popular than ever.”
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Yahoo! BuzzInvasion of the Kilt-Wearing, Buttocks-Baring Scots!
by Jim Benning | 05.30.07 | 3:17 PM ET
Our hearts go out to the nation of Poland. Groups of kilt-wearing, underwear-challenged Scottish men drawn to cheap beer are apparently invading the country, getting loaded and, adding insult to injury, yes, lifting their kilts. “It’s easy to spot these so-called ‘tourists’ from a mile off,” sniffed one local paper. Now, authorities are considering changes to the law. According to Scotsman.com: “In the city of Wroclaw, in the south-west of Poland, officials are exploring a kilt ban after being horrified by groups of drunk Scottish men who lifted their kilts to strangers to reveal their buttocks. Local police admit they have been unable to control the groups of maurauding Scots, despite complaints from outraged locals and fed-up bar owners, who claim Scots are rowdy, break glasses and leave pub toilets in a shocking state.”
Loch Morar, Scotland
by Ben Keene | 03.16.07 | 12:22 PM ET
Coordinates: 56 57 N 5 40 W
Depth: 1,017 feet (310 m)
Sure, Loch Ness and the rumors of its mythical resident monster tend to grab all of the attention, but Scotland actually contains dozens of the glacially formed bodies of water. Loch Morar, not far from the Isle of Skye in the Northern Highlands, serves as a particularly good example, given that it’s the deepest freshwater body in Great Britain and Ireland. Not to mention that Morar’s 12-mile length has also produced numerous eyewitness accounts of another strange serpentine creature, known locally as Morag. Visitors should know that the lake can be kayaked or canoed, but take note: The lightly populated, steep-sided shoreline doesn’t offer an easy escape route should Morag suddenly appear and prove to be more fact than fable.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
Should I Pack My Kilt on My Trip to Asia?
by Rolf Potts | 11.22.06 | 7:24 AM ET
Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel
South Queensferry, Scotland
by Ben Keene | 08.18.06 | 6:42 AM ET
Coordinates: 55 59 N 3 23 W
Population: 9,370 (2001 est.)
Mad dogs and Englishmen may be unable to resist the midday sun, but it’s the Scottish who will venture into the heat covered head to toe in 10,000 prickly seed pods from the burdock plant. For centuries now, August in Scotland has marked the reappearance of a strange creature known as the Burryman, a somewhat masochistic, yet tradition-bound resident of South Queensferry, who spends a day wandering the streets (assisted by two attendants) petitioning neighbors for whiskey and money. In the words of John Nicol, this year’s lucky honoree: “It is agony to wear the suit as it is as uncomfortable as it looks.” Once a flourishing port just northwest of Edinburgh, the small town of South Queensferry is also the site of the Forth Rail Bridge, an 8,296-foot engineering marvel spanning the Firth of Forth that was the largest such structure on the planet upon its completion in March of 1890.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
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