Polly Morph Roaming: Ailsa's Scottish Playlist

You have to love a good tour guide. Ailsa was not the chatterbox that some guides can be, but she told some great stories in her thick accent; she brought out the whiskey at the perfect moment, and her road trip playlist was worth the price of admission.

I didn't catch every song, but I tried to write down each song that I could identify, especially when it struck me in just the right way. It is all Scottish, and that is sweet, surprising, sad, hilarious, and moving...sometimes all at once. I made a YouTube version of the playlist highlights (link to YouTube in a new window) so you can all get these stuck in your heads along with me!

Ailsa's tour took a Canadian family of three with their selfie stick, a pregnant couple from Atlanta, and me on a 166-mile trip through the highlands north of Glasgow.

I am glad Loch Lomond is included in tomorrow's plan. It is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen.

That, my friends, is a gaggle of giggling women in freezing cold water! They were having so much fun.

The first extended stop was at Inverary Castle.

Gory old weapons. The docent in the room was kindred. She, too, has a fascination with creepy old things, and she started telling me all kinds of gruesome facts about the old weapons in the room.

Some of it made me think of one of my favorite movie scenes.

The haunted room.

This is cool! It's the piano where Lerner and Lowe composed the music for My Fair Lady, so there's a framed photo of Audrey Hepburn on top.

A Christmas episode of Downton Abbey was filmed here.

Not just beheaded...according to the kindred docent, these two were beheaded face up so that they could watch the blade descend...YIKES! (Photos from Wikipedia.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Campbell,_9th_Earl_of_Argyll

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Campbell,_1st_Marquess_of_Argyll

The shoe print fits perfectly at Dunadd. I could be King of Scotland!

Scottish heather in the wild.

The Nether Largie standing stones. Perhaps a lunar observatory, perhaps not. Their purpose is lost to time.

Ailsa: "There are more sheep in Scotland than men." She followed with a hilarious, inappropriate quip about the number of girlfriends any man might have in her buttery Scottish brogue.

The scariest part of this trip so far was the drive down the one lane, two-way, blind-corner, twisty path down Loch Awe. It was the first time in my life I thought I might be carsick, probably due to the fact that my burps tasted like whiskey. I have to give Ailsa credit...she didn't kill us.