After boating across, the bottom floor was decorated with Monty Python memorabilia, along with a toilet. The fellow explained the story behind how the castle was used in the final scenes of the Holy Grail. Apparently, Python had booked a castle that was owned by the government. Once the government realized who the Python were, they didn't want their property being made fun of, so wouldn't allow them anymore.
The family that owned Castle Stalker, got a call, and the 22 year old son was sent from where they lived, near London, to let Python into the castle. They gave him a small role in the castle section of the film and he told us stories about interesting things that happened on the day. My favorite story was that the Python saw a dead sheep on the side of the road, and decided they could use it in the film. As Graham Chapman's character approached the castle in the movie, the dead sheep was thrown onto him from atop the castle. In reality, the dead sheep was tipped onto him from just out of camera shot. This happened twelve times.
The castle, when bought, only had the first floor, with only the sky overhead. The family rebuilt the floors, according to how the stones were set into the walls. It now has the original 4 floors. On the second floor, they recreated a dining room, along with a typical medieval kitchen.
Miles, and one other child, were allowed to hold a broadsword and targe(shield), along with a two handed claymore sword.
The next floor had a bedroom and another fireplace room. The fourth floor had many beds and then a walk out onto the battlements.
I was uneasy up there, so I waited inside until they were done. Then, we boated back to the mainland.
We had a hard time deciding what to do for the rest of the day. There were quite a few options and we kept bouncing between them. We opted for the less traveled destination, another small island named Lismore. It had a "castle" that was completely in ruins and looked quite small, but beautiful, from pictures. The information on the island was much less than the others. I had found a route on one of the hiking websites of Scotland, but their descriptions, even with the map, seemed a bit vague. Therefore, we decided to begin by walking along the main road.
First, we walked a little over an hour, until we reached the Lismore Heritage Museum, which also served as the island's main cafe. The walk had nothing of interest aside from a few sheep.
As soon as we started, I began having second thoughts about our choice for the day. There was nothing of interest to see. However, we were here already, and ferries are an hour apart, so we continued onward.
We skipped the museum part and went straight to the cafe. There was a 25 person elderly hiking group attending the cafe, and the first few must have showed up, because even though there was no one in line, the woman working up front kept asking for a few minutes. Slowly, more people trickled in and their orders were taken before us. After our orders were taken, I browsed the gift shop. We found something of interest, a lamp shade, however there would be no way to transport it on the rest of the hike. I had an incredible tomato and pesto panini.
Before we left, I asked the guy running the gift shop about the alternative path back to the port, from the castle we were about to visit. He went over the route with me and I felt more confident about giving it a try. Surely anything must be more interesting than what we had just seen.
Fifteen minutes later and the castle was in sight.
Up close, it was even more magnificent.
I walked around, taking other shots of the castle. Off to my left, there was a small beach with an interesting design.
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| That looks like the Star Trek insignia to me... Scotland sure does like Star Trek. |
We walked towards the beach and the more open ended hiking trail that would lead us back to the ferry. The walk shortly led to a climb up a hill, where horses were grazing. I became enamored with a white horse.
There were other horses there too, of course.
The hike ended up being one of the most varied and beautiful hikes I've ever done. It took near two hours. We passed bays, small houses, up hills filled with sheep, along old stone walls, and past many gates demarcating the different owners of the island. We had not seen a single other hiker from the cafe onward, which made it even more special.
Much of the route was boggy, however, since it had been dry for days, we had no trouble. When researching the trail, it rated the bogginess as 3 out of 5 bogs.
After a long while, we reached a road, which led us to a small group of houses, in a part of the island named Port Ramsey. Miles was complaining about being thirsty, and we caught someone outside, and asked if they would mind giving him water. He drank three, albeit small, glasses.
It was no longer functional as a port though, as the water had receded.
We made it back to the port just in time for the second to last ferry off the island. The ferry is tiny, yet there were nearly 40 people in line. Luck shined upon us, as half of them were made up of the elderly hiking group we had run into earlier. They did not want to split up their group among two boat trips, so we were able to pass them and board the boat.
Tomorrow, we leave for the island of Mull, where we will be staying four nights.
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