Gallery of June 2012 Tour of Scotland

In June 2012 Anne Korff of Williamsburg’s St. Andrew’s Society led a Brightwater tour group of 22 enthusiasts on a ten-day bus tour of Scotland, from 20 to 30 June.  The tour covered Edinburgh, Inverness, the Orkney Islands and numerous sights such as Hollyrood Castle, a country fair, a canal barge trip, Loch Leven Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, Cawdor Castle, the Culloden Battlefield, the ancient Clava Cairns and Loch Ness.  There was rain, rain and more rain for an authentic Scottish flavor.  On the way to the Orkneys we stopped at Dunrobin Castle and the Castle of Mey which was the Queen Mother’s favorite.  We took the ferry to the Orkneys, a land of stones, swamps and no trees.

In the Orkneys we visited the prehistoric past, crawling into a tomb at Maeshowe, viewing the mysterious Stones of Stennis and the Ring of Brodgar and then visiting the stone village of Skara Brae which predated the pyramids of Egypt.  Later we visited the Scapa Flow, viewed the Churchill barriers and the amazing Italian Chapel which was built by Italian POW’s in WWII.  We also found time to visit two Scotch whisky distilleries and did some retail therapy as well. On the last day we returned to Edinburgh and viewed Edinburgh Castle.  St. Andrew’s Society members included Anne & Arthur Korff, Jim & Joyce White, and Marshall & Kim Thomas.  Most of the other participants were from Williamsburg and environs and they were a friendly, helpful and fun-loving bunch.  Our thanks to Anne, our local guide Ian and our amazingly skilled bus driver George who handled our giant tour bus like a motorcycle.

This was a very fun tour.  I took over 600 photos and most are in the galleries below, separated for easier downloading and viewing.  Nobody wants to look at 600 photos so I suggest you skim them over lightly looking for whatever interests you and then clicking on those pix to enlarge.  Click on Download for the largest views.  Feel free to download any pix you like.