I’ve
been spending some time hiking the Highlands and driving through the Lowlands
of Scotland--virtually--using Google Street View.
Scotland
is the location of the month for The Virtual Paintout, which is a website hosted by Bill Guffy.
It “uses Google Street View as a resource for traveling the world to
find interesting locations and subjects to paint.”
It
is always interesting to explore a place so far away and so different. Scotland is on my bucket list so I found the
rocky streets, stone houses, cathedrals, churches, and fields of sheep intriguing
even if I was limited to the roads traveled by the crew with Google Maps.
I
was exploring the coast looking at lighthouses and fishing boats, but this
house on a hill caught by eye. I was
challenged by the perspective and angles of the stairway to this home in Boddam
with a view over the North Sea.
I
discovered the Street View crew had taken their wrap-around cameras for a hike
in the Highlands. I followed along to
see the stark, rock-strewn pass through the mountains called, “Lairig Ghru.” Long ago the remote path was used by raiding
parties. When times were a little more
peaceful it was used as a trail for droving cattle. Now it is part of self-guided hiking trail
system for trekkers.
Although
most of the Street View skies were overcast and gray, the cameras caught the
picturesque castle of Eilean Donan during a clear evening. This restored castle from the 13th
century sits on a small island where three lochs meet. The water line was a little low so I used my
magic paintbrush to raise it above the mud and smoothed out the water to create
a nice reflection.
On
a personal note the Gaelic word for island is, eilean. Change one letter and it matches my name,
Eileen. If you look up the meaning of
that name you’ll be told it is a derivative of Helen and it means, “light.” I think that meaning wasn’t researched
enough. I kind of like being an island.
Links
to the Street View sites:
Boddam: https://goo.gl/maps/K6sjYT9Jkx42
Lairig
Ghru: https://goo.gl/maps/ZtEz4uG4ERP2
Eilean
Donan: https://goo.gl/maps/1dj9NvY5VdC2
