Trip to Scotland 1983: Four and half months in the Highlands and Islands

**DCampbell16B** · 12th July 25, 04:33 AM

£2.60 [Hostel Inverness]

● No good

● Hills down Glen Mor

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● Stone Circle

Up "early" to be off w/ Abel (Aussie) and Peter (American) to Boar Stone. Nicholson kids off today (morning). Snow on Ben Wyvis. Day clear, cool. Motte [unclear?] Was mostly overgrown. Boar Stone carving clear on standing stone, but fenced in. Stone circle very nice. Chamber Cairn large, but fallen in, big stones. At lunch by river, some showers. Watched Avengers vs Remington Steele. Walked around.

● Inverness Alley

Spent evening in. Watched some football (Euro and American) then Gone With The Wind. Commercial free (BBC1) except 10 minutes news at ½.

[It was interesting to me in the evening to sit and listen to the teens from Barra, the Uists and Lewis comparing dialects. The bainne vs boinne conversation stuck in my head as it one of the first things pointed out to me when I got to Ness.

A murmur was going around the hostel that there was snow on Ben Wyvis that morning. I was sitting by the window of the hostel, enjoying the view of the Ben and the snow. But as I did the sun came over the horizon. The top of the Ben was hit first by the light. The snow lit up like beacon. The murmurs turned into "Wow". I'm afraid the photo doesn't do it justice, but it's all I have.]

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● Ben Wyvis and the sun on the snow

**DCampbell16B** · 9th October 25, 04:44 AM

£1.08
£2.60 [hostel]

Trying for Dingwall? Beauly? (House of Campbell Highland Tweed House)

1739 350 men from Argyll
but to North Carolina? [I think I had found a reference to these men emigrating]

No luck hitching. Library and hostel today. Waste of time.

Evening ?Girls from Peterhead here. 1st Aberdeenshire accent I've seen heard (quines/loons). Also, 1 is ex-Canadian, [she has a] Canadian accent, Aberdeen words.

[Sorry for the long hiatus. We had company coming. In all the cleaning and organizing the journal got put, if not away, slightly out of the way.

]

**DCampbell16B** · 22nd October 25, 04:47 AM

38p
52p
£2.60 [hostel]

Bank doesn't have check, don't know what to do. Aberdeen? Try for job after all? Back to Western Isles and camp? New warden discussion on Findhorn community, religion, travel and life. Also, Gordon losing his father, etc. Some TV, some reading. Faroese girl here tonight. Watched a little TV.

[Gordon was the new warden. The discussion about losing his father came up because I had lost mine a couple of years before.
To pick up the tale of the check, I had received a check from home for $150 which I had taken to a bank to have cashed. I kept going back to see if it had cleared. I could have stretched that money into a longer stay.
The 38p and 52p was likely for food.]

**DCampbell16B** · 20th November 25, 06:29 AM

We'd
£4.00 Bus
15p Bus
28p ham
£2.60 [hostel, Aberdeen]

[Moving from Inverness to Aberdeen]
Cleaned out everything except whale bone and trainers*. 2 trips to bus as before [pack and suitcase]. Stopped suitcase on pack. Peterhead girls here also. [We all sat in the back and I listened to their accents again] Got to Aberdeen and I saw the map the girls had. Caught the bus and didn't have exact change. Driver asked how long I had been in Aberdeen. I said 2 minutes. He said no fare. Catch [caught] next bus (15p). Pack caused a few smiles. Lady helped me off. Tried to call University, no luck. [I think to get in touch with Nicholiasens] Too late to buy bread, ate ~4:00. See Aberdeen Art, Gordon's, Anthropology Museum. Watched Mod 83 on TV. Not much to do just now. Too late to buy bread. [That's the second time I wrote that. I must have been hungry] Nice to see, but definitely city. Prefer West. Don't feel part of the things here. Same as Edinburgh [feeling] but now I have Western Isles to compare w/. Bob Hope Show, man with guitar neck facing the wrong way. [Here is a drawing of a guitar from the side. The neck and fretboard are mounted facing the back of the guitar. I have no idea why I bothered noting that, but there it is.]
[*In reading this I see I wrote "trainers" and "just now". I had lost some of my accent by this time, but here it is in writing.]

**Canadian Vet** · 20th November 25, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by DCampbell16B

We'd
£4.00 Bus
15p Bus
28p ham
£2.60 [hostel, Aberdeen]

[Moving from Inverness to Aberdeen]
Cleaned out everything except whale bone and trainers*. 2 trips to bus as before [pack and suitcase]. Stopped suitcase on pack. Peterhead girls here also. [We all sat in the back and I listened to their accents again] Got to Aberdeen and I saw the map the girls had. Caught the bus and didn't have exact change. Driver asked how long I had been in Aberdeen. I said 2 minutes. He said no fare. Catch [caught] next bus (15p). Pack caused a few smiles. Lady helped me off. Tried to call University, no luck. [I think to get in touch with Nicholiasens] Too late to buy bread, ate ~4:00. See Aberdeen Art, Gordon's, Anthropology Museum. Watched Mod 83 on TV. Not much to do just now. Too late to buy bread. [That's the second time I wrote that. I must have been hungry] Nice to see, but definitely city. Prefer West. Don't feel part of the things here. Same as Edinburgh [feeling] but now I have Western Isles to compare w/. Bob Hope Show, man with guitar neck facing the wrong way. [Here is a drawing of a guitar from the side. The neck and fretboard are mounted facing the back of the guitar. I have no idea why I bothered noting that, but there it is.]
[*In reading this I see I wrote "trainers" and "just now". I had lost some of my accent by this time, but here it is in writing.]

... so much interesting whiskey ...