Fairies, Ruins & Misty Hills

The rolling landscape of the Isle of Skye in Scotland

Scotland was everything I had imagined, from the chilly air to the sound of bagpipes wafting down the church-lined streets.

Here we found museums filled with famous Celtic artifacts as well as closes (alleys) dating back to medieval times. In Mary King's Close, the most famous and best-preserved, we saw where Scots both wealthy and poor lived and died — often of the plague — for centuries. On the walls, painted patterns were still visible, and above our heads the ceiling, made from a paste of horsehair and human ashes, remained intact. Though there was much more to explore in Edinburgh, the rest of the country was calling. On our way to the Highlands, we made a brief stop in Glasgow. Though gritty and of less interest to most tourists, Glasgow has one attraction that no self-respecting Goth would miss: the Victorian Necropolis.

Majestically situated on top of a hill overlooking the cathedral and city below, the Necropolis sprawls across 37 acres and boasts some of the world's finest examples of Victorian funerary art. When we visited, the rainy day perfectly complemented the sculptures of mournful angels, dying poets and thoughtful epitaphs. North and west of Glasgow lay the Highlands, home to famous Scots Rob Roy and William Wallace. With few trees and even fewer inhabitants, the desolate hills stretch on to snowy mountains and red Highland deer roam the heather bogs. Punctuating this landscape are numerous lochs, some tiny, but each with a name and story. But perhaps the place with the most striking history is Glen Coe, a dramatic valley where, in 1692, dozens of men, women and children of the Clan MacDonald were massacred for denying allegiance to the king.

Aside from untamed clans and tragedy, the Highlands are also home to Scotland's most beautiful castle, Eilean Donan, which is picturesquely perched on the banks of Lock Duich. It was built some time during the 13th Century and acted as the gateway to Scotland's sea kingdom which encompasses the Hebrides islands, including the Isle of Skye.

On Skye, the landscape is cinematically beautiful. Inland cliffs rise and curl like an earthen sea and glens with strange "fairy hills" abound. Here, it was hard to believe we were still in the 21st Century. Along with thatched roof homes, we saw millennia-old Pictish standing stones alongside modern stone monuments made by locals to appease the fairies.

Though my husband loved Scotland, his excitement when we landed in Dublin, Ireland, was difficult to suppress. And though I didn't admit it outright, I was also impressed by this beautiful and worldly city. Though we had little time to see all of Dublin, we did visit some of its most significant landmarks. Among them, Trinity College Library, where the 1,200-year-old Book of Kells is displayed. In this illuminated Biblical manuscript, created by Irish monks, every page drips with intricate, gilded knotwork much like that found in the National Museum on the hundreds of pieces of jewelry, stoneware and textiles which reside alongside remains of ancient sacrificial victims, resurrected from the bogs over the centuries. From Dublin, we rented a car and took to the narrow roads to see the rest of the country. Though initially frightened by driving on the left, we were quickly caught up in the romance of a land littered with crumbling ruins, ancient tombs, mossy forests and high coastal cliffs.

In towns like Cashel and Sligo, or often in the middle of nowhere, we would jump stone fences or wander through deep woods to explore the remains of medieval abbeys and castles. Most of these places have scant historical records, but some, like the abbey in Sligo, came to ruin at the hands of Oliver Cromwell in his effort to wipe out Catholicism during the 1600's. It seems that most of the others, like the eerie Castle Caldwell in Northern Ireland, were simply abandoned to nature.

Far more ancient than these ruins are the prehistoric tombs that are especially abundant on the surreal, rocky plains of The Burren, which lies in the northwestern part of Ireland. Dolmens, which are the inner stone structures of the tombs, are everywhere. Many of them reside on private property and have yet to be excavated; including one we found which is said to be protected by an enchanted fairy tree that grows atop it.

As impressive as Ireland's historical remains are its landscapes. Though agriculture has deprived Ireland of most of its trees, the forests that remain are like something out of a fairytale. Waterfalls tumble alongside oaks and elms which seem to float above carpets of moss and purple wildflowers. In the open hills of Connemara, wild ponies run and some of Ireland's residents still carve a living, literally, from the land by harvesting peat from the bogs to use and sell for fuel.

Along the coastal Ring of Kerry and further north at the Cliffs of Moher, the land ends in dramatic, 600-foot drops into the ocean. Northern Ireland's Antrim Coastline is home to the Giant's Causeway, a place where hexagonal basalt columns rise out of the sea. Though legend says they were created by the giant Finn MacCool, they are actually the result of 60 million-year-old lava flows.

As I stood on those stones, I realized that although American tourists abound and McDonald's restaurants are as commonplace as people of the same name, Scotland and Ireland are exotic in their own way. Aside from the unusually friendly and sometimes Gaelic-speaking people, both places boast alien landscapes which are steeped in history and lore not found in the United States or even in many European countries. And though our weak dollar took a beating and there were more than a few times I nearly toppled off a cliff, it was well worth it. I can only hope that my husband will say the same when I spirit him away to India.