Kildonan

Yesterday was by far my favorite day of the trip. We took the train 2 1/2 hours up to Kildonan, site of the Clearances in the 1820s, where English landlords cleared their sharecropping tenants from the land to make room for sheep, which were more profitable. We got off the train and quickly realized there was almost nothing there, which is what we were supposed to realize about the area. Ironically the only economic activity in the area outside of sheep farming is rich Englishmen coming up to fish on the rivers of the area, often paying as much as £2,000 for a week. After a discussion on what the Clearances meant to Highland consciousness, we were free to wander for 3 hours, until the next train came. I immediately wandered out to the River Helmsdale and started walking along it with a smaller group. It was an incredibly surreal experience, and was completely congruent with what I initially expected from my time spent over here. After half the time was gone, we decided to wade across the river so we could take a different way back to the train station. It was so incredible being out in the middle of nowhere, having no service (not even on my European mobile), and having an opportunity to be so close with unspoiled earth. I'll write more tomorrow - we are staying at the Inverness Youth Hostel and they charge a premium for internet access.