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An Open Letter to the Scottish Highlands

My Dear, Scenic, Beautiful Highlands,

Truly, you are glorious, especially on blue-sky summer days with just a bit of a breeze blowing.

My usual Highland 'look'.

My usual Highland ‘look’.

Your geology is astounding, and students travel here from around the world to study your formations and layers. You wear your age spectacularly.

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Even though many of them are ruins, your castles are romantic relics of times long past.

Castle Sinclair & Girnigoe

Castle Sinclair & Girnigoe

And anyone who is interested in Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather’s business will delight in your many lighthouses, since the Stevenson family’s persistent legacy has kept your shores safe for many a year.

Dunnet Head Lighthouse (Robert Stevenson, 1831)

Dunnet Head Lighthouse (Robert Stevenson, 1831)

Each mile of coastline brings something new and interesting to admire, and your inland vistas are pretty special, too. You sure know how to do “scenic.”

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The thing is, though, my most beloved Highlands… Do your historical sites really need to be so very, very far away from where we have to park the car?

Castle of Old Wick.

Castle of Old Wick.

My husband and I aren’t as young and spritely as we once were, you know, and sometimes we just need a place to sit down for a minute, though those can be in short supply.

Watch out, Sem!

Watch out, Sem!

Even so, thank you dear Highlands, for being so awesome in every sense. I truly have grown to love you. It’s just that… well… next time a “5- minute walk” actually turns out to be a half hour trudge amongst scattered ankle-turning stones and fragrant cow-pats, could you please send some help for the way back?

I’m not fussy, really. But I wouldn’t say no to this…

Holburn Head Lighthouse (David and Thomas Stevenson, 1862), Scrabster Harbour.

Holburn Head Lighthouse (David and Thomas Stevenson, 1862), Scrabster Harbour.

Love,
Deb

Deb Segelitz

Deb Segelitz was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and is astounded to find herself living in the Scottish Highlands, sharing life with her husband, a Highlander she stumbled across purely by chance on a blog site. They own a small business restoring and selling vintage fountain pens, which allows Deb to set her own schedule and have time for photography, writing and spontaneous car rides in the countryside. She is grateful to the readers of ANC for accepting her into the North State fold.

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