When Graham took us out again, we traveled north to the town of Dollar. Outside of Dollar sits Castle Campbell among the Ochil Hills. The picturesque setting has drawn many people, famous Scots such as Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, to frequent the numerous paths through the hills above the town. It is hard to imagine that the castle was originally known as Castle Gloom and the two streams nearby are named Care and Sorrow. Indeed, the name "Dollar" comes from the Celtic word for sadness. When you survey the hills, woods and streams surrounding you are left without any plausible reason why such a place would be given such a depressing name.
Having seen several castles at this point, the four of us decided to go for a wee hike instead of exploring the castle and Graham decided to wait at the bottom for us. Now when I say "we" what I really mean is Casey, Graci and Josh. By this time I had been battling a cold for the better part of the week and after trekking up the first hill we conquered I thought I would surely die. Not letting me be discouraged, Graci decided to tape our adventure so that we could look back on it later and see all that we had accomplished that day. We hiked for what seemed to me like a very long time but was in fact only about an hour. At one point, we looked back and saw a hang glider take off of one of the peaks and drift slowly down towards the town. I thought for sure he was going to land in someone's garden but he passed out of our sight so we'll never know where he ended up.
On the way down, Graci and Casey thought it would be a good idea to run down the side of the hill. This resulted in Graci face planting into the path and scraping up her hand (I know she does not mind me telling you this story because it is after all on tape and can't be denied anyway). Watching this whole ordeal unfold in front of me, I thought for sure that she had broken something and that we were going to have to find a way to carry her down the hill. Nevertheless, we made it back down the hillside and to the carpark without any rap music or flash dancing. All in all, it was another day of marveling at God's creation and good craic.
https://picasaweb.google.com/108532852514122909750/CastleCampbell?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPPz-m75Ze-hwE#
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