| This was one of my favorite places in Scotland. Right next to the small town (and I mean small - basically just a few houses and a tea room) of Culrain is Castle Carbisdale. This is real castle that has been turned into a youth hostel. And for just 10 pounds a night (about $15 give or take), you can stay in this beautiful place, see and hear traditional Scottish music and dancing (if you pick the right night, as I did), and walk the peaceful, serene miles of the forest walk just outside the castle walls. To the right is the entrance to the castle - those people up ahead are Karen (from Stirling and Inverness), Ed and Scott (two Americans Karen and I met in Inverness), and a few other women from South Africa. And this is another view of the castle. 
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The night we got there, there were some traditional Scottish musicians and dancers, along with what seemed to be a class of fourth graders who had been taught many of the dances already. In addition to performing for us simple folk, they dragged many of us out to dance with them (yes, including me). I was quite surprised actually at the female piper. I've seen a number of pipers before (hard to miss in Scotland), but I had never seen a female one before. It was a nice surprise (not to mention she was cute too :).
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The next day I took an hour long walk through the forest outside the castle. There were paths that led on for miles and miles, but unfortunately I had to limit myself due to time constraints. It was still an incredibly beautiful walk. To the right is the first part of the walk - the path starts off nice and wide and flat, but then narrows off as you can see below. It was like this place was taken right out of a fantasy book... 
Both the stream shown at right and the path I was on eventually led to my final destination point (before heading back to the castle), this small lake. The water was so still the reflection it created was mirror-like. Strangely, this was not only the pinnacle of the walk, but of the whole trip through Scotland - it was the Northernmost area, and after reaching this I started heading back down South, first on foot to the Castle, and then by train to the Isle of Skye. 
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 This was a stream that the path seemed to follow. 
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