Loch Lomond

We spent a large part of yesterday on a coach. Leaving Lowestoft at 5.00am the coach  picked up passengers from various locations in Norfolk and headed for Scotland…

…As we crossed the border into Scotland, I smiled as Paul, the coach driver, announced: ‘In Scotland you’re never far from a whiskey distillery, a battlefield, a castle or a golf course’. If that’s true, perhaps that says something about Scottish priorities…

Our first stop in Scotland was at Gretna Green. We learnt more of the history of English couples eloping to get married in Gretna Green… In 1754 the English law changed; couples seeking a quick or easier marriage would cross the border into Scotland, where Scottish law wasn’t so strict.

Later we drove past Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain. I remembered the old Scottish song:

O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.

I checked out the story behind the song…

In the Jacobite rebellion in the 1740s the Scots fought the English… Bonnie Prince Charlie retreated to Scotland; at the battle of Culloden, many Highlanders died and large numbers of were captured and imprisoned in Carlisle Castle.

The song is about two such Scottish soldiers. One was to be set free, the other executed. In Celtic mythology the soul of any Scot who dies outside Scotland takes the “low road” back to their homeland, where they will finally be at peace. The soldier to be set free will take the high road home; the doomed soldier will take the low road, and will be in Scotland before him…

Musing on…

…Paul’s Scottish priorities, Gretna Green love and ’Loch Lomond’, a song about dying for a cause you believe in, and people that you love.

…Jesus’ words, ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…’

…the sacrifice of the Scottish soldier… the sacrifice of Jesus… and the meaning of Jesus’ words for me.