We arrived in Scotland from the ferry in the early afternoon and drove alongside Loch Lomond for quite a while before passing through some stunning valleys with rocky mountains towering on either side.
We stopped near Fort William to buy some groceries for the next few days and found our accommodation. Ben Nevis is visible from our front door.
This morning Ben Nevis was NOT visible from our front door!
We started our day heading to the Glenfinnan Viaduct, more popularly known as the Hogwart’s Express Bridge. Trains are not running at the moment, some dispute about carriage types, so there was to be no steam train on viaduct photos.
We then wandered along a boardwalk for a bit, checked out the Glenfinnian Memorial. The memorial is 18m high and was built to honour 18-meter Highland clansmen who fought and died for the Jacobite cause.
We then drove to Mallaig, from where we could see the Isles of Skye, Rum and Eigg. We ate our lunch looking at Loch Morar.
We stopped for a bit at the edge of Loch Nan Uamh-there were some stunning rocks on that beach-coloured stripes and worn smooth by water and time.
Continuing around the peninsula we were tempted into Ardshealach Smokehouse in Glenuig and left with some chutney, chilli Jam and some smoked trout, haggis and stilton. Can’t wait to try them!
We popped into the pub next door to the smokehouse for a holiday beer before continuing around the peninsula.
After a few stops at an art gallery, a craft shop, to watch some deer and to avoid some sheep on the road we lined up for the ferry from Ardgour to Carron to head back to Fort William.
Arriving home we did a load of washing and prepped dinner – lamb shanks and roast veggies. Yum.
Today is Loch Ness Day.
We headed straight to Drumnadrochit, via Loch Lochy and Loch Oich to join a boat tour on Loch Ness. Sadly when we arrived the owner had just sent an email cancelling the tour due to high winds. We had one booked for today with another company that also got cancelled (yesterday) due to mechanical issues. Looks like it’s not meant to be.
So we wandered around Drumnadrochit for a bit before setting out to continue our circumnavigation of Lock Ness.
After passing Lochend we came across a farm that had Highland Coos in the paddock. We pulled in for a look and learned that they do a Highland Coo Experience. So we signed up for that -Kevin REALLY wanted to see a Highland Coo whilst we were in Scotland.
So at the appointed time we followed the farmer into the field where we were introduced to two cows. Skye and Jinty McGinty.
We were able to comb the cows as we talked about the breed and other interesting things with Graham the farmer.
Did you know their horns are warm?
After spending time with the coos we were given some feed to give to the other animals.
From there we drove around the top of the Loch and stopped at some scenic spots along the way.
We stopped at the Falls of Foyers and walked down to the falls and back up again.
We stopped in Fort Augustus on the way back and watched a ship going through the lock system. It was interesting.
If we hadn’t done that we would not currently be sitting with the engine off in a long line of traffic. There’s an accident somewhere up the road. Google maps said it was an 18 minute delay about 40 minutes ago. We haven’t moved in that time. We’re 20km from our base and there are no other route optioms from where we are. Someone is having a much worse day than us.
We just moved about 800m in the right direction so that’s good. 🤞
Today dawned wet and a bit miserable, but we headed out anyway with a plan on mind.
About 15km along we decided to head back, the rain was heavy and the clouds low, so we couldn’t see much of anything beyond about 100m!
We went back to Fort William and wandered along the main street, browsing the various shops before returning to our accommodation and spending some time booking the remainder of our time in Scotland, Wales, and a couple of activities for Edinburgh and Faroe Islands next week.
The weather didn’t really clear up much, but we were cosy inside.
Today was, again, wet and miserable when we woke up, and for about 80% of it. However we ventured out.
The hills and lochs were behind clouds, and shrouded in mist, but we could see them a bit which was an improvement on yesterday so we continued driving.
We did see some men at work whilst we were at traffic lights. We felt sorry for them having to work on the side of a rock in that weather, but it was more interesting than the usual roadworks we see!
We visited Kilchurn Castle on the edge of Loch Awe during the 20% of the day when it wasn’t raining. Kilchurn castle was built in the 1400s for the Campbell family of Glenorchy.
It’s been abandoned since the 1700s, yet still attracts many visitors.
We continued around the coast and stopped for a delicious lunch in a 150 year old hotel in Connel. Our last touristy bit was vsiting Neptune’s Staircase, a series of 8 locks that moves boats over 64ft within the space of 400m, it’s the longest lock of it’s kind in the Britain and is the start (or end) of the Caledonia Canal.
In our 4 days here we have seen the largest inland lochs in Scotland:
- Loch Lomond – largest by surface area – 71m2
- Loch Ness – largest by volume – 7,452 million cubic meters
- Loch Morar – largest by depth – 310m
- Loch Awe – largest by length – 41km.
We left Spean Bridge and headed towards the Cairngorms National Park. Today’s mission: feed reindeer!
We checked in and drove to the meeting place for the walk up the hill to the reindeer herd. Reindeer went extinct in Scotland about 2000 years ago, so this herd is a human-managed herd of reindeer re-introduced to Scotland from Scandinavia in the 1950s.
There are about 120 of them.
As we listened to the guides talk about the species, their reintroduction and how they are managed, they wander closer to the food, in between us humans. We’re not allowed to pet them though as they’re not tame.
They spread out some food so they could do the daily count.
Then it was time to have some feed in our hands for the deer to eat.
It was a cool experience!
From here we drove to a working sheepdog demonstration place. We didn’t get to watch a full demo as one was already half way through and the next was 4 hrs later. (They advertise these times nowhere!) But we saw a little bit.
We then stopped at Ruthven Barracks, ruins of some barracks used by soldiers to control the Jacobite uprising in the 1700s. They were eventually burned down, leaving just the walls.
We then drove our way through valleys and the hillside town our base for the next two days.
Today we did our 1st Scottish parkrun – Faskally Forest. It was undulating to say the least. Why are up portions of courses longer than down portions? Apparently it’s the third hardest parkrun in Scotland. If only we’d known before we went!
We then headed to Blair Atholl Castle, where we would see the Atholl Highlanders Parade as part of the Atholl Gathering that is occurring this weekend.
The Atholl Highlanders are the only private army in Europe and act as bodyguards to the 12th Duke of Atholl. Before the parade we toured the castle that has been in the family for many centuries and been built and destroyed a couple of times. It was quite grand with more deer heads and antlers than we could hope to count, and historical things like old outfits, crockery, a knight and even a polar bear!
Pre-parade entertainment was a lone piper marching around the parade with his pipes.
Then the pipers and drummers paraded on before the soldiers.
They were inspected by the ex-Chief of the Defence Forces, a retired General, before some awards were given and then they paraded off again.
Some people had travelled to Scotland specifically to see this event.
We’re heading back for day 2, the highland games, tomorrow.
On our way home we encountered a small flock of sheep in the road.
We helped some other drivers try to get them into a field. Only about half went in-the others continued down the road. The open gate to the field where they probably came from was about 1km down the road. Sheep are so amusing.
Today we returned to Blair Atholl to attend the Atholl Gathering and Highland Games.
We had a fabulous day!
First, to the sound of lots of pipers warming up in the carpark, we wandered around some stalls, the usualy type you’d find at a community event, arts, crafts and her, lots of Tartan and Tweed. Some of that was SO beautiful.
There were lots of people wandering around in their tartans today.
After perusing the trade stalls we headed to watch some competitions. Piping-there were 7 stations, we think each piper performed at many or all of them to ensure fair scoring. We didn’t see the outcome as they were still going when we left 6 hours later!
Highland dancing: there were multiple age groups competing in rounds of dancing, we assume a different type for each, you’d need to know more identify the differences.
We found a place on the hill overlooking the arena and settled on our picnic blanket, trying not to slide down the hill each time we moved!
The open strongmen competitions started. We saw hammer throw, shot out, 26lb weight throw and the one we really wanted to see, the caber toss. The compere was really good, he explained each event before they started so you knew what counted as a good outcome. When the first caber actually got tossed, a cheer went up around the arena. I think we saw about 5 successful ones.
In between these, the Atholl Highlanders we saw yesterday paraded in to the arena, set off a cannon and then had their Highlanders dash-sprint, in uniform, with the winner receiving a bottle of whiskey. Apparently there are no rules and tackles and “skulduggery” are allowed.
Around the edge of the arena they started running races for all ages. Anyone who wanted to participate could. I think the winner got a £5 note and the losers got a lolly. They started with boys & girls races for 4-7 years olds and ended with an adults handicapped race – 60 year old had a headstart on the 50 year olds who had one on the 40 year olds etc.
It was just such a wholesome enjoyable day out in beautiful sunshine-it was 23 today!
We had to leave about 3 to head to Edinburgh as we have a literary pub crawl booked for this evening.
Quick 2hr drive to Edinburgh and checked in to our apartment we headed into the Old Town to eat before our tour. As a gorgeous sunny Sunday on a long weekend, the area was busy.
After eating, we joined our tour, The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour. It was a fun and entertaining 3 hours visiting three pubs, a couple of notable locations and learning about Edinburgh’s (& Scotland’s) literary heroes and a bit about their lives.
It was a great introduction to Edinburgh and it’s hills!
It’s been a long day, time for some sleep!
An Unplanned Year 
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