Scotland - The Road to the Isles

The other thing to do in the Highlands is cruise the romantically named "Road to the Isles". This is good if you want to see the Isles (of course) as well as the spectacular mountains, lochs, trains, roadworks and a statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan (who looked like a camp, baroque Frenchman if you ask us). It was all very 'Scottish' and happily we weren't overwhelmed with images of Mel Gibson wearing a kilt on the way, although we did spot him once or twice.



Trying to remember where this was..... maybe Glenfinnan


The Glenfinnan Monument. There's Charlie up on top with the feather in his cap - see what we mean about camp?.


All smiles at Glennfinnan


For those of you interested, here's the plaque at Glenfinnan which explains what it's all about - click and read.


The Church at Glenfinnan... looks like a nice spot to sit and admire the view of Loch Shiel after a bit of altar wine.


More views from Glenfinnan


If you can manage to divert your gaze away from the spectacular loch and surrounding mountains at Glenfinnan, you'll turn around to admire the magnificent Victorian rail viaduct, which is (as we learnt from several sources) featured in the Harry Potter movies.


This is Loch Morar, on The Road to the Isles, which allegedly has its own loch monster, whom we'll call Morrie.


This is the outlet from Loch Morar to the sea. The area is known as The Silver Sands of Morar. Got to hand it to those Scots - they can sure make a place sound good.


More Silver Sands. In the distance are the Isles of Eigg and Rum (more great names).


Looking across to Isle of Skye from Mallaig, which is at the end of the Road to the Isles. So it is, in fact, not literally "The Road to the Isles", but rather "The Road To a Town From Where One Can See the Isles".

Scotland - The Highlands

More Scotland photos.....

The weather stayed (relatively) warm in the Highlands and even though there was still lots of snow on the hills, it looked to be melting fast. That didn't stop the skiers at the Nevis Range ski resort when we visited though - despite the patchy conditions they were still hurtling down the hill shouting "see yoo Jimmy" as they whizzed past. This was the girls first trip to a ski resort of any kind, and Keezee's first visit to one that served 32 different types of whisky.

Whilst up north we popped up to Loch Ness to see Nessie, and then headed on to Inverness to see the shops. Despite looking keenly for any sign of Nessie, we didn't spot her until we stopped by the tourist shops. We did however spot more locks and long boats which sort of made up for it.


Patchy snow at Scotland's premier ski resort, Nevis Range.


We do believe that is Daniel Boone behind us to the left


It's a resort with activities for everyone... you can go skiing, go hiking or go to the playground


That's the view down to Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil, where we stayed, in the background


What's a ski resort without a gondola?


On the gondola


Here we are enjoying the Riverside Walk to the Ben Nevis Path, just past the Visitor Centre


Lucy with the lower slopes of Ben Nevis behind


Nessie hunting


Found her!


The River Ness flows quickly at Inverness


Castle Urquhart on Loch Ness


A red, red robin at Castle Urquhart


Here we are admiring the engineering brilliance of Thomas Telford at Fort Augustus. Tommy (as we'll call him) designed and built the "locks" which connect to Caledonian Canal above to Loch Ness below.


Some more engineering-like brilliance by an artist who built a likeness of Nessie from steel wire. Some nice looking pubs in the background, for those interested in such things.


Here's a pic of some boats at a matching set of locks at the western end of the canal (also built by Tommy) known as the "Steps of Neptune". This is at Fort William, so thanks to Tommy, you can navigate your boat from Inverness on the east coast straight down the middle of the Great Glen, through the Highlands to the west coast, without having to set foot on dry land to face the filthy, barbarous locals roaming around in their kilts. Otherwise you could drive. BTW, that's Ben Nevis covered in clouds in the background.


Here's Lucy exploring the wilderness at Loch Gary


We're not sure if Loch Gary has its own monster, but if it did, it would be called Gazza

Scotland - Heading North

Now where were we?? It's been a bit busy lately with spring in the air. Suddenly everything's on again (work, school, nursery, kids concerts, gardening, cleaning, the sun, etc. etc.) and those photos from Scotland we meant to upload have been left waiting. Anyway, we're getting back on track, so hope you enjoy these pics from the Scottish Highlands.

After Edinburgh, we headed north-west to Loch Eil, near Fort William for the next part of our visit. We were crossing the country from coast to coast which is a bit of a hike by UK standards so we were sure to make a few rest stops (with photos) on the way.

Not long on the motorway out of Edinburgh, Keezee saw signs for the Falkirk Wheel, and having seen this on the Locks & Quays Channel on SkyTV (one of the UK's most popular channels after Model Trains TV), he knew he had to see it for himself. It was truly a thing of wonder!

We also skirted past some lovely lochs and massive mountains in the Loch Lomond and Trossarchs National Park, before making it to Oban for some fish n chips; which really were a cut above anything we've had in a long time. Then it was onto Loch Eil to our "four-star" caravan park. Four stars is really a bit of a stretch (it was a wee bit wee, as the Scots would say), but the view over the loch made up for it.


This is the Falkirk Wheel, which Keezee thinks is just about the coolest thing he has ever seen


What it does right, is.... see those long boats in the lake, well, they hop on the wheel, and it spins round until they come out in the canal on top. From there, it's only a short hop to Edinburgh. The wheel replaces about 14-odd locks, which used to take a day to navigate a few years back. Of course you could always drive to Edinburgh instead.


Here we are enjoying the scenery on the way at the remote Loch Lubnaig


Loch Lubnaig is Rob Roy country, by all accounts


The girls at Bonnie Loch Lomond ("bonnie" is Scottish for "good ol'")


Reflections on Loch Lomond


More Loch Lomond...


Loch Lomond again


A family shot at you-know-where (we can't believe the nice lady who took the photo managed to get everyone smiling at once)


The girls in Oban, with distillery and town "folly" behind


The west coast of Scotland is full of islands, most of which are connected by Caledonian MacBrayne ferries, or CalMac for short.


The view from our digs at Loch Eil


Selecting skimming stones by Loch Eil, where we stayed.


Caiti finds yet another stone!


Haggis... dinner of champions