We had been looking forward to our Scotland adventure. We picked up the rental car Thursday night then got up early Good Friday to head North hoping to avoid any Easter holiday traffic. The only time we managed to get caught up was in Glasgow where I managed to take an unscheduled detour (in other words I didn’t listen to the GPS and sent us off down a merry path to mayhem!).
The roads are fantastic between England and Scotland, providing a smooth and easy drive. The countryside didn’t really change a lot in regards to scenary until we got to the lowlands outside of Glasgow. However we did get our first hint of a snowy weekend when we stopped to look at a church on the roadside. As we were looking around it started to hail/sleet/snow. One thing I have taken away from this trip is that snow falls in many forms and directions!
As we got into the lowlands and then the highlands the remoteness of the area is what inspired us most. It is obviously unlike Australia where you could drive for hours and see no one, however this did have the remoteness of the high hills and deep valleys even though there were other cars around. You could park on the side of the road and just walk off into the hills and be alone. We didn’t do this of course as being unprepared in this climate could well mean you don’t come out again. Unlike Australia I did felt comfortable with the remoteness here for some reason.
The first night we stayed in a little town on the edge of Loch Lomond. Tourism in Scotland truly does survive on B&B’s. We went to a medieval themed restaurant for dinner which was situated in an old church. With Clannad (OK so their Irish) playing in the background, iron cast chandaliers, antlers plastering the walls, chunky wooden tables and grand chairs you really could think for a moment you were in the past.
On Saturday we took off to Kinlochleven to get there in time for Steve’s ice climbing session. The climbing centre here was rather cool with bouldering areas, kids gym, rock and ice climbing and a cafe and bar to boot. You could spend all day here. We were staying at the pub across the road which was pretty good value being so centrally located. Steve enjoyed the ice climbing and managed to even create an injury to himself from falling ice that dislodged while he was climbing. I didn’t realise the face bled so much!
Sunday we looked for a church to attend but to no avail so we headed out for a tour of the area. We ended up driving through Fort William, up to Loch Ness then out to the Isle of Skye where we got a car ferry at Armadale back to the mainland via Mallaig. We were priviledged to see some wild stags, a wide range of colourful birds, squirrels, majestic mountains and a Scotsmen in a kilt playing his bagpipes over the highland mountains.
Some highlights of this day trip would include the Eilean Donan Castle which featured in the Highlander movie, driving through all types of snow, beautiful loch after loch of water, tall trees, colourful mossy woodlands, taking the cable car up to the ski fields outside of Fort William and remote homes located in magical locations.
Monday it was time to start heading back to Bristol and although we were going to go halfway then stop overnight we decided to push through all the way so we could have a good nights rest at home. On the way back we drove through Stirling and into Falkirk. Now this town was on my list of places to get to at some point due to the Falkirk Wheel. It is a magnificent piece of engineering. The working of it is not so complex but the design is beautiful. What is the Falkirk Wheel? A very large canal boat mover (in short). It lifts the canal boat from one waterway up to the other waterway via a wheel system. The design is architectually sleek and in my opinion very beautiful.
In all, we loved our time in Scotland and are keen to head back again at some point for a look at the puffin colonies and even more remote areas of the country.