Finally, scotch mist.

Friday 20th July

So this morning we finally got a taste of the weather everyone had warned us about. As we loaded up and left Glasgow it was grey and drizzly. We headed for the town of Oban on the west coast about 170k from Glasgow.  Features of the day were a couple of castles, and a few lochs. Lots of traffic on the road, all doing the same touristy sort of travel as us. No major hold ups on the road but just a steady pace.

Inverary Castle.

Saint Conan's kirk in Argyll - not very old, built in early 1900s.

We arrived in Oban for lunch - fish and chips - then decided to do a short cruise around the islands off shore to look at the seal colony and hopefully a few species of birdlife. We were more impressed with what we saw on this cruise than the cruise on Loch Lomond.

These are just 'common seals'. There were some seal pups in the group.

The town of Oban as we came back into the harbour.

The McHaig Tower - built in the late 1800s by a member of the McHaig family
as a monument to his family. It sits above the town of Oban.

Finally we queued up at the service station to do our laundry - they had machines the same as we have seen in supermarket carparks in France.

Saturday 21st July

We were warned that our room was in a hotel and the bar downstairs was noisy - not a problem. Didn't hear a thing. Dinner last night was a lovely chicken and leek pie and Rob had mixed seafood. 

Today we have travelled from Oban to Kyle of Lochalsh at the bridge to the Isle of Skye. We set out early to hopefully be in front of some of the traffic and the first hour or so wasn't too bad. Our first castle along the way was Stalker Castle which was on an island in one of the lochs.

Stalker Castle - believed to have been built some time in the 1300s.
It is now a ruin but would have been a wonderful location in its day
- if you could put up with the Scottish weather. 

And across the loch from Stalker Castle,
this one could be seen through the mist.

From there to the town of Glencoe and out to Rannoch Moor. What a beautiful place. Bleak and desolate in winter I am sure, but green and beautiful at the moment and the grey skies and low cloud just added to the feeling and beauty of the place. This area was used for filming parts of Outlander. The road we were on is the main highway to the north of Scotland and there were lots of cars going both ways and lots of stopping for photos. 

Rannoch Moor - like in France, we saw lots of walkers heading off into the hills.

Now you can't come to this area and not go to the Harry Potter viaduct. Not so spectacular in itself but if we'd got the timing right with a steam train on the bridge..... 

The Glenfinnan Viaduct - you can't see the curve in the photos.
We didn't have time to catch the Jacobite train up to Maillag and back.

At the same location is the Glenfinnan Monument which is a tribute to those who fought in the Jacobite Risings. Less than a year before the Battle of Culloden, Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his father’s Standard at Glenfinnan, marking the start of the 1745 Jacobite campaign. 

One of the picturesque lochs along the road to Isle of Skye.
We didn't stop for photos, but the valley we drove along as we approached
the Isle of Skye was just spectacular.

Finally, just before arriving at Kyle of Localsh is Eilean Donan castle. It was originally inhabited in 6th century but the first fortified castle dates back to the mid 13th century. The castle was partially destroyed during the Jacobite uprising, and it lay in ruins until early 1900s when it was restored.

Eilean Donan Castle.