Blogs from The Highlands, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

http://www.heygo.com 11th February - Scottish Highlands The wind was bracing, the views were simply stunning and the stories told by Craig Our guide were full of interest. Craig is so engaging, a group member asked about heather and he was able to find examples of the 3 varieties on the hillside (I have added them in bloom). I loved that we could see Craig’s shadow as he took us on today’s journey. The view overlooking Loch Linnhe was fabulous. Loch Linnhe follows the line of the Great Glen Fault and is the only sea loch along the fault. One of the islands we saw in the distance was Lismore. Lismore was an important centre of Celtic Christianity from an early date. In the 6th century Lismore was part of the kingdom of Dalriada until the arrival ... read more

http://www.heygo.com 27th January Scottish Highlands Another visit to Scotland today for a ramble with Craig exploring the woodland in Glenco. The trail was narrow & over roots from the many fir trees in the area. Lichen, bracken and moss including Pink Sphagnum created a beautiful colourful carpet. It was interesting to hear how sphagnum moss acts as an antiseptic. It’s absorptive properties makes an excellent wound dressing and was widely used for this purpose in the past. It is said to have saved the lives of thousands of soldiers in the First World War. We stopped at Signal Rock, historically this was the place where the head of the Glencoe MacDonalds would address his clan, and according to legend it is also the place from where the signal was given to the Campbells to begin the ... read more

At first it was the difference that a day makes. After three days of rain, rain, snow and more rain, some sky had actually replaced the ever present white sheet. That said, there was still a lot of rain, but the weather was literally changing by the minute. Rain, followed by some light breaking through a gap in the clouds, followed by some snow, followed by some more rain, followed by some full blown sunshine and than back to rain again. We stopped in Loch Ba again for the sunrise. The sunrise was not worth it, but there was a short moment when the light fell on the mountains in the opposite direction to the supposed sunrise, which made some good photographs. Some of us caught it, some of us did not sadly. Fortunately, I did. ... read more

It was another early start and another non sunrise. Not only that, but it was pouring with rain. Today was going to be a complete wash-out. It was also almost impossible to take any photographs as the moment you took your lens-cap off, the lens was covered in water-droplets. We got back to the hotel, just in time for the end of breakfast today. We tried a few different locations for some photos, including Loch Etive, where there were some stark looking trees growing out of the lake, so it was not a complete loss. What was also nice was that, as we were passing through Glen Etive, we saw some highland deer, which were unbelievably tame and were more than happy to stand there whist 12 photographers got completely carried away taking pictures of them. ... read more

So far up to this point Dennis had only had to drive on short stretches of single track roads, but headed up and around the Isle of Skye is predominantly all single track. On these types of roads it is a single lane but two ways of traffic must pass. You have to pull along the side in small turn offs to allow oncoming traffic to pass to avoid a head on collision. The trick is deciding who is the one that yields and sometimes you must even back up to go into the closest passing place, often with no guard rails and steep cliffs off both sides of the roadway and there is not a single straight stretch of road ANYWHERE in this country. Pretty much the entire west coast and the center of the ... read more