The Bonnie Banks 'o Loch Lomond - Harthill to Munlochy via Loch Lomond and Glencoe - 10th August 2016

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The adrenalin from attending the Tattoo last night was still pumping in the morning when we woke and it will be a performance and experience that we will never forget.

Although we had just a bedroom with ensuite at the Royal and they did not have a restaurant downstairs we still managed an OK breakfast with our usual muesli, fruit and yogurt and croissants rather than toast to follow with coffee. We haven’t bothered to buy another toaster since we arrived in the UK which is probably just as well for us and the nearby Fire Brigade of Cumbernauld after the toast incident of the BBA V2 which resulted in the Travelodge we were staying in being evacuated when I burnt the toast and set the smoke alarm off!

The weather wasn’t that great as we started out and rain didn’t look too far away. At least we had got through the Tattoo without any rain last night!

We had thought that the GPS would take us across the M8 towards Stirling and on pass Loch Lomond.

However we ended up approaching Glasgow and things seemed quite wrong when we found ourselves on the southern side of the River Clyde which meant we had gone west/southwest.

A readjustment of a destination to Glencoe soon had us across the Clyde and heading north as we wanted to be doing on the A82.

We took a stop at a cafe at the top end of Loch Lomond for a coffee and to take some photos but the misty rain had taken the scenery away.

It was onto the climb towards the summit of the road before we dropped down to Glencoe.

Like yesterday on the Northumberland coast there were hikers out on trails near the main road despite the weather. There just doesn’t seem to be anything to stop these hardy Scots or tourists from south of the border when it comes to hiking in what we would describe as ‘miserable’ weather.

There was a little improvement as we came down towards Glencoe and then onto the drive along Loch Linnhe towards Fort William. This was territory we spent a bit of time in during the BBA V2 and so we didn’t find anything new to stop at to take a look at.

We continued on towards Inverness up the A82 and the misty rain came and went and it certainly didn’t add anything to the appeal of Inverness.

Our accommodation was a little further on at Munlochy and a second time we have had an Air BnB private room with an ensuite in what had been the Royal Bank Managers house in the village before the Branch was closed a few years ago.

We have some ancestry research to follow up on Gretchen’s side about the Finlayson’s who came from the area before they travelled to New Zealand in the latter part of the 1800’s but the weather was too wet to spend time out and about now when there is promise of drier weather tomorrow.

Our host Audrey was there to greet us with her broad Scottish accent. She made a reservation at the only restaurant in the village at the local pub and as they were busy we were going to have wait until 8.15pm before they could take us.

So we took time to rest up before time came to wander down to the pub a few doors down the road.

The pub was another of those period places with a lot of history and having a pint at the bar before our table was ready for us gave us time to soak the history up.

The meal was great again. Gretchen had the ‘stovies’a traditional Scottish dish made up of meat and various vegetables mixed together with the result of a simple but tasty dish.

With venison burger on the menu I couldn’t not have that and with the added bonus of a black pudding fritter it was an absolutely delicious dish.

It had been a day where we didn’t add much to travelling over new roads in Scotland and the weather hadn’t been encouraging enough to spend much time at all out of the car.



Tomorrow it is a short run to our Air BnB chalet at Auchnarrow in the Cairngorms so beforehand we will spend time on the trail of the Finlayson’s to see what we can uncover from the limited census information we have on where they were married and lived.

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