Blogs from The Highlands, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 12

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Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 17th 2011

The cafe by the harbour in Gairloch has menus in English, Gaelic, French and German. The French version has been elegantly translated by a class in the local school. On the shelf are Japanese, Italian and Russian dictionaries. We shelter here with coffee and mushroom soup. When the weather clears, we buy six langoustines for supper from the back of an estate car on the quayside. Parking at the end of a woodland lane, we take a strenuous walk uphill to a vantage point above Loch Maree, a favourite retreat of Jane's grandfather. Below is a cluster of wooded islets. Only a combination of midges and rain cause us to turn back. ... read more
Loch Maree
Loch Maree

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 12th 2011

Mid-afternoon on Thursday, the cloud broke enough for a few patches of blue to show. We grabbed the day pack and drove to Balmacara Square. From the car park, we walked down through woods of pine and beech, towards Kyle, with the loch on our left, visible from time to time through the trees. At 7pm in the pub in Dornie, the only Scottish voices to be heard were of the bar staff and one local on a stool at the bar. The room buzzed with conversation in a variety of European languages. We tried the local Plockton Bay ale. On Friday morning, from the kitchen window, we see four men on the hillside, cutting long grass, raking and lifting it to make stacks for hay. The sky is grey but there's no rain, so we ... read more
Woodland walk
To the headland
On the road back

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 10th 2011

WICK TO SKYE Today we left the north eastern top of Scotland (Wick) and headed across country (and down) to the western Inner Hebrides island of Skye. Conditions when we started we reasonable and we were able to see a few of the massive North Sea Oil Riggs on the horizon. After about half an hour we hit the bad weather, in particular heavy rain and mist. After initially retracing our steps down the coast we turned inland and headed for Shin Falls. The country was beautiful, with lush forest and plenty of ferns and other greenery. For much of the trip we were flanked by rivers and or streams. In a way the drive was more spectacular because of the amount of water, the streams, rivers were running fast and high and there were many ... read more
Crofters Cottage
Isle of Skye

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 8th 2011

Today was a big travel day from our central Highlands Hotel up to the far north east town of Wick – last stop before the Orkney Islands. BATTLE OF CULLODEN On the way north we stopped at the famous Culloden Battlefield. The exposed upland Moor is about seven km east of Inverness. It was here in 1746 the battle of Culloden was fought. On one side was the Highland Jacobite army, hungry, exhausted, almost out of food and money, but determined to reclaim the thrones of Britain and Ireland for its Stuart king. On the other side was the well rested and resourced army of the British government equally determined to quash its opponents. Despite their bravery the Jackobite army had too much stacked against them and they were heavily defeated. The result changed the Highlands ... read more
Loch Ness
Windy Wick

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 7th 2011

The low grey cloud and light rain won't deter us from our plan to do a long walk each day. We park by the entrance to the Inverinate Estate at Kilfillan, pack our OS map in a plastic cover, and follow the narrow, uneven road over the river towards Camas-luinie. On each side are bracken, beech and hawthorn, wild flowers, heather and purple shock-headed thistles. The only sounds are the clumping of our boots, the rustle of our waterproofs and the plashing of rain. On the hillside, we see the thin white streak of a waterfall. When we reach the few houses of Camas-luinie, there's still no break in the clouds. We don't want to risk a downpour when we're miles from shelter, so we head back. As we're removing our boots by the car, we ... read more
On the walk
Back at the cottage

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 7th 2011

HIGHLANDS HERE WE COME Today we left Edinburgh behind and headed north to the Highlands, on the way we stopped at St Andrews, Pitlochry, Blair Castle and Dalwhinnie Whiskey Distillery. The weather was pretty terrible all day. We stopped at the famous St Andrews Golf Course for about an hour. Normally we would have had a stroll around the area and the town, but the rain was so heavy we were limited to the view from the clubrooms and also a quick photo stop at the historic ruins of St Andrews Church. St Andrews is where Prince William and Kate Middleton went to University and met. The view of the course, adjacent beach and ocean was pretty spectacular and despite the weather there were a still plenty of crazy people teeing off (I guess they had ... read more
great little Pub
Blair Castle

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 6th 2011

Leaving the hotel, we join a procession of vehicles into the Highlands and through the valley of Glencoe, where members of the Clan Macdonald were massacred in 1692. When the mist lies on the slopes, it's a forbidding place, but today it's bright, with cloud shadows on the hills of grey rock and tough grass. Every layby is filled with cars and motor homes, carrying cycles and boats. We've read that the best protection against midges is a moisturiser scented with pine, which repels them. The chemist's in Fort William doesn't stock it but the assistant directs us to a shop selling guns and fishing rods. There, the Avon beauty product is displayed alongside mosquito coils. When we reach Dornie, there's no sign to Allt na Subh, the address of the cottage. On the Ordnance Survey ... read more
Kyle of Lochalsh
Loch Long
Loch Long

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands August 4th 2011

This was always destined to be a slightly more relaxed part of our trip. We had hired a car from Inverness, and were planning to travel along the west coast of Scotland down to Glasgow, missing on purpose going through any major cities, and keeping our driving to only a few hours each day. In that sense, we certainly achieved our objective. We started with a cheap flight from Belfast to Inverness with discount airline FlyBe, which we had booked several months earlier. While there was no problem with the flight, we were somewhat bemused that at the airport not only did we have to pay a surcharge for our luggage, but we also had to pay for our seats, in effect almost doubling the initial cost of the flight. This prompted the enquiry from us ... read more
A crumbling Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness
Eilean Donan Castle, near Kyle of Lochalsh
So, who is feeding who?

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands July 9th 2011

Voted the most scenic rail journey in the world, the West Highland Rail link from Fort William to Mallaig cuts through brilliantly colourful glens and glistening lochs. Today we have opted to follow this line by road. From our humble abode, Ingrid and John shake their head again at the time we are leaving; we head north to Fort William before hanging a left onto the A830 and meander our way west along rocky crags and skirting the many lochs that border our journey. The day has once again turned out to be mild with a few scattered clouds. The forecast is for heavy showers, reducing to thunder storms. The Scottish open is currently underway (or should be) in the city of Inverness, several hours north of us and we are aware of the trouble they ... read more
Photo 7
A loch Ness weir
Mallaig

Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » The Highlands July 7th 2011

Today, we have planned a full days drive north, into the Highlands and are booked into Creag Mhor Lodge for the night. The weather starts out promising enough as the light rain we have had for the last couple of days burns off and though the sky is still overcast we do have glimpses of blue and some sun. The road we have chosen is good driving despite having to pull over, on a regular basis, to allow the trucks that ride our bumper to pass. As we start to climb into the Highlands we are amazed at the number of people using bicycles to tour the countryside. The rain has started again, this time with more intensity and the temperature has dropped to single figures. We stop at the top of one pass, for a ... read more
One of many stone bridges
Craeg Mhor Lodge
Photo 13




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