Plockton

We had a relaxing Sunday morning since our ride wasn’t picking us up until 11 a.m.   We made the short 1+ hour drive to our next stop.   Plockton is a small mainland village on the shores of Loch Carron.   We stayed at the Plockton Hotel, which is not to be confused with the Plockton Inn.   Our room wasn’t ready, so we left our bags and set out to explore.

Found this sign on the train station below

Trains stop a few feet down the track from this former station

Local Primary School

We enjoyed a nice walk about the village followed by some ice cream.  The buildings are set into a steep hillside, which creates some interesting backyard terraced gardens.  One was rather eccentric with what might have been a female manikin, a metal structured once used to burn wood as a navigation beacon on the loch along with many other items.  (Owned by the Seal Cruise operator)

Since we weren’t dressed to explore the footpaths, we opted for Callum’s Seal Tour.   The cruise was faithful to its name as we found seals lounging on a small bit of rock in the loch.  We were introduced to the seals by name.

We almost had a private tour from Ian and Chris, but a family with a young girl joined us.  Watching her steer the boat while seated in her dad’s lap brought back great memories of our daughter Cierra at that age.  I learned that Ian raced sail boats and we talked about the boats in the area and how if the tide is right, he races through a narrow cut between an island and the mainland.   When the tides coming in the water moves fast, accelerating  the sailboat.  He has to be careful about the depth as the cut is a land bridge at low tide.  The tides vary by over 10 feet here.  We also learned how in 2005 Hurricane Katrina was still a named storm when it struck this area.  In fact Callum’s tour boat was torn from its mooring and destroyed on the rocks.  

Next stop was the Hotel’s deck overlooking the Loch. With Pints in hand, we were invited to join a couple at one of the tables.   They were from Edinburgh.  He born and raised, she a transplant from South Africa when she was a young women.   We had a wonderful conversation with them with a wide gamut of topics.   

View from our room while tide is out

Our departure the next day wasn’t until almost 2 p.m. so we set out for a walk in search of Duncraig Castle which we had seen from the boat.  The hotel had a pamphlet with a hand drawn map of the area with two walking paths.    On our way to the path, we found a sign leading to one of the Open Air Church’s  that came to be when the Church of Scotland split.  It remains a beautiful site to this day.

Looking into the Open Air Church

Further down the road, we found the path to Duncraig Castle.  The journey took us past many picturesque  settings.  It followed a steep hillside along the water and looked back to the village.  (See first photo)  There were steep cliffs where the rail line had cut a ledge.  The land here was rich with vegetation.   Moss covered every rock and lichen was on most trees.   

Entrance to our path with the walking sticks we made

Tangled web - reminds me of a scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where the giant spiders lived

Mosses covered everything including the wall beside me

Not sure what this structure had been used for

The map showed an out and back path.   Reality was several intersecting paths without any trail markings.   We tried two alternatives, but we ran out of time and had to return to the village.  Fortunately, I captured this picture while on the Seal tour.

It and the surrounding buildings were purchased and fully renovated by a private party a few years ago. 

Isle of Skye

 

Portree waterfront

After our taxi, train, ferry, taxi ride we got to our hotel on the Isle of Skye.  It is a VERY old house that has lots of taxidermy animals and antlers on the walls.  There also a lot of just old stuff that makes it a neat old house - the addition is the Georgian part.  Jeff and I are not actually staying in the house I think we are in a former barn but it has been fixed up wonderfully.  We have a first floor landing then we go up the steps to our room.  Pretty sure this is a newer addition to the place.  We are in the town of Portree which is a population of around 3,000 while the whole island is approximately 10,000 year round with a huge influx of tourists in the season.

It took me a minute to realize that was a working toilet.

On our way here, everyone kept commenting about how bad the weather was supposed to be on Saturday so once we got to the hotel (Viewfield House) we dropped our bags off and walked into town.  Town is not real big, but it was nice to wander in some shops since there are a lot of local artists in this area.  After wandering for awhile, we decided it was time to eat.  We wisely heeded the advice of our taxi driver and ate at the Lower Deck Seafood Restaurant.  It was nothing fancy but it was pretty good.  We shared a main course of scallops because he had pointed out on our drive a place where they grew them and he said they were good - he was right.  We saw these string of  lines in the water.  Apparently the scallops start life elsewhere and then they are brought here to grow nice and big.  Also on our drive, we saw these big circles in the water along the coast - salmon fisheries.  He did not recommend eating them.

The street along the water in Portree is an iconic site for the town because of its bright colored buildings. There are a couple of other towns on the island like Armedale which is where our ferry came in at, but none of them are very big or the main draw for the island.  I had heard you could drive around the Isle of Skye and experience all of Scotland's landscapes.  There are lochs, mountain ranges, interesting rocks, sheep, highland cows, a castle and the seas so yeah probably true.  Oh almost forgot dinosaur footprints too.

On our full day on the island, we did a scenic tour of Skye.  It was supposed to he a full day but because of the weather it became a half day.  We started out all nice and dry even through our first stop.  Unfortunately that did not last.  It was a good tour and the tour guide was great.  He taught some Gaelic language - tried to teach us all how to order a whisky in it and promised it would get a cheap drink but I doubt any of us remembered it all.

Our first stop was the Old Man of Stoor.  You can kind of see a man's face in part of it and then things get a little interesting.  It is not the face part that is most famous though.  Further down the hill there are several free standing tall rocks that have been used in many movies including the Transformers so that is quite popular with some tourists.  Our tour did not have time to climb up to it so just a quick stop and off we went again.

Another early stop was to see kilt rock and the dinosaur footprints.  The mountain is made out of basalt like the Isle of Staffa we visited in Oban so that is why the kilt comment - they think the vertical cuts in the wall looks like the pleats of a kilt.  Also right there is a beach where in the early 1980s and amateur archeologist found dinosaur footprints.  The experts came and agreed and then more were found including some very small ones.  At this point the weather was windy and a little rain but not bad.

While the weather was still decent, we visited Lealt Falls.

As it was starting to get rather windy, we headed for the Fairy Glens since that would be a little protected for us.  The old stories are that fairies were mischievous and something to be somewhat avoided.  This glen is full of short hills that are all pointy.  Like so much of the Highlands, sheep graze in the area today.  Their grazing has caused some parts of the dirt to  fall down the hill giving many of the small hills a tiered look.  There were also a couple of old stone buildings in the area that had been places of refuge at one time.

Terraces engineered by Sheep

We could make out a doorway.

Around this point stops started falling off of our to do list.  Donald our tour guide would say - you won't be able to see anything there or the clouds are too low.  We headed to Dunvegan Castle and he drove out to a vantage point where people normally take photos - you could barely see the place through the rain and clouds.  He said there were only a couple of rooms on the first floor you could tour so hardly worth visiting.  A group discussion was then held and the agreement was we would go to the broch and then call it a day.  No fairy pools - the walkway becomes a stream in the rain and no Neist Pointland cause the view would be too bad (it is a lighthouse on a point with great views). Major Bummer

Dun Beag Broch - our last stop of the day.  Brochs are a serious of building that were built along the coast of Scotland (main and islands).  They are old enough that no one is completely sure on how parts of the buildings were used.  When you entered, there was a way to easily kill an intruder.  The first floor was kept for animals, the second floor was for humans and the top was for storage.  There were circular staircases built into the walls to go from floor to floor.  What they are not sure about is why they were there.  They know that fires were built in the very top at times, but they are not sure if it was a warning system about intruders, if they used the fires as lighthouses during the winter for the fisherman or what.  It had seemed like the weather was pretty good (so to speak) when we got out of the van, but as we climbed up the hill the wind got stronger and the rain a little heavier.  The wind could have pushed you over up there if not careful.

The wind driven rain stung the eyes

Then it was back to our hotel.  While our rain coats kept us dry as did our waterproof running shoes we both had wet legs so we were happy to take off our wet clothes and change into something dry.  We thought we would head over to the drawing room which is also a small bar and had a nice fire last night.  But when we got there it was cool with no fire burning.  Then the rain stopped so change of plans and into town we went for a drink at the pub.  Well - um what pub?  We hit a couple of shops we had missed the day before and then went to a bar.   Jeff had a beer and I had a gin and tonic - gin is distilled in lots of places in Scotland.  The rain came back.  We waited awhile and then headed back in light rain to work on things on our laptops.  Guess what, now that the time for the tour has passed and we had  already ordered dinner at the Inn, the sun came out.  Weather forecasters seem to be better no better here then in the States!

Spean Bridge /Fort William/Ben Nevis

I gave this post 3 names because the first one is the small town we actually stayed in, the second is the larger nearby town that is much better known and the 3rd is the highest mountain in Scotland which is here.  When we left Oban, we knew we started on one train and went to the small town of Crianlarich where we would have under an hour before we caught a train to go to Spean Bridge.  Well let's just say we are lucky we are in the correct town!  We got to Crianlarich just fine and I saw that their one sign said Oban at 2:14 and Maillag and 2:24.  Happily I knew that Maillag was going the direction I wanted to go so I figured that was our train and I was correct.  So in the little tea room we went and split a diet Coke and a couple of desserts - Jeff had a berry cake and I had a shortbread with caramel and chocolate on it.  Now to you and I that cake of Jeff's and the banana cake I had last night are fruit breads.  Don't call them a bread to a Scottish store clerk unless you want to get a dirty look!  Anyway back to the story.  So a train comes and we comment on how long of a train it was for these parts - all the others had been 2 cars and this one was 6.  Several people get on and a couple of us are still standing around.  I noticed the other lady ask a train rep something who then motions no get on the train.  I decide to go down there and I ask about Fort William train she says this is it.  Eek!  Run towards Jeff and the bags he grabs I grab and we get on the train and it starts moving almost instantly.  Seems the train cars were about to break up with half going to Oban and half up to Maillag.  Now inside the cars there is a scrolling sign with the upcoming stations and part of me is still not sure we are on the correct train so until that sign finally started working I was worried.  I mean does the lady delivering coffee and tea really know which train is which?

After I was content that we were on the correct train, I was able to enjoy the incredible scenery that started unfolding outside our window.  The only place I can think of any similar scenery were some of the mountains around San Francisco.  The hills are golden like there and some are steep and large rocks/boulders are just kind of strewn about.  Oh and sheep keep popping up.  I think some of them are part mountain goat with the steep hills they were grazing on.  Then you would see a lake or occasionally a woodland area.  It was a sunny day so that helped out too.  The marketing folks are calling this "The Outdoor Capital of the UK".  So there are lots of hiking and biking trails in the area.  From the train you could see people walking with backpacks on and even the train was set up to carry bicycles.  The train line we are on right now is the West Highland Line and is considered one of the best train trips to do.  After we got in for the night I went back and read one of the leaflets given us for the trip and it pointed out a couple of key things that made some signs I had seen make more sense.  In one spot our train ride included a horseshoe curve; and like I thought we passed a ruin of an old castle (only some exterior walls standing).  There were also signs about Corrour like it was a big deal and I was thinking sure is small and remote feeling - um yeah Carol that is why it is special.  You literally cannot get here by car and it is the peak spot along the line.

Our tour included a taxi from the 1 room train station of Spean Bridge to our B and B for the next 2 nights - Old Pines.  It is called Old Pines because it is located on 6 acres with old pine trees.  This is a pretty modern building that closes in the winter.  It is also known for its restaurant which is organic and happily included in our package.  Like our last B and B this one is small at 7 or so rooms each with a flower for a name - we are in viola.  After we got unpacked, we went for a walk -  couple of paths just across the single track road.  First you have to cross the fence to get to the paths.

The path we chose took us along a stream where we saw several old bridges.  One of them is quite famous in Scotland because it is where the uprising of 45 started.   Um the uprising of the Jacobites in 1745 that is to you and me.   As we were walking we commented that it felt like we were walking on an old railway - we were correct.  Later we saw a couple of old bridges and a placard informed us that a couple of rich men had built a railway for this area with fancy train stations and such only to overspend and to have it quickly fail for lack of passengers.  As we continued to walk, we found a sign that reassured us that everywhere in the world there are lawyers and stupid people.  "Warning - danger"  seems that 30 feet or so up was some power lines and they were warning people not to carry their fishing poles upright.  Jeff wanted to know what type of fishing poles these people are using!

Bridge built by British, but used by both sides

Bad investment

Some time after the Jacobite uprising failed the British Lords learned they could make more money from raising sheep than the rents they collected from people.   So the people were evicted and the sheep took over.   Today, there are sheep everywhere.  We learned on our walk that they like the woods about as much as they like the pasture.

Watchful Mom

Her Sleeping lamb

Next morning it was off to Nevis Mountain Range Ski Resort.  Where we rode up its gondola and did a couple of hikes.  Seems they are having trouble making a go of it as a ski resort because of low snow levels the last couple of years, but they are a top mountain biking spot in the world.  Matter of fact there were signs up about an upcoming Grand Prix event sponsored by Mercedes Benz.  We enjoyed the 2 walks and the scenery.

Then we were off to Ben Nevis distillery.  Unfortunately we just missed the start of a tour, but we did taste 4 of their whiskeys.  A 10 year single malt, a younger single malt and 2 blends.  We decided we like the single malts the best.

The next morning we left for our next destination: the Isle of Skye.  But getting there was going to be special.  We were on the Jacobite train over the Glenfinnan viaduct past deep water loch and a short river, and mountains.  If you are a archetecture buff you would know the viaduct is one of the largest concrete structures around.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, you know it as part of the train trip to  Hogwarts.  It is supposed to be a steam train, but due to high fire danger on our day, it was partly steam and partly diesel.  The train was nicely refurbished to feel like an old train car inside.  The seats in first class were like a wingback chair with wooden legs.  It was fun.

While we didn’t depart from Platform 9 3/4, the trolley cart did sell chocolate frogs

We were in the first coach after the steam locomotive