Farewell Scotland, hello Ireland
To our relief, the parcel was actually picked up as planned yesterday (missed the blog) so fingers crossed our precious things make it to Spence in a week or so. An early start and a busy day ahead, meant for one final cooked breakfast for TR before heading to the airport in Glasgow. We were a bit c...
Glasgow in a hurry
Today was a chance to explore central Glasgow via bus, but not before getting the box ready for sending home. Unfortunately, our accommodation was managed by number 7 in our street, whilst the address of our apartment was number 8 with no reception was the pickup address. So, a sign on the door to p...
Back to the mainland
Morning came with fingers crossed for the forecast being incorrect about the wind strength and the possibility of ferry cancellations...and a check of the Calmac ferries website showing that 28 of 30 services were affected and/or cancelled in the morning. Thankfully though, our large ferry was one o...
Islay Whisky Day 2
I'm a bit behind and so this one being typed at Glasgow airport...argh, sorry to our regular readers for the delay. Morning broke to another grey sky but the forecast for warmer air still lingered (up to double digits believe it or not). A nice brekky at our accommodation and then we headed down the...
Islay Whisky day 1
So, some stuff is closed. Ardbeg had extensive roof damage in the Storm Eowyn and is closed for 6 months. Laphroaig is not running tours until after we've left Islay. Boo. Sitting at breakfast, working out a plan, I realised that Bruichladdich did have tour available at 10am. It was 9:15am with a 15...
Onto the whisky Isle we go
We bid farewell to the lands of Scottish historical battlegrounds and drove towards the coast at Kennacraig. Happily too, a return, one of our last, to the big scenery that we will remember so fondly from our Scottish adventures this past 4 weeks. Loch Lomond was pretty and clearly a tourist mecca d...
They may take our lives but they will never take away...IYKYK
A very good breakfast to get us into the 15000 steps or so we took today = excellent. Given the close proximity of our hotel to the main attractions in Stirling, we started out on foot to walk up the hill to the castle, passing the historic features such as the back wall of the old city, the old jai...
Travelling to Stirling: William Wallace country
A very early start for us this morning with the ferry due for departure from St Margaret's Hope at 7:15am. With a 30 minute drive from our accommodation in the dark on potentially icy and certainly windy roads in front of us, the alarm didn't really need to sound at 5am...I was already quite alert b...
Another ripping day on Orkney
Another great breeze free day greeted us. Bronnie decided to embrace the Orkney life and get started on her beanie creation with her lovely Orkney wool whilst I headed out to Deerness to go to another Brough. The drive over was nice again and I basically had the walk to myself. A little bit apprehen...
Neolithic Orkney
Lovely weather Orkney style, read no wind, no rain, met us this morning so we decided to take in the Neolithic offerings of the main island using the convenient map from our accommodation. So, we packed our lunch like good little school children and headed off in the Vauxhall Mocka. I really like dr...
Orkney done 2 ways!
A nice slow morning and given we have the week here, no rush to sprint around! But of course, I couldn't help myself so grabbed a brochure listing the main sites of interest in the west part of the main island of Orkney (actually there are 70 islands here, of which 20 are inhabited). For much of the...
A ferry ride and now, Orkney
Up bright and early and a careful drive along the potentially icy and slippery roads up to Gills Bay ferry terminal was the order of the day. A delightful pre-sunrise scene awaited us and everything went smoothly as we boarded the Pentland Ferry bound for St Margaret's Hope on Orkney. Thankfully, th...
John O Groats, Dunkansby Lighthouse and the Duncansby Stacks
Our last day in "the North" before hopping across to Orkney tomorrow, so we couldn't not go to the iconic John O'Groats. First stop was Duncansby Lighthouse and the nearby sea stacks. We were sooooo fortunate to have had crazy good weather whilst up here and today was no different. The lighthouse wa...
Fairy Garden (Latheronwheel), Cairn O Camster and a Rugby match
As we looked out to the North Sea from our accommodation, the juxtapostion of the old and the new is quite striking. In the foreground we had the 14th century castle ruins, then behind that we can count 7 oil rigs and maybe as many as 200 wind turbines that go with the hundreds of them between Thurs...
Scenic north north Scotland
A farewell to the geologists paradise and our slightly unusual vibe accommodation and we headed off towards our next port of call near John O'Groats. Again the morning scenery was varied and interesting, passing some great sandy beaches at first before winding our way along a large inlet towards the...
A day for the geologists
Some internet exploring revealed the extent of the significance of the geopark in this area, so safari suit, knaki and new wool jumpered attire, nerd up we did. A 45 minute drive south to Scourie took us to a headland for a walk to find the Lewisian Gneiss. 3 billion year old grey metamorphosed sedi...
Moving day: South Erradale to Durness
Into "the North" we went today. With a forecast travel time of about 3.5hours, we did our research about things to do en route to Durness and realised that indeed it is true that this really is a sparsely populated part of the world and we are travelling in the off season. A number of waterfall poss...
A quiet hamlet in NW Scotland
Today was a delightful quiet rambling sort of day with no rush to get to a new location, no "must sees", no finding of new accommodation. A chance to finish doing the washing, have a relax and reset. So, what did we actually do? Home prepared breakfast (read, finishing up lots of bits and pieces of...
A last blast on Skye then onto "the North"
Another great breakfast with our host Jacqui and a very interesting conversation about spirits residing at her house. Both nights, I've woken up to see a shape/presence in the upper corner of the room we were staying in. On the first night I tried to convince myself that it was just a trick of light...
North Skye...a treat for the eyes
A quiet start to the day with a short walk into Portree harbour to get some supplies for picnic lunch in order before meeting up with Rachael at 1pm. As the morning grey clouds began to clear, we ventured down to the water, passing a group of crab fishermen who were sorting their catch by type and s...
Off to Skye we go
Farewell to our ripping views in Fort William and the 3 highland cows. A quick look back through the town and we headed off towards The Isle of Skye. We were again constantly surprised by how "big" the scenery is in this part of Scotland with imposing snow topped mountains, vast valleys and water fi...
Steall Falls: Mint!
Not the greatest sleep according to Garmin (sleep score of 46) but a new day dawned, with a less favourable forecast with a bit of rain around, but Bronnie found a recommended short walk nearby Ben Nevis in a place called Glen Nevis. Steall Falls. We are still in search of authentic Highland both pe...
The magic of Harry Potter: Glen Finnan
An amazing view of Ben Nevis from our window woke us from a comfy sleep at Ben Nevis Manor. Not as old as the name suggested but a really great place to have chosen to stay at. I decided to head for a morning stroll to take in the well known Neptune's staircase. A series of several (I reckon maybe e...
Inverness to Fort William via "the Loch"!!!!
Another haggisy start to the day and some car snacks collected at breakfast, we kicked off with a brief explore of Inverness. New MacDonald scarves for Bronnie/gifting and a stroll to the river Ness and obligatory church appreciation for me before we hit the road south west towards "the Ness". Surpr...
Exploring the Highlands around Inverness
Great comfy hotel and traditional Scottish breakfast, including Haggis and Black Pudding for Tim, plus some sneaky lunch smuggled out and we were set for a good day. Weather a cool 4C most of the day, but we set out heading east after first having a stroll through the shops nearby the Royal Highland...
Travel day and another new vehicle
A good sleep after amazing music immersion over the weekend before we headed north again to resume our original Scottish highlands adventures. A much easier drive than the way down both due to leaving earlier in the day and also the weather being much more conducive to easy driving. One of our favou...
Over too soon
To all readers, happy Australia Day or whatever name you go by for 26th January. For us, day 3 in Manchester saw more of the most amazing brass playing on earth. Another 3 bands of thrilling music were on offer at the RNCM again. First up was the RNCM band, conducted by a guest conductor and feature...
Immersion weekend continued
Well, what can I say, I think I'll remember this weekend... Today we trunded along Oxford St to the RNCM, first to listen to Athena Band. An all female brass band that had been invited to attend and play at the festival this year. A great warm sound and it was really nice to see the enjoyment they h...
Once in a century storm and amazing music
Well, the warnings weren't wrong. Wind howling from 5am outside, even though we were down in the Orange alert zone with just a mild 80-90mph winds as opposed to the all time records broken in Ireland with 114mph. Our hotel had offered us 11am check out and despite a knock at the door asking if we'd...
An unexpected adventure
We awoke to a lovely sunrise over the river opposite our accommodation this morning and had a terrific brekky, including Stornaway black pudding and square sausage (Lorne)! Our host was full of great recommendations about possible places to visit during the day exploring, including Dunnottar Castle...
Travel Day
After a very late night to bed (12:45am) we were up bright and early to get ready for a huge travel day. Not too difficult as the usual pre-travel day "alertness" was in action. Bag mass checks revealed both were under 20kg as in my recollection this leg required lighter baggage than other legs, and...