Scotland 05

I have decided to write about the holiday my family and I have had this year in Scotland and also about some Xmarks friends we met along the way.

Oh! By the way some of the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them…..But you knew that… didn’t you….

Day 1.
We left home on Wednesday 13th and had a very uneventful 300 km’s drive to Kristiansand to get the ferry to Newcastle. The ferry was half an hour late but that didn’t matter . The crossing was also uneventful .The children enjoyed the kids disco and me a whisky and a Guinness.

Day 2

The ferry got into Newcastle at 10am and we where off and running for the boarder by half past.The A1 is the easiest way to Scotland from Newcastle. After a couple of stops we arrived in the Laggan area (Better known as GlenBogle) at around 3pm. We went sightseeing almost immediately . The first port of call was the shores of Loch Laggan to see that wonderful Victorian pile of bricks Ardverikie. Used in the film "Mrs Brown" but better known to millions by the name Glenbogle house from the" TV series Monarch of the Glen" Un fortunatly it's a private house so you have to make do with the view across the Loch (Title picture)
We then drove to the gatehouse where the bridge there features a lot in the show.

The little village of Laggan isn't far away and we stopped at the stores(Also featured in the series) to ask about a campsite for the night. We where given directions to the Invernahavon Campsite Not far from Newtownmore.

here endth the first day.

Day 3:
We woke fairly early, and I cooked pancakes for Breakfast .This went down well with the children. We then packed all our camping gear and drove to Aviemore to do some shopping. While on the road we drove past the "Barbers shop" also from M.O.G. It looked rather derelict now though.

The children found out that they would like to spend the day at Landmark a forest theme park. It was a great day watching the two of them go wild after they had been sat still in the car for such a long time. Landmark is in the village of Carrbridge where you can see the remains of a bridge built in the 1600's .

You can't miss it just look for all the people taking pictures just like this one taken by my wife. If you look on the walls of the petrol station shop you can see what it looked like over the years when the river flooded. Impressive building if you ask me.

We then set off for Broomhill or should I say Glenbogle station. It takes a bit of finding. I was getting low on petrol and getting nervous. However after asking a local we found it . We purchsed our platform tickets marked Glenbogle and went out onto the platform. Maybe it was my sense of humour ..I don't know but we found the sign just placed in a tool shed on the platform.It seemed sad just lying there .Maybe the end of an era.

Photo's were of course taken

With a now full tank of petrol. It wasn't far to drive to Inverness and Bugt Park camping site. When we arrived it said on a sign "SITE FULL BACKPAKERS ONLY" I took a chance and went into the office and asked anyway. I stood there in my kilt and was told that they could infact just squeeze us in.Especially as I was kilted.
The wife of the owner was so impressed by my kilt she told me her husband looked terrible in one with his spindlly legs .She did however tell me that she liked me in a kilt as my legs looked a lot better than her hubby's.

Hubby just gave me a look enough to say "I wish my wife would shut up" ..and showed me to a plot .

Bugt Park was busy. However we had stayed there before and It's a nice walk along the river to the town centre .
The river is populated with fly fisherman trying their luck and tourist's stretching their legs after a long day in a Bus or some such.I was stopped by an elderly American lady and asked what clan my kilt was. (It was my Bear kilts MacLean at the time )After this encounter we did a little shopping (Including some kilt shops )And then walked tierdly back to our tent for the night.

Day 4

With me so Far?... Good Today Saturday At last I get to meet Graham and his wife Leslie.

Er!....Sorry just a little background.........

For all that don't know Graham is from Tasmania and was in Scotland at the same time as us .We both use the same forum on the internet so have been swopping e-mails for about a year now. He is also the owner of two of the sporrans Sten Rune and I make.

.I'd been texting him for some time telling him how it was going and, the evening beforehand I made what will probobly be the most expensive telephone call I'll ever make .Mobil to mobil to Australia. I just hope my bank manager understands me...

We had arranged a time to meet,10am on Ness bridge (Practically the town centre).

While walking into town I looked across the river to see a kilted gent with what I thought was his Young daughter in tow. At that distance I didn't think it was the man himself . Even bigger the supprise when I saw that it was the man himself and that the "Daughter" was infact Leslie his charming wife We all had a good laugh about that one.

So how did we spend our day ?

I must admit to feeling nevous about this meeting with Gray and his wife I needn't have been they where so easy to like from the off. Graham had parked their car in a car park and the ticket was running out . So we sent the girls and my son into town and went to move the car to the cathedral car park (A lot cheaper) Before doing this Graham and I went into Chisholms . A kilt shop in the town (He'd been in earlier and wanted to show it to me )
I'd been looking for a Charcoal grey tweed jacket for day wear and they had just the one . Fits like a glove ..well a jacket anyway... Blast! sorry getting side tracked....Where was I ....Oh Yes...After parting with my cash we moved the car and met up with the others in town.

We met a woman who asked us if we knew where" such and such" a kilt shop was she told us off because we were both kilted and didn't know where it was...We found a nice little cafe with a sign in the window wanting "Mature Serving Staff" Just the job for us two Gray said. The girl behind the counter was Polish and said we'd have to speak to the boss.

Anyway tea and Coffee were drunk and we chatted about kilts and families and Oz only to find out that our wives have noticed several changes in us men which seem to be common among us kilt wearers . We Just enjoyed each others company.

BTW we didn't get the job.........

We'd decided to top off our day together we'd vist the battlefield at Culloden (Just outside Inverness)We spent the afternoon wandering the path that skirts the battlefield Where there are several memorials to those that fell there on that April morning in 1746. For those of you that haven't been it certainly wasn't a flat grassy field they fought on more an uneven bogg.It really got the thought processes going.

We took some picture of our vist by the memorial Cairn erected by Duncan Forbes in 1881

.......And then all to soon it was over Gray and Leslie were both looking tired after a near sleepless night in Kirkwall (Due to noisy yobb's in the street)So it was time to part company... A great day one I'll cherish for some time to come.

Day 5

Well yesterday would be a tough act to follow .The plan was to Drive up to the Clan Gunn centre at Latheron some distance to the north of Inverness on the road to John-o-Groats and maybe a vist to Glenmorangie Distillery on the way back......Well that was the plan anyway.....Oh! was I wrong...Still it all ended on a high note...you'll see if you read on.

We took the A9 north out of Inverness we drove the road in relative fine weather we even saw some seals basking in the sun on the Cromarty firth.We then drove past Glenmorangie distillery if time allowed we would pay a vist on the way back. Soon we drove past Dornoch ( Madonna had her children Christened in the church here)and past Dunrobin castle just outside Golspie.
We were making such good progress that we would be in Latheron before the Clan Gunn centre wouls be open so we decided to drive the extra to John-o-Groats We spent a rainy wind swept hour there it's just a tourist magnet and a goal for people doing charity rides and walks. (Lands end in the south of england being the starting point) Not much else here.So we got back in the car and drove south again though Wick and on to the Days first dissapointment. The centre was closed on Sundays.....I had checked on the net before leaving for Scotland and it stated Open between 2pm and 4pm we were there in the time frame only to be met with locked doors.
We took a walk around the graveyard and took some pictures of the coastline .We drove further south vowing to send an e-mail to the centre when I get home

So it was off to the distillery We got to Tain just as it Shut for the Day.....Things just were not going our way today......However things took a real upswing ....Read on.

We'd decided at this point that we wanted to stay in a B+B and what better place to do this than a little spot I know on Loch Ness... If you take the A82 out of Inverness and drive the shores of the Loch after about 15miles you'll come to a little hamlet called Drumnadrochit. It's home to both Loch Ness centres the one more Walt Disney than the other.

However in the village it's rather nice. We found a B+B just off the main road But still walking distance to all the attractions. The main attraction for me being Hector Russel (Kilt shop) I had ordered kilt No.3 from them and it was ready for collection. I was met by Linda and she soon found my kilt (Co.Fermanagh tartan). It was tried on and everything was just as I wanted it.She showed me the differences from a hand sewn to the machine sewn that I had ordered and we got chatting .

She knew a little about the sporrans we made and showed me some they have in the shop.(Nice But...) I wanted to buy a new waistcoat for my Prince Charlie outfit. . However to Cut a long story short I ended up with a new Prince charlie Jacket aswell plus many other goodies all paid for with sporrans which I had packed before leaving Norway . A deal we were both happy with.

It was reccomened we eat at "The Fiddlers " in the village It was busy so we had to wait but with Faroch to drink it wasn't that hard I had a Haggis in Whisky starter followed by Char-grilled Salmon all with Faroch and to finish Ardbeg 10 year and coffee. ....Needless to say I went to bed happy that night.

Monday...Life has these days..
We woke after a good nights sleep at the guest house and with a good breakfast inside of us we were ready to meet the day.We wanted if possible to take the "Jacobite" steam train from Fort William to Mallaig. On the telephone I was told they had no room until Thursday. This didn't fit with our plans either at the time. So I left it to have a think and a talk with the wife.
We drove out of Drumnadrochit along the shores of Loch Ness to the beautiful village of Fort Augustus. Here we took a coffee while the children watched the jovial lock keepers at work raising the boats though the flight locks on the Caladonian canal .

Then it was onwards to Fort William and a lunch in the town centre. It started to rain heavily and the rain kind of reflected our mood at the time . I'd been promising the children this "Harry Potter " trip for over a year now (The Glenfinan viaduct is the one Ronny and HP fly over in the 2nd film).We had a major re-think .I wanted to go to Islay too but now the time scale for the other things we wanted to do was looking shakey. I went to the station and was informed that they had no room on the trian until Thursday.So I parted with my £82's anyway and, smiled. What the guy at the counter didn't tell me was, if you turn up on the day and stand in a queue
you could get tickets on a stand by basis......All the B+B's were full in Fort William so we decided to drive on to Oban. We'd been before so we knew the town well. I hoped we could get to Islay from there (A stupid assumsion as it turned out) We pitched our tent at Oban Divers campsite. Definatly one of the best sites I've been on in Scotland so far.

After we had got unpacked we drove into towm to the tourist info office in the centre of town. Here I was informed that there were no day trips or boats to Islay from Oban. Blast it all! I'd convinced myself there were. So what to do. In the end we booked a day trip to Mull and Iona. No whisky but a lot of fine sights. We ate in town and got back to the tent . I took a few shots of Ardbeg "very young" and fell asleep listening to the rain drumming on the canvas.

Footnote
.One funny thing did happen to me that day . I was walking over the carpark to pay the meter when I heard an Irish voice shout out
"Will you look at dat.A real Scotsman in a kilt. Come and take a look"
I turned to find an Irishman and his wife and children comming towards me .The guy pumped my hand heartily and his wife took pictures. Only then did I have a chance to say that I too was a good part Irish and that the kilt I was wearing was in fact the Co. Fermanagh district tartan. Well with this he really got excited he hadn't expected that at all . He was in fact speechless for the first time . He then came to his sences and asked me about Irish kilts . I told him all I could and he thanked me and his wife took another picture . I think he looked like a big question mark when we parted company

Day 7

We woke early as the ferry for Mull left at 10am. Thankfully it had stopped raining for the moment . Sailing out of Oban was nice with good views of the town and MacCraigs tower on the hill. On the trip we sailed past Duart Castle (Used in Entrapment with Sir Sean and Catherine Zeta Jones. ) It looked quite impressive in the changable weather. From Craignure it was an eventuful hours journey by coach to Fionnphort for the ferry to Iona. The coach driver/Guide kept us entertained with all manner of things we could see along the way. In no way was this trip dull there was a new vista around every corner. All driven on single track roads,
When we reached Fionnphort we were just in time to see the Local Mobile Dentist . A large truck with a surgery in the container on the back (Island life)

We finally reached the beautiful shores of Iona. In changeable weather we walked the few hundred yards to see the restored abbey. this site was where St Columba the Irish missionary began his crusade in 563, and made Iona the home of christianity in europe. The grave yard is said to contain the buried remains of at least 48 Scottish kings. ,

On the way back for the ferry the children had time to run wild on the beach and let off some steam. The sun even came out... In Fionnphort once more we met an almost tame seal. The fisherman feed him from scaps and tourist's just love it. apparently he is very fond of Mars bars..... :-)