Scotland trip
14th May 2011
We have just returned from a few days away in Scotland. After visiting Mikes Mum in Fife and stopping for day in Glasgow, we decided to take a short tour of Argyll; an area neither of us has visited before. We started our whistle stop tour at Loch Lomond where we stayed in a lovely guesthouse right on the Loch, (www.culag.info) with a unique attraction of being the terminus for a seaplane service. It was such a picturesque setting I spent virtually the whole time we were there with a camera in my hand; not only taking the view, but also attempting to capture the swallows that were nesting under our bedroom window.
Our next stop was to stay in another loch side guest-house (www.dallachulish.co.uk) at Barcaldine on the banks of Loch Creran, just north of Oban. The view over Oban to the western isles from McCaig's Tower was simply stunning, although photographically challenging – bloomin’ sun. We sampled the best of Scottish seafood, with a fabulous dinner of oysters (cooked I hasten to add – my only experience of raw oysters in Belgium wasn’t one I care to repeat!), a whole Lobster (to confirm Mike’s statement that the fish always have one claw larger than the other as they are either left or right “handed” – its true!) and the best handmade chocolates I have had for a long time – it just couldn’t get better. Until the sunset that is!
The next day we traveled on to Skye, which is just so beautiful and the scenery so varied that it would keep a landscape photographer happy for weeks – but we only had a day to explore. We did our best but we just have to go back for a longer stay soon!
The weather on our last day took a turn for the worse and so we headed back to the mainland on the ferry from Ardvasar to Mallaig, which was a bit of an adventure. The crossing was a little rough and we spent the whole trip listening to the wail of a car alarm going off – it was only when we got back to our hire car that we realised it was us! Our final stop was in a B&B overlooking Loch Sunart at Strontian (which gave its name to the element strontium, which was first discovered in the nearby lead mines in 1790) on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. This area is so remote there is only one petrol pump on the whole peninsular and this is at a post office that closes at 5pm! However it was lovely to share the house with a day old lamb that was recovering from pneumonia (it survived its first night and we can only hope that it continued to thrive), 2 huge wolfhounds, 2 highland terriers and a visiting pine martin!
Back to reality the next day and the flight from Edinburgh was as stressful as usual – even though I had de-watched, jewelled and sorted out the camera bag before security, I forgot to remove my Mobile from its usual pocket - Ergh!!! Of course I set the alarm off. To make things worse, the skirt I was wearing kept setting the hand search wand off so I was asked to go to the “private area” for a personal search. Although I wasn’t overly worried about doing this, the warnings and signatures I had to give to say I was aware of my rights were a tad unsettling. Then just when I got through this, my camera bag was deemed “too dense” so it was hand searched and swabbed – I didn’t think it was appropriate to ask what technique they were using to test the swab at this point. Then just to top the whole journey off, Mike realised that the random car park ticket he had found and thrown away in Kirkcaldy was in fact the Cardiff airport parking ticket – things weren’t going well. Next time Ill drive or take the train!!
Our next stop was to stay in another loch side guest-house (www.dallachulish.co.uk) at Barcaldine on the banks of Loch Creran, just north of Oban. The view over Oban to the western isles from McCaig's Tower was simply stunning, although photographically challenging – bloomin’ sun. We sampled the best of Scottish seafood, with a fabulous dinner of oysters (cooked I hasten to add – my only experience of raw oysters in Belgium wasn’t one I care to repeat!), a whole Lobster (to confirm Mike’s statement that the fish always have one claw larger than the other as they are either left or right “handed” – its true!) and the best handmade chocolates I have had for a long time – it just couldn’t get better. Until the sunset that is!
The next day we traveled on to Skye, which is just so beautiful and the scenery so varied that it would keep a landscape photographer happy for weeks – but we only had a day to explore. We did our best but we just have to go back for a longer stay soon!
The weather on our last day took a turn for the worse and so we headed back to the mainland on the ferry from Ardvasar to Mallaig, which was a bit of an adventure. The crossing was a little rough and we spent the whole trip listening to the wail of a car alarm going off – it was only when we got back to our hire car that we realised it was us! Our final stop was in a B&B overlooking Loch Sunart at Strontian (which gave its name to the element strontium, which was first discovered in the nearby lead mines in 1790) on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. This area is so remote there is only one petrol pump on the whole peninsular and this is at a post office that closes at 5pm! However it was lovely to share the house with a day old lamb that was recovering from pneumonia (it survived its first night and we can only hope that it continued to thrive), 2 huge wolfhounds, 2 highland terriers and a visiting pine martin!
Back to reality the next day and the flight from Edinburgh was as stressful as usual – even though I had de-watched, jewelled and sorted out the camera bag before security, I forgot to remove my Mobile from its usual pocket - Ergh!!! Of course I set the alarm off. To make things worse, the skirt I was wearing kept setting the hand search wand off so I was asked to go to the “private area” for a personal search. Although I wasn’t overly worried about doing this, the warnings and signatures I had to give to say I was aware of my rights were a tad unsettling. Then just when I got through this, my camera bag was deemed “too dense” so it was hand searched and swabbed – I didn’t think it was appropriate to ask what technique they were using to test the swab at this point. Then just to top the whole journey off, Mike realised that the random car park ticket he had found and thrown away in Kirkcaldy was in fact the Cardiff airport parking ticket – things weren’t going well. Next time Ill drive or take the train!!