Firetop

Sunday was all set for the final leg of our Scotland tour - this time from Inverness to Fintry (near Stirling). Instead of taking the more direct A9 past the Cairngorms (which we’d seen enough of on previous drives) we opted for the longer West Coast route past Loch Ness, Ben Nevis and through Glencoe. It was a wet day (our first in Scotland believe it or not) so taking snaps of Loch Ness was a quick and wet affair. As we drove the twenty or so miles along the edge of Loch Ness we stopped at Castle Urquhart to stretch our legs and take a few more photos of the perfectly still Loch Ness - no sign of a monster anywhere though.

The drive from Fort Augustus to Fort William - home of the Nevis Mountain range was quite tiring; single carriageway all the way, past Loch after Loch - not much sign of snow but very beautiful scenery. In Fort William we couldn’t find a restaurant to stop at for lunch (we thought we found one but they didn’t serve hot food) so I got another Macdonalds wish to feed my addiction! After filling the hunger gap with lovely bad food, Suzie_Q drove us some of the way through the Glenn Nevis range, past Ben Nevis and some stunning waterfalls, giving a lift to a couple from Ipswich on the way back to Fort William (they looked soaked and were very grateful).

From Fort William we turned East and drove towards Stirling, we had no idea that we’d be going directly through Glencoe, or that Glencoe would be so amazingly vast and baren. I made a short 360 degree video of the roadside waterfalls and mountains as we headed up to Glencoe. Later, as we passed up through the icey landscape of bare rock, snow covered mountains and frozen pools, we speculated that it was like looking at the Earth a million years ago (or Star Wars planet ‘Hoth’). We passed a hotel that looked so perfectly placed we intend to go back one day to explore the area by foot (Kings House Hotel). Thankfully none of the snow gates were closed enroute (god only knows what we would have done if they had been) and we made it through the mountains safely.

Fintry - home of Culcreuch Castle hotel, was situated in the Campsie Fells - large snow covered hills, bigger than anything you’d see in Surrey, but not quite mountains. We arrived at Culcreuch at about 7pm - after following some seriously narrow pot-holed roads to nowhere “where are you taking me?” asked Suzie_Q nervously.

Technorati Tags: loch ness, fort augustus, fort william, glencoe, ben nevis, campsies, culcreuch, fintry

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