Highland Adventure Day 1

Scotland's Highland Adventure
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee gave us a 4 day weekend. Since we had Church related obligations on Saturday and Sunday our weekend dwindled down to 2 days, so we took an extra day off and made it a 3 day holiday (Mon - Wed.)
I have written a 6 page journal entry but as not to bore you I'll just give the highlights.
Scottish Highland Adventure 4 – 6 June 2012. We drove a total of 538 miles over the 3 days.

Day 1: We left Corstorphine, Edinburgh, Mid-Lothian and crossed the forth of firth bridge towards Perth, Perthshire – high way A9 the start of the Central Highlands.
We took the exit to Dunkeld which included the village of Birnam and noted history:
The wood of Birnam Hill, which overlooks the village, is where Macbeth met the three witches who foretold his fate. We discovered that the Hermitage was just north of Dunkeld.
The Hermitage

Although the Hermitage looks, at first sight, like it might have developed naturally, it is actually a planned landscape. It was built by Ossain on the right side of the River Braan. Hermitage is a cascading waterfall and wooded area.

In the 1760s the poet James Macpherson captured the imagination of an entire generation, in Scotland and beyond, when he published a series of "discovered" ancient poems said to have been originally written in Gaelic by Ossian, son of Fingal. The elements of the Hermitage were quickly rebranded to exploit the mythology of Ossian. The Hermitage itself became known as Ossian's Hall. “Ossian’s hall” is an unusual single room building with a deck that overlooks the falls. Beautiful view.


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Welcome to the Highlands!
Before we got to Pitlochry we saw this beautiful building in the distance. We still don't know the name of it.

Pitlochry – Perth & Kinross, - We were told and read that this was the aristocratic Victorian village and as we drove through it we could tell by the shops and the buildings that this was a more exclusive place to visit and stay at.


We were able to see the famous Blair Castle/Palace which is still lived in and can be toured but we didn't stop.
The country side was beautiful. Lots of farms, sheep, and green, green hills.


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Dalwhinnie, Invernes-shire was the turning off point from A9 headed for Inverness. Our road twisted and turned through mountains and lochs towards the Great Glen of the Caledonian fault.

We loved the variety of old homes that we saw along the road.

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Monarch of the Glen
The pictures of the quaint homes we saw on our road to Loch Laggan. The Glenbogle home is the castle looking pictures.
We were told that the Ardverikie House (used to portray Glenbogle House in the TV series) would be visible on the road towards our B&B in Roy Bridge. It was located on Loch Laggan.

I was thrilled to spot it and took numerous pictures with Jen’s wonderful camera with the zoom lens. We’ve enjoyed watching the series because of the beautiful countryside. When we started watching we had no idea that we’d actually be living in Scotland.





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We arrived at Roy Bridge just a little after 12 noon but couldn’t check into the hotel until 2 pm but we double checked to make sure we had accommodations that were not over the pub.

View of Nevis Mountain Range. The scenery is spectacular and magnificent. Trees and rhododendrons in full profusion lined the narrow highways.




Great Glen - Highlands


We headed west then north past Invergary and on up to Fort Augusta the base of Loch Ness.

What a quaint village bursting with people from all around the world. Large tour groups of Asians and Middle Easterners. We ran into a few people speaking German. And even some from England.

We had lunch at the Loch Ness Inn and had the best barley vegetable soup I’ve tasted here in Scotland served with large dinner rolls. It was just the perfect mid-day meal. We had a scoop of orange chocolate chip ice cream delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the yachts and sail boats pass through the lochs and even watched the road loch turn so the tall sails could go through.

We walked the path to the end of the Loch Ness (or actually the southern tip). We only drove a short distance up Loch Ness. Had we continued on the road northward it would have taken us an hour and a half to reach Inverness the north end of Loch Ness.

We purchased a Scottish Bagpipe fridge magnet. We had hoped to find a metal one of Loch Ness but couldn’t. We knew we had our wonderful Nessie back at our flat so shopping wasn’t a temptation.
We saw two beautiful white swans and their babies (called cygnets)enjoying Loch Ness. The cygnets were having a free ride on the back of the mother (we presumed). There were 3 or 4 of them, we weren't exactly sure. In one picture we were able to capture 2 of them stretching out their necks.


On our way back to Roy Bridge we stopped to see Oich Bridge and while there we got to see another loch road move to allow a yacht through. We were glad we had parked on the side of the bridge/road that we were headed so we were able to leave while those on the opposite side had to remain till the road was back in place.


We at last returned to Roy Bridge and settled into our room for a short break. Roy Bridge Hotel - We had delightful little room with a double bed, TV, and tiny bathroom with shower. (ensuite – meaning in the room) located on the 2nd floor in the corner with windows to enjoy the view. The hotel itself was about 150 years old and we could tell that it was old and loved the feel.

I felt like I had stepped back in time to the western cowboy day but in Scotland. At dinner time we went to the other half of the hotel which was a pub to order dinner and then returned to the hotel dinning room to enjoy our meal. I was delighted to receive my pot pie that I had ordered with a Flaky 1 ½ inch top crust, tender chunks of beef in delicious brown gravy with mashed potatoes & vegetables. Sorry we didn't get a picture of it.

That evening we were delighted to witness the Diamond Jubilee Celebration Concert with Tom Jones, Elton John, and best of all Paul McCartney performing songs from her 60 years.

There was also a special song “Sing” that was written and performed by several groups from around the world including a children’s choir from Africa. Marvelous and beautiful. And then Prince Charles gave a tribute to his "mummy".

And then we watched as Queen Elizabeth lit the last of 4,200 beacons across the UK. And that was a good signal to switch the lights off and go to sleep, for tomorrow we were headed to the Isle of Skye