For the first time this (Scottish) summer, I put sunscreen on my nose today. I’ve also been high enough to touch some snow.
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Tag: Scotland
Kingshouse Glen Coe
Today we crossed Rannoch Moor, reputedly one of Britain’s wildest, largest and most dangerous.
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Bridge of Orchy
As we ate breakfast this morning the sun was streaming through the window, and we could see that our B&B does indeed have a “hillview” as promised by its name. I briefly put my poncho on as we climbed the hill to re-join the West Highland Way, but it turned out to be a false alarm, as it stayed dry throughout our entire journey.
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Crianlarich
Water, water everywhere. And howling winds. We saw a waterfall spilling over the top of Glen Falloch blowing sideways instead of falling down like waterfalls are supposed to.
Inverarnan
We’ve spent most of today walking along the bonie, bonie banks of Loch Lomond – in the pouring rain. The sun that is supposed to shine bright upon the loch didn’t put in an appearance until we were leaving it.
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Rowardennan
The Way from Drymen climbs up hill through the Garadhban Forest, mostly along forest roads. Some of the trees have been harvested recently, as we could see by the piles of logs beside the track.
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Drymen
When we woke this morning in Milngavie the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. The clouds started to roll in as we were eating breakfast, but it hasn’t rained more than a few spits so we have had a great first day of walking. We could have started the day with a “full Scottish breakfast”, but the alternative of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs seemed a much better choice.
Glasgow
Because it would cost hundreds of pounds to catch a train from Oxford to Glasgow we decided to hire a car which worked out much cheaper. Felicity downloaded a GPS navigation app for her iPhone, and it directed us to the centre of town very efficiently.
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Border Abbeys
It’s definitely autumn here in Scotland, as is probably obvious from our clothing in the photos. We woke this morning to gale force winds and a dark grey sky. “The wind might blow the rain away” predicted our hostess optimistically at breakfast.
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Bothwell and Craignethan Castles
Bothwell castle is on a cliff above the Clyde river, upstream of Glasgow. In the middle of the 13th century Walter Murray started building what would have been one of the largest castles in Scotland, but before it was finished he got caught up in the wars of independence, and the castle was captured by the English, recaptured by the Scots, etc, etc.
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Doune and Stirling Castles
We were very excited last night to learn that the first castle on our list for today was the one used by Monty Python in the Holy Grail movie. The Pythons actually stayed in the same hotel that we did, possibly in the same room!
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Castle Campbell
Our accommodation in Selkirk last night was very pleasant. Outside the window next to my bed, a waterfall trickled gently all night; the stream running under the building and out onto the common next door.
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Tantallon and Dirleton Castles
Our walking tour has come to an end due to Felicity injuring her leg. So it looks like we’re going on a castle bagging expedition instead.
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Dysart
I intended to be restrained this morning, and ordered bacon and eggs instead of the “full Scottish breakfast”, but when Felicity asked for haggis I succumbed to peer pressure and asked the waiter for some as well. She only ate half hers, and Judith didn’t eat any after a Google search informed her what it is made of. So after polishing off the lot I was in need of a lot of excersise today.
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Cupar
After a rainy night, we were expecting a wet hike this morning, but the clouds blew away as we were eating breakfast and our coats stayed in our packs.
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St Monans
Our walk today was only four hours, past several picturesque fishing villages with stone harbours. You wouldn’t mistake it for the Mediterranean though, it’s grey and cold, and we all ended up wearing our heavy coats. I can see why so many Scots were keen to emigrate to New Zealand!
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Crail
We left St Andrews bright and early this morning, and set off along the Fife Coastal Walkway. The first couple of kilometres were past the small port, which has been created by placing gates over the end of a river. As it was low tide, the sea was considerably lower than the water inside.
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Dundee and St Andrews
Yesterday we took the train from London up to Dundee in Scotland. Our first sight of the city was when the train stopped for about five minutes on the Tay river bridge, seemingly suspended high in the air above the water.
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