Category: Blog

Final day, the trip back home. And another 4 and a half hours added onto the previous day’s 6 and a half! The only reason though to add this post is to share two more pictures from the last hotel in Glasgow!

Breakfast – The Arthouse, Glasgow

For our final day, before driving back home on Saturday from Glasgow, we had a long drive planned from Clachan Gardens, just south of Ullapool, through Glencoe. Unfortunately this meant only one stop as the total driving time was planned at 5 hours 30 minutes (but turned out to take an hour longer).

Breakfast was fancy, probably a little too fancy for us – thyme on mushrooms, 4 types of marmalade and intricately arranged fruit. But it was tasty and the coffee was good.

Just south of Ullapool we stopped at Corrieshalloch Gorge, an incredibly deep and narrow gorge with waterfalls everywhere. The actual gorge itself was too difficult to take a decent picture of – no way the sheer scale would make sense in any photograph, as it was 60m (200 feet) deep. The only wildlife we saw was a little tree creeper, but the waterfalls gave time for more practice with sunglasses on the camera.

The drive to Glencoe then took us on a mixture of incredible driving roads, busy tourist routes, parts of the NC500, and too many roadworks. We kept getting stuck behind godawful Chinese import cars (BYD, Geely, etc.) driving way too slow (actually a common theme of the whole holiday) so overtaking opportunities were plentiful. A quick stop at Fort William M&S for lunch (more Christmas sandwiches) then onto Glencoe.

We had 2 reasons to visit Glencoe – the “Skyfall” road made famous in the Bond movie of the same name, and the mountains. Without time to get out and walk we drove through and paused for brief looks and photos. The Skyfall road was pointless. Lots of idiot tourists incapable of driving their cars, stopping in the wrong place, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Waste of time (next time we’ll go very early in the morning). Several Aston Martins though.

Glencoe and the surrounding mountains were spectacular – we’ll plan a return trip – out of season.

Then onto Glasgow. A total of 6 hours 30 minutes since leaving Clachan Gardens we arrived. Hotel was different to our first on the trip – the Arthouse – which had a very interesting original gated lift, unusual internal architecture (which felt a little like a prison) and…..a power cut! Just as we were finishing getting dressed for dinner the lights went out. Apparently small Scottish islands aren’t the only places experiencing power cuts. Dinner was at a top notch Indian (superb food) then we tried Daddy Marmalade and Devil of Brooklyn (excellent cocktails).

Breakfast – Clachan Gardens, Ullapool
Lunch – picnic by M&S
Dinner – Green Gates Café, Glasgow
Hotel – The Arthouse, Glasgow

Our final day in the Western Isles and we had the most incredible sunrise to watch from bed, along with a pair of white tailed eagles who were doing their early morning shopping – not sure what they caught as they were a long way distant, but whatever it was they were tearing it apart. Breakfast was eggs and bread from the local community shop, with smoked salmon supplied free of charge by Uig Sands Rooms.

As we were reluctantly leaving Uig Sands Rooms we watched 4 – yes 4 – eagles playing in the skies close by (camera in the car…) Onward to a couple of stops before hitting the ferry at Stornoway – Great Bernera first, a tiny island connected with a modern but modest bridge, where there was a beach and iron age settlement (recreated building but real site). The beach has a permanent art installation, a bell which chimes using wave power. On the way off the island we saw a chubby seal having a rest.

Next stop, the most northerly point on our road trip – Butt of Lewis. Just before arriving we passed through a place called Ness, which was a collection of quite utilitarian housing. The arse end of the Butt of Lewis. At the Butt was a brick built lighthouse, and not a lot else.

Back in Stornoway we found lunch – Tesco picnic, not anywhere near as good as M&S – then boarded the ferry. Sadly it was really busy with freight so we got crammed into the raised deck, which was made more amusing (on the way off) by the man in the car next to ours being unable to use his key to unlock his door. One of the deck crew began to climb in through the boot before someone worked out the passenger door might be easier. Otherwise I wasn’t keen as cars really were too close together.

The journey was long (3 hours) but we saw a very nice sunset and a few birds.

On arrival we headed to our B&B for the evening, Clachan Gardens, which (we now know) was on a Channel 4 TV programme where hotel owners stay in each others’ places and rate each other. Sounds like a dangerous game to me. But it was a very interesting property, rammed full of books, and paraphernalia of all kinds, and a gentleman in a kilt. Nice scones.

Dinner was back in Ullapool, super quick as we picked things which took minimal time to make or were obviously already prepared.

Breakfast – local eggs, bread and salmon
Lunch – Tesco picnic
Dinner – Upstairs at the Arch, Ullapool
Hotel – Clachan Gardens B&B

Our last day in the Outer Hebrides, and last in the Western Isles, as tomorrow we (ferry permitting) cross back to the Scottish mainland. We spent time on Harris and Lewis today, contrasting geography, both beautiful and by far the prettiest of all the islands we’ve visited.

After another Nook & Scranny picnic breakfast (this time chosen with lights on and paid for by card!) we drove out of Tarbert and onto Scalpay, via a modern road bridge. Our target was a walk to the Scalpay lighthouse.

A fairly straightforward route along a track for 2.5km, we came across some current peat cutting (where they take out slabs of peat, then leave it to dry and use it for fuel, quite common to these islands).

The lighthouse is now unmanned and automated (since 1974 when the last keeper left) but the remains of the old fog horn and lighthouse remain, as does a bothy and various buildings with interesting features – one of the buildings has original bronze door hinges from 1870-something in the Egyptian style (whatever that is). Lots to see and climb onto and over, but no wildlife today.

Once we’d explored for a while (and we do like a lighthouse) we headed back along the coastal path. Big mistake. Boggy all the way, navigating only by marker posts as there were confusing animal paths everywhere, then it started to rain. Oh well. Once back at the car we returned across the bridge, met another road block, and headed towards Lewis after picking up some lunch from Nook & Scranny – a sausage roll and a ploughman’s toastie (not sure about warm pickle).

First stop after lunch was watching “helicopter operations”. There’s ongoing work to build additional power lines on Harris and to do this they need materials, which are helicoptered on to site from nearby storage. We sat and watched for a while, and even got a wave from the pilot! When the helicopter crossed the road, two men with traffic stop lollipops halted any vehicles to allow it to pass – we sat a short distance further down the road and it kept passing directly above.

Next stop was Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, a preserved settlement last inhabited in 1978. Rebuilding started in 1991, as it was the last thatched croft settlement in the world. Today the buildings are holiday cottages, as there’s a nearby beach, but the craft of the roofs and building generally was interesting to see – we couldn’t go inside.

Our next tourist destination was the Calanais standing stones. Basically a little Stonehenge, with equal lack of clarity on why they are there, who used them, or where they came from. Probably druids. Or hippies. But they did have some nice cakes in a very fancy café. No wonder it cost £15 each to look at some bits of stood up rock.

Our final island accommodation was last stop of the day, and having seen no wildlife on the island we’d lost any hope…until a pair of golden eagles appeared overhead! OK, still quite a distance away but closer than any we’d seen before. The pair circled together, then moved, we chased them in the car, and repeated this for a mile or two. Excellent.

After a quick stop at Uig Community Shop and Post Office we found our accommodation – Uig Sands Rooms. WOW. Best so far, by a long way. Incredible view, amazing room. We’d pre-ordered dinner as their restaurant was closed, and found two lamb passanda frozen meals in our freezer (prepared by their chef!) Very, very nice. We coupled it with free gin and tonic from a previous hotel (not sure which, we’ve picked up so many drinks, biscuits, crisps, fruit and other miscellaneous snacks from each it’s hard to know who gave us what), and the log fire (which became WAY too hot and we had to open the door to our little deck area!)

Breakfast – Nook & Scranny picnic, Harris
Lunch – Nook & Scranny takeaway, Harris
Dinner – Uig Sands Rooms frozen curry, Lewis
Accommodation – Uig Sands Rooms, Lewis

We woke hoping for a less traumatic day – sadly we woke to no power! We’d heard various devices an appliances clicking on and off just before we woke up at 7am, and yes, Harris had no electricity. The supply comes from the Isle of Skye for Harris, but not Lewis – so whilst Lewis were OK, we were not.

Heading downstairs to the shop we found them in dark, unable to sell us anything unless we had cash. Clever us, we’d brought £200 cash with us for exactly this reason. Breakfast things bought, and consumed in our room, but unable to have a shower (electric showers don’t work without electricity!) we headed out, hoping power would be restored later in the day.

First stop, Luskentyre beach. Weather was patchy. High winds remained, which made the grassy dunes amazing to watch, but the rain wasn’t far away at all times – and when it hit, it was heavy.

We then decided that we’d head north to Stornaway on Lewis for petrol and lunch, as we knew they had power – and petrol stations around Tarbert weren’t working. We had half a tank of fuel, but wouldn’t quite have enough for our time on Harris and Lewis so needed to get some. It was around an hour drive, punctuated with a few stops to see waterfalls which were being blown upwards, and rain and wind which forced us to park up because of how fierce it was.

We found petrol and lunch – in fact we had a large hot meal in case on our return to Tarbert we found power hadn’t been restored.

Our drive back to Tarbert was in clearer weather (still very windy), and we saw some incredible views. Lewis is a lot flatter than Harris, which is quite mountainous.

One final stop of the day, the North Harris Eagle Observatory. We doubted we’d see any eagles given the high winds, but it gave us a 4km walk along a valley bottom. No eagles were seen. On the way back we decided to do a bit of trail running, to reduce any chances of being hit by rain. Apparently it’s harder to run in full waterproof gear with a rucksack packed with camera gear!

Back in the car we headed back to Tarbert….only stopped by another famous road block – more cows. This time we sat and waited for them to obediently pass.

Back at our accommodation we found power had been restored!! That allowed a shower before dinner, at a nearby hotel. The kind of hotel you walk into and can smell the 80s – the smell of wood and dank carpet, it was probably quite nice when it opened 40 years ago, but these days it felt largely outdated, with service and food to match. Not our kind of hotel – fortunately it was just for a quick dinner – no photos as it was average at best.

Back at Nook & Scranny – and a picture of a friend we have in our room.

Breakfast – whatever we could find in Nook & Scranny
Lunch – HS-1, Stornaway
Dinner – Harris Hotel, Tarbert
Hotel – Nook & Scranny, Tarbert

With the car waiting at the garage for its tyre repair, we left our hobbit house for breakfast – one of the best yet. I then left Jo at the hotel and walked down the hill (raining and very windy) to see how they were getting on with the repair – they weren’t, but soon made a start and I was back at the hotel by just before 10am, so not a lot of time lost.

Our plan for the day remained as originally conceived – visiting sights around the middle and north of Skye. First, the Sligachan bridge, and whilst it was very windy the rain wasn’t too troubling. There was a party of photographers there with some very nice kit (looked like medium format (read expensive), but I’m not an expert) and they were taking their shots very seriously.

Next, Fairy Pools. This is a series of small waterfalls, which are along a rising valley for a few kilometres. The weather was horrendous with winds over 50mph (couldn’t stand up at times) and driving horizontal rain. That didn’t put us off, and we walked a total of 7.5km over the course of 2 hours. Suffice to say the waterfalls look less tranquil and calm, and more raging and overflowing. We got VERY wet, despite having multiple waterproofs on. A few other tourists didn’t – it’s unclear why anyone would be visiting Scotland in autumn without even a waterproof coat, but yet again lots of white trainers. We had to cross shallow rivers, trudge through peat bog sections and put up with the constant barrage of needling rain which caused our waterproofs to wet-out within minutes of leaving the car. After walking half of the 7.5km we decided it was becoming too dangerous (winds and rain increasing) and turned around.

The good news was I got to try my new ND filter – basically sunglasses for the camera which allows you to take very nice waterfall pictures. Despite everything getting very wet (my camera gear is fortunately weather-resistant) the 2 shots where I used it worked fine, for a first time using it at least.

Whilst out on our walk we got a message from Calmac (ferry company) saying our crossing to Harris and Lewis tomorrow morning had been cancelled, but instead we’d been booked onto the 6.15pm ferry tonight – the last out for a couple of days due to the next storm. We had a decision to make. Either go tonight, cancel our last Skye hotel and find somewhere to stay on Harris, or don’t go and then cancel 2 nights on Harris and Lewis, and the night we had booked near Ullapool. Easy choice, so we decided to visit our hotel for that night, explain and apologise (basically fishing for a refund) then head to the port.

On the way we called hotels on Harris and luckily our first hotel had space for tonight, so that was easy. Stops (which involved very short viewings as weather was getting worse) included Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls (pretty waterfall into the sea) and Quiraing (interesting rock formations). We couldn’t see Old Man of Storr from the road, so didn’t get out for that one!

Once all viewing was done, and hotel cancelled (yes, we got a refund) we headed to the port. A hot chocolate and scone from a café closing 8 minutes after we arrived was our only food since breakfast, then into the queue. We were first. The ferry was late, but on the way. As we sat there, spray was coming over the sea wall. Oh dear. But they docked the boat, unloaded around 100 vehicles and embarked the 12 idiots (including us) going back to Harris for the vessel’s last trip of the day. Apparently Tarbert on Harris is a safer berth for the boat, hence then need to take it back before the next storm hit.

The crossing was a bit rough, but nobody died, and the boat didn’t sink. And that’s all I have to say about that.

We were at the front of the boat, so first off. As the door opened the wind and rain were incredible. We drove off, and straight to the only hotel in Tarbert which served food at around 9pm. Unfortunately they had stopped service, but they were so kind and made us takeaway burgers. Big shout out to the Hebrides Hotel (we bought a drink for the the 2 lads who provided our dinner). Then we quickly found our accommodation (rooms above a little grocery store, ate food, unpacked the car, and went to bed. The blog (this entry) was done the following morning. We have no power….

Breakfast – Bracken Hide, Skye
Lunch – none!
Dinner – Hebrides Hotel, Harris
Hotel – Nook & Scranny, Harris

A most excellent breakfast this morning – kedgeree (which the waiter insisted was pronounced “kedegree” until the kitchen corrected him…then he got wrong again when he served it), kippers, pastries, venison charcuterie, and lots more.

When fed we set off, deciding to head back to the Skye bridge and Eilean Donan castle for a look, before returning onto Skye. The bridge was open for non high-sided vehicles but the wind was really strong. As was the wind at the castle, meaning the castle was closed – not because the castle had a problem, but because they didn’t want visitors being blown off the bridge!

We returned onto Skye, then the problem happened. We stopped at a waterfall in the middle of nowhere, got out and heard a loud hissing noise. Puncture. No mobile signal. So we quickly got back in the car, and drove towards our hotel (in Portree) through a bleak landscape….hoping to either get mobile signal or find somewhere that might have a telephone, whilst watching the tyre pressure drop rapidly.

Eventually we found a remote hotel, parked and went to the door. Locked. We looked around, and realised there were people inside, but no lights were on. So we knocked louder and someone eventually answered the door. They had no power. The whole island had no power. Luckily they had a landline telephone which worked (assume they had a small generator) and they let us call Porsche Assist. The tyre was now completely flat.

We waited 3 hours for a tyre man to arrive. Whilst waiting we saw countless Scottish Electricity vans, trucks and lorries with generators on their trailers pass by. We later found out that one of the main supply routes had poles down, meaning the island had no electricity, and they had installed temporary generators to bring the island back online.

When the tyre guy arrived he plugged the hole temporarily, and we drove the remaining 9 miles to Portree, to our hotel – which was fortunately just 10 minutes walk from the tyre repair garage that had helped us. They asked we leave the car with them tonight and they’d repair it in the morning.

Having unloaded into our hobbit home for the night, we took the car down the hill, had a walk round Portree then walked back up the hill – into the 50mph winds.

Dinner was in the hotel, with pre- and post-dinner drinks (two different whiskies before, and an old-fashioned and a Baileys coffee after). Food was excellent. Bar man however wouldn’t stop talking to us about the drinks he made, or would like to make, or how he was planning to leave Skye soon (though he was quite harmless).

Breakfast – Duisdale House, Skye
Lunch – nothing….bit tricky when miles from anywhere waiting for a tyre repair!
Dinner – Bracken Hide, Skye
Hotel – Bracken Hide, Skye

Customer service announcement. This post contains a catastrophic event, not for the easily disturbed. We are also currently (as of 10pm) marooned on Skye.

An early-ish start today to ensure we got off Mull as there were threats of ferry cancellations due to storm Austen. The dining room was like the Mary Celeste at breakfast and the waitress said everyone had already gone! The first ferry on our schedule was the short local one from Fishnish to Lochaline (the one the locals use) and there were only two cars waiting when we arrived. An uneventful (if a bit windy) 15 minutes later we were back on the mainland with a long drive ahead, as our second ferry of the day had already been cancelled.

We were planning to get the ferry from Mallaig to Armadale (on Skye) but that one was cancelled yesterday so our revised plan involved driving up to the Isle of Skye bridge via Fort William. We used a very small ferry at Corran to cut out an hour and a bit of single track road. This meant we had time for a short stop and a bit of a diversion when we got to Fort William, for a coffee stop (vegan coffee shop, good coffee, terrible red velvet cake, would not recommend).

A petrol stop was required and Google suggested a side quest to see the Harry Potter viaduct at Glenfinnan, so we topped up on fuel for the car and picnic lunch for us (Morrisons as we didn’t know they had an M&S Food Hall…sigh) and set off. The road was practically underwater with terrible drainage so aquaplaning was a constant hazard, as was the number of drivers terrified of the conditions, and the number of coaches. Our first exposure to large quantities of foreign tourists today as the rest of our trip has been very peaceful (spot the slightly amended photo).

The tourists provided plenty of amusement when we arrived at the parking for the aqueduct as they were not at all appropriately dressed for the wind and rain (we counted the number of box fresh white trainers turning rapidly brown!). We put all our gear on and took the umbrella so we were fine.

It was not a long walk and some pictures were taken, despite the cameras’ lenses getting covered in the pouring rain. A useful information sign said there had been a blue Ford Anglia spotted and to please contact the information office if it reappeared! Back to the car to strip the outside very soggy waterproof layers before heading back to Fort William. Traffic here was annoyingly heavy and the weather had got much wetter. We topped the car up again and then set off towards Skye.

A stunning vista was mostly hidden by rain and cloud but the bits we saw were very dramatic. It was at this point that we suddenly wondered if the bridge would be open… Traffic Scotland reassured us that the bridge was currently open but the forecast was for it to be closed from 9pm tonight until 3pm tomorrow.

That would stop us going back to visit Eileen Donan Castle tomorrow (as per the plan). Having said that, the weather forecast for tomorrow on Skye is for 70 mph winds so we might not be doing very much anyway!

The bridge was indeed open and the weather changed immediately we arrived on the island with the sun bursting through the clouds and a patch of blue sky opening up. We managed to get some great rainbow pictures and get the bags in from the car before the heavens reopened.

The hotel was fantastic, small and quiet. The first like it on the trip. Dinner and wine were both fancy and amazing. And we get an extra hour in bed due to the clock change!

Breakfast – The Isle of Mull Hotel, Mull
Lunch – picnic by Morrisons
Dinner – Duisdale House, Skye
Hotel – Duisdale House

The original plan was a boat trip to Staffa, an island with giant basalt columns, but we decided to not do this when the boat tour we’d booked cancelled the trip due to the weather, and when we looked at the forecast for today it wad clear rebooking with another operator wouldn’t be much fun.

So plan B was a trip onto Iona, a tiny island 10 minute ferry trip off the south of Mull. With a 2 hour drive to get there we decided to take the scenic route and make the most of the chance of seeing interesting things. Otters and buzzards mostly.

Once across (without car as they’re not allowed for day visitors), we headed to the nunnery (ruined) and monastery (well kept), which was interesting and kept us dry for a while! Lots of very ancient artefacts (1,500 year old stones and crosses) and spectacular views back across towards Mull. And lots of drizzly rain.

Once we had dried off, we went back out into the rain and walked north to a deserted beach – more white sand and turquoise sand.

Time for lunch, so we headed back towards the ferry to a hotel we’d seen, which grew their own organic produce (no idea how given how cold it was for most of the year), for cullen skink, before returning to the ferry for the return trip.

Once back on Mull we headed north, retracing part of yesterday’s route, stopping in a few places we’d used yesterday – and saw more golden eagles, deer and buzzards.

Different hotel tonight (thankfully) – with a very nice view, top quality room snacks, and dinner in the bar.

Breakfast – The Tobermory Hotel, Mull
Lunch – St Columba Hotel, Iona
Dinner – Isle of Mull Hotel, Mull
Hotel – Isle of Mull Hotel, Mull

The big day – our wildlife tour. Spoiler – we saw golden eagles. And other stuff. It’s worth noting that a lot of what we saw today was a very, very long way away. Our guide was quite keen we got nowhere near the wildlife (fine) and was very good at spotting birds which we couldn’t see with the naked eye – some several miles away! So picture quality isn’t always great in this post!

Breakfast in the hotel (not a great hotel by all accounts, but that’s the luck of the draw) and we headed off to meet our guide, Andrew, 20 minutes from Tobermory in a village called Salen. We arrived on time, he didn’t, and the two other guests (Belgian) were even later, but the sunrise this morning had been amazing and once on the road we went to Loch Na Keal to revisit the site of the white tailed eagles we found yesterday.

The eagles weren’t in the trees, instead on the shoreline where Andrew said they’d been all night – about 1km from where we were. We stayed there a while, and saw a lone otter feeding.

We then headed back to the top of the loch, and around towards where the eagles were – a much better view from here!

From here we went around the other side of the loch, saw deer, more white tailed eagles and otters (which were in the act of making babies, apparently). And a small hydro power station.

We kept moving, our guide taking us to each potential site in turn, stopping, checking, and moving on if nothing could be seen. He knew all the eagle nest sites along the route, which made finding them easier. With otters every mile (that’s the size of a female’s territory, the males being around 7-8 miles where he ‘has control over ‘services’ therefore 7-8 females) they were pretty easy to spot in the calm waters. We found numerous more white tailed eagles before lunch, for us that was day 2 of M&S picnic lunch. Somehow our guide also spotted a juvenile white tailed eagle on top of a hill drying its wings.

Then onto “raptor alley”, apparently our best chance of seeing more eagles. We hit the jackpot here – we saw a pair of golden eagles soaring above us, then we think another (female) golden eagle, plus more white tailed eagles. The area we stopped in was geologically interesting too, with the hillside and valley bottom covered in drumlins. A bit further on we came across a herd of red deer, with a massive stag in its midst.

WordPress decided the golden eagle image above was the least interesting – this is the picture. Note the lack of feathers on the wing-tip. The other in the pair has feathers missing on the opposing wing-tip.

On the way back to our start point we saw numerous other birds – including more eagles and their nests. A good haul for the day.

Worth adding, our guide (Andrew) has lived on Mull for 30 years and has been a guide for 8 years. Before this he worked in the salmon farms, having studied ecology at Edinburgh University. He told us about the process of fishing – the sea bed under the cages is pretty much dead, but every 18 months they shut the site down, remove the cages, and fully clean the cages and equipment before returning them once the sea bed recovers. Also, the sea bed just 50m from the cages is unaffected, so the temporary damage is quite localised. Most of the fisheries in the Western Isles supply M&S – the supplied weight of fish he quoted was ridiculous – something like 30,000 tons per year. And it’s all died red/pink using a natural extract supplied by Roche, which is sourced from the crustaceans the salmon eat in the wild – this costs 20% of the final cost of producing the salmon, making it the most expensive feed given to farmed animals.

Back in Tobermory we had a wander in the evening sun, then takeaway for tea. The moon made an appearance in a cloudless sky – this could be the last for a few days as bad weather is coming….

Breakfast – The Tobermory Hotel
Lunch – picnic by M&S
Dinner – Hook’d, Tobermory
Hotel – The Tobermory Hotel