Category: Blog

After breakfast in a local place, we stocked up on lunch for the next 2 days at the Oban M&S Simply Food, then headed to the port for our next ferry – to the Isle of Mull. We had a little time spare in the harbour, so watched some of the ships coming and going.

The ferry was apparently a smaller stand-in as the “real” ferry was being maintained, but fortunately another very calm crossing so we didn’t have any issues with being on a smaller ship. Plenty to look at, but little wildlife (otters in the distance, mostly).

Once docked, we headed on our extended route to Tobermory. First stop – Loch Na Keal. Fortunately there were half a dozen cars parked alongside the Loch, some looking through spotting scopes, others binoculars, at the tree line. A pair of white tailed eagles had been spotted – you’d stand no chance seeing it with the naked eye, even binoculars were a stretch. Fortunately our camera with a long lens and extender allowed us to take pictures, and binoculars to see it from about 200m, maybe 300m away. There was quite a lot of other stuff, some apparently interesting – great northern diving something, heron, cormorant and a common loon (surely some of those names are made up).

From here we moved on a little further, before finding a couple looking at the shoreline. We stopped, to find a family of 4 otters – mother and 3 youngsters – playing in the seaweed and on some rocks. Unfortunately we didn’t see that we’d parked by a sign, purporting to be a police “do not park here” notice, because it was facing the water. The residents of the house we’d parked outside came out, turned the sign round, then went back in. I suspect the use of a home printer and laminator had been present here….however the otters were very cool and no police showed up….

Then we moved on a little further, to see a raptor fly to a tree near the road – this time we just stopped on the singletrack road and took pictures.

Lunch next, parked up overlooking the Loch, then onward to Calgary Bay (a beach) where we saw another raptor, then onto a bird hide (where we saw nothing due to the weather closing in). It’s worth noting most of the roads on the island are single track with passing places located frequently along the route – not an issue this time of year due to low volumes of traffic.

Finally, as the weather became really bad we arrived at our hotel in Tobermory. A drink in the bar to allow me to start processing 900+ photos, then dinner, then more photo processing!

Breakfast – Cuan Mor, Oban
Lunch – picnic by M&S
Dinner – Fish Café, Tobermory
Hotel – The Tobermory Hotel

We headed off from our accommodation in Ronachan around 10am to drive north towards Oban. Two stops planned, both in search of wildlife. The first was a bird hide at a nature reserve near Bellanoch. Apparently otters could be found here. We spent a little while in the hide, didn’t see a lot, then an otter appeared in the distance. It spent a while hunting, then disappeared, then reappeared on land.

We waited a bit longer, then the otter reappeared and spent a while fishing, but it wasn’t that close by so keeping track was difficult.

As we arrived back at the car, we saw another otter playing in the water just beside the road – far closer!

Next stop, lunch. After a bit of messing around trying to find somewhere open, we found a big but deserted hotel overlooking Loch Melfort. Some excellent soup for lunch, overlooking the loch and some bored looking Highland cattle (“coos” according to the locals).

The second stop of the day was the Kilchoan estate, for a walk to a high viewpoint in the hope of seeing some birds of prey. A 3-mile walk and we were in luck – a kestrel.

Onto Oban, we found our accommodation – a room in a guest house – and out for dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant, for wine, langoustines, lobster, cheese and a local whiskey!

Breakfast – self catering
Lunch – Loch Melfort Hotel, Arduaine
Dinner – Ee-usk, Oban
Hotel – Dalrigh House, Oban

We spent most of the day on the southernmost inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides, about 3 miles off the coast of the Kintyre peninsula – Gigha. About 5.4 square miles, it has just under 200 residents.

The ferry to Gigha is the smallest we’ve used so far – and the morning ferry contained 2 electricity company vans, the post van, a fire service van and 2 tourist cars. It was full. Another very calm crossing, but no wildlife of note this time. Once across, a short drive north we came across the first road block of the day.

Our first destination were the beaches to the north of the island, Palm Tree beach and the Eileen Garbh twin beaches. The wind was howling off the sea, but the views were incredible, with white sand beaches and turquoise and crystal clear water. There were plenty of signs of life – mink had clearly found crabs to eat, and animal prints covered the Palm Tree and surrounding beaches.

We then went slightly south, to the twin beaches – basically 2 beaches with a strip of land between, known as a Tombolo. The strip was just 20-30m wide, so eventually the two beaches will join and the piece of land off the island, Eileen Garbh, will become its own little island.

From here we headed back to the centre of the island, to the only place selling food – Gigha hotel. Unfortunately another road blockage, this time more significant. They wouldn’t move at all. Another car came from the other direction, and turned around (we later found out the driver was petrified of cows…or “coos” as the locals call them…so decided to give up getting through). There was also a young woman sat on the other side from us waiting and watching. Turns out she was also scared of them and didn’t want to try to get through. Jo solved that.

Once fed (curried parsnip soup) we headed on to our final stop, Achamore Gardens. Only recently (2002) did restoration begin of what would have been a big garden in the grounds of a very large house. With a walled garden and lots of unusual plants you could see the potential.

Back to the ferry for another uneventful, but slightly rougher and windier crossing, we headed north to Tarbert to collect another simple meal before heading back to Ronachan.

Breakfast – self catering
Lunch – Isle of Gigha Hotel
Dinner – self catering
Hotel – Ronachan guest house

The plan today was time on Arran, then ferry across to Kintyre on the mainland where we’d be staying for 2 nights. Breakfast wasn’t too bad (we also had poached egg and avocado on toast but forgot to take a picture) but then headed out for walk 1 of 3.

The first walk was a couple of hours from the hotel in Lamlash, along the coast. We saw plenty – birds and a couple of seals.

Back to the hotel, we headed south about 20 minutes to somewhere where apparently otters were known to be seen. Walk 2 contained no otters (not surprised as they’re a bit stealthy), but (many) more seals and (many) more birds. And sheeps.

Back to Brodick for lunch, where pizza was the choice – in fact this was our backup choice from last night. Excellent choice of ragu pizza with bechamel sauce instead of tomato.

Then onto Lochranza for walk 3. Here we set off for a 3.5 mile trip up into the hills to see if we could find golden eagles, as this was one of the best places on Arran to find them. We didn’t. But we did find (many) more birds.

Then onto the ferry across from Lochranza to Claonaig. Not many passengers, so very quick to board. Mostly (many) more birds on the way across, but we did see some porpoises in the distance. Very calm crossing though.

Once landed, a short drive to Ronachan to find our self-catering accommodation, where we’re staying for 2 days. A simple dinner and game of Azul to end the day.

Breakfast – Glenisle Hotel, Arran
Lunch – The Parlour, Arran
Dinner – self catering
Hotel – Ronachan guest house

After a good sleep, we headed out to find breakfast – a 25 minute walk down to the River Clyde, and along a bit. The mist was hanging over the water and the sun was warm, but at zero Celsius it was slightly cold! We stumbled across a section of river wall covered in graffiti, apparently something that’s encouraged in specific locations.

Breakfast was excellent – I had a Vietnamese coffee (made with condensed milk) and Jo’s food was basically a breakfast burger.

Then a wander around Glasgow until lunch. We stopped at Barras market, with stalls of every single kind of thing for sale (including some large spiders in frames), found one of the old and remaining Glaswegian police boxes, a jewellery shop with two windows in which were (I estimated) £30m of gems – one ring alone was £350,000 – and Glasgow Central station.

Lunch was at a place called Katsu. Whilst they had no melon soda (strawberry only) the food was superb. After lunch we wandered back to the car, and found another statue with a cone on its head – this time a mural.

From Glasgow we headed west, to Ardrossen, the port linking the mainland to the Isle of Arran. Whilst waiting to board we had some pre-baked cake from home, and apples from M&S which were apparently pink inside.

The crossing to Arran was extremely calm but action packed. First dolphins and whales which were about 200-300m from the boat (so very hard to see, let alone photograph), then multiple sightings of porpoises near and far from the ferry. We’ll get some better pictures on another crossing, maybe.

Once ashore, we found our hotel in a village near Brodick, called Lamlash. Nothing too exciting, more rooms above a pub, with live music until 10pm.

Then we drove back into Brodick for dinner. We had a couple of potential places in mind, neither bookable. Fortunately the first choice was nearly empty – but incredible food – we shared tartaflette and croque monsieur, then had a creme brulee each. Tiny restaurant, probably 16 seats in total, with a chef in a tiny galley kitchen.

On the way to the restaurant we saw a small group of people gathered on the shoreline looking at something. Turned out to be a juvenile harbour seal, which couldn’t care less about the people taking pictures. On the way back to the car it was in the same area, but on the nearby rocks – cleaning itself, generally hanging out. This time no people – just us.

Breakfast – Scran & Roadie, Glasgow
Lunch – Katsu, Glasgow
Dinner – The French Fox, Isle of Arran
Hotel – Glenisle Hotel, Isle of Arran

The day that wasn’t originally planned….

We set off at 7am. Not because we had a ferry to catch, as that was booked for Saturday afternoon, but because Jo had been asked by her headteacher to be very, very important at some kind of Masonic meeting for grammar school headteachers at a school in Penrith. Patently Jo’s boss couldn’t be bothered to go, so delegated it to one of her minions.

Whilst she did her funny and very, very important handshakes, I had a walk round Penrith – took 20 minutes, wouldn’t recommend, the town is a bit of a dump – and then mostly sat in the car. I rotated between car parks for Booths, Morrisons, and a nice farm shop we found on the way in. Lunch for me was a foot-long sausage baguette, and the king of cakes (Victoria sponge). Jo had school sandwiches.

Four and a bit hours later, she was done and we resumed our journey to Scotland. Pretty uneventful, other than a non-UK registered articulated lorry whose driver had clearly fallen asleep as his suddenly swerved into my lane, then back. We have good brakes and didn’t die (it was too close). And only one border crossing on this holiday.

We found the hotel (very nice, too), changed and headed out for dinner – Italian. On our walk to the restaurant we encountered our first be-coned statue. Apparently it’s been there for 30 years and has become a national Scottish thing – but in Glasgow they’re left, whereas in Edinburgh they’re removed.

Glasgow, third biggest city in the UK and home to 20% of the Scottish population, looks very much like Newcastle we thought. Confusing road systems over a river, the city centre has a grid-like layout, and built across many slopes making some streets quite steep. Some really nice buildings, too.

We had Italian food and wine (the table behind confusingly ordered steak and peppercorn sauce….maybe they thought it was an American Diner) then wandered back to the hotel via a very nice cocktail bar (Pear Drop for Jo, Old Fashioned for me). Weirdly we saw a group of youths raving in the middle of the street, with a DJ and PA system set up – having a great time, doing no harm, good old fashioned rave music. I remember the days…. Oh, and more cones on statues.

Dinner – Santa Lucia, Glasgow
Hotel – The Wellington, Glasgow

We’re off to Scotland, for a two week road trip around the Inner and Outer Hebrides. With 9 ferries to catch, 13 hotels to stay in, 1,550 miles to cover and around 43 hours in the car, we’ve a lot ahead of us. And we packed sleeping bags, just in case of ferry cancellations!