With global travel up in the air because someone ate a bat (!!?!!), UK ‘Staycations’ have become all the rage, so we decided to do an epic road trip across Scotland, flying into Glasgow and out of Inverness. All I can say is WOW!! Such a beautiful country with so much to see and do. The West very much reminded me of New Zealand's South Island, rugged and mountainous, whereas the East was far more North Island; hills and countryside. Granted, the weather was favourable for us and covering over 1000 miles in 4.5 days was daunting, but well worth it!
Day 1
Flying into Glasgow, we picked up a hire car and headed north. Within 30 minutes, we were on the shores of Loch Lomand and saw our first Highland Cow, very stereotypically Scottish! I’d bought a drone (Mavic Mini), so we trialed this out across the Loch. Lots of picturesque places to stop along the Loch and places to have a bite to eat. There were a few castles and ruins to see on route as we headed towards the small town of Oban in the West, but the best were to come!
We arrived in Oban, a small fishing town on Loch Linnhe, where we headed up to the old fort, called McCraigs Tower at the top of the hill overlooking the town. This is where I got the amazing pic from the drone. The fort is a circular settlement that sits above the town with views across the Loch and ferry port. There was a castle on the outskirts of the town called Dunstaffnage Castle, but the main door was closed, so I went up and over in my drone to see inside, pretty cool!
After Oban we headed north along the loch to the town of Fort William, where we based ourselves for the night.
Day 2
We had found on Instagram this really cool shipwreck just outside Fort William so we got up early to go and see it before anyone else. We parked by the fishermans car park in Copach where we walked across the canal locks to the beach area and found it perched on it's side. I love a ship wreck so this was pretty cool to see, very eerie looking against the backdrop of the Loch and mountains. We spent a good hour here with the drone on our own before heading on to Glenfinnan.
The village of Glenfinnan is most famous for the Glenfinnan Viaduct of Harry Potter fame! The viaduct is the actual bridge in the films that the Hogwarts Express goes across on it’s way to Hogwarts. The steam train goes over the bridge twice a day leaving Fort William and returning, about 10.30am and 2.30pm. Most of the public go towards the viaduct and turn left, but we went under the viaduct and turned right, walked up the hill and had the BEST view with only about 4 others, compared to everyone else stood on the other side of the valley. It’s private land, so I had to pay £10 to the landowner Alistair who patrolled the place for drones, and said to me if I didn’t fly it properly he would shoot it down! He was a scary guy! You could hear the train in the distance before it came and as it did, it was pretty awesome, looked exactly like Hogwarts. About ten minutes later, another train crossed, but just a normal modern one, it wasn’t quite the same!
We then headed north again towards Dornie and on to the Isle of Skye. Just before you cross the bridge to the Isle of Skye is the famous and probably most photographed Scottish Castle, the Eileen Donan castle. It's been famous in several films and is where 3 Lochs meet.
After we crossed the bridge onto the Isle of Skye, we had time to see the Fairy Pools before we got to the Air BnB. These were the only disappointing this I think we did! It was a fair drive to them and a fair trek to get there. Ultimately, these were just a series of small waterfalls. It’s a beautiful area but nothing spectacular as we thought it was going to be!
We stayed near the main town of Portree, in an airbnb in the middle of nowhere overlooking the Loch, it was perfect!
Day 3
Up early as the Isle of Skye has lots to see and do and was probably the overall highlight of the trip. First stop was the Old Man of Stoor, an outcrop of rocks, where legend has it, that it's a giants hand and fingers sticking out of the ground. It was very Game of Thrones! Black crows flying around, windy and rugged, it was a tough steep hike which took about 40 mins up to the main bit but worth it. Had it not have been so cold because of the wind chill, we may have spent longer up there.
Next stop was the Mealt Falls, cascading off the cliff side into the ocean and the Quiraing, my personal favourite! It’s basically a huge landslip area on the eastern face of Meall na Suiramach, the northernmost summit on the island. It really was spectacular with amazing views across the valley and out to sea. We then headed to the Fairy Glen which again was really pretty but we failed to find the biggest of the fairy ring rock formations, instead only finding the smaller ones, even with the drones help!
Last few stops west were the very remote Dunvegan Castle which was impressive with nice gardens, and the even more remote Neist Point Lighthouse. To get here was a rugged single track road of several miles, a steep walk down and back up again but worth it to get some amazing drone footage and to experience the rugged coastline here.
It was time to leave the Isle of Skye after a mammouth day of driving and seeing all the main sites. We stayed in a quirky small ‘pod’ air BnB for the night before the epic drive North East to John O groats.
Day 4
We were up early to do the 6 hour drive to John O Groats, the mostly northerly part of mainland UK. This is where we saw the scenery change dramatically from the mountainous west to the flatter east, with some beautiful picturesque Scottish villages and town in between. We stopped in a really pretty village for lunch and tried Haggis, but I can’t remember the name of the village! I think I would have enjoyed Haggis more if i hadn’t read up on what it was beforehand!
Early on in the route we did part of the famous Applecross Pass, part of the 500 route. This scenery was again incredible! We had a lot of cloud covering the tops of the mountains but this cleared as we go to the top of the main view point and then rolled back in again as we left.
After a good solid 5-6 hours drive we arrived in John O Groats! It was a pretty good feeling to say we had made it here as there wasn’t a huge amount we had planned to see on route! It wasn’t as tacky or tourist trap-like as I thought Lands End had been, but I had to get my photo at the famous sign post! We headed across to the unusual Duncansby Stacks jutting off the mainland for some cool drone videos, before we headed back south for the night, staying at an air BnB in Helmsdale on the Coast.
Day 5
We headed south towards Inverness along the coastal route to try and find Nessie before flying home! On route we stopped at Dunrobin Castle, my absolute favourite of the castles this trip. This grand and imposing castle overlooks the Moray Firth and is one of the finest stately homes in the county of Sutherland. The grounds are as impressive as the inside and your ticket includes both. There is also a falconry on site with daily displays.
Afterwards was the drive to Loch Ness and Urquart Castle which overlooks the Loch but is mostly ruins now. As expected, lots of tourists here! We sadly didn’t get time to do the museum and Loch Ness experience on the loch itself as we ran out of time, but great to be able to see the place.
It was time to then head to Inverness airport for our flight home.
What as epic adventure! Only wish we had more time and another day to have gone further east and done Aberdeenshire and the Cairngorms National Park! Next time……
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