Bonnie Scotland

Waking up on the shores of Loch Leven was so beautiful and clear, the sun had blessed us with another day for the outdoors. The tent worked well, despite being a cheap tent with a precarious looking mesh roof covering (it didn’t rain thankfully) and we considered grabbing a tarp but decided to stay hopeful with the forecast and try our luck with only one night left. We started the day with some scones with homemade raspberry jam at a cute cafe and “magpie” gift store in Ballachulish, where V bought the most Scottish souvenir ever…a stainless steel hip flask covered in hand woven tweed woven in the outer Hebrides. I, surprisingly, came away with nothing (difficult, but I managed it). We drove out again passing Glenfinnan towards the coast stopping at The Prince’s Cairn which marks the place Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart) left on a ship for France during the Jacobite uprising and after the final defeat at Culloden. A very peaceful, quiet spot to park up and walk, so a ship picking up the Bonnie Prince was hard to picture. We followed the coastal road out to Mallaig, an early fishing village and doorway to the Isle of Skye. We enjoyed a supermarket meal deal with a seal friend to hang out with…saving our pennies to try a whiskey (awful!) and some local seafood (amazing!). We saw a cool attraction at Arisaig on the drive to Mallaig so stopped in at the Arisaig “Silver Sands of Morar” beach (sounds like somewhere out of the Lord of the Rings) to see the white sand and have a quick dip in the cold Hebridean waters…there were some weird looking sand-worm things so H stayed near the beach while V waded out in low tide for a full body ice bath. We booked last minute into the Arisaig Hotel Shell Shack to try mussels, scallops (the best ever!) and Cullen Skink: a yummy Scottish soup similar to a Seafood Chowder but more specific Scottish ingredients. Then we drove back to the first camp site under Ben Nevis that we stayed the first night so we were close to the bus station in Fort William ready for our early start the next morning. We crashed, very full from our seafood feast and readied ourselves to head back into the bigger city after enjoying the natural wonders of the highlands.Läs mer