We arrived to a blustery Glasgow a few days ago; fortunately it was not a day or so earlier as the worst of the storm that hit Scotland had passed. Whilst windy, at least it was mostly dry so able to make the most of the daylight hours and have a good look around mainly using the ‘Hop on, Hop off’ buses. A lot of work is being done to ‘tidy’ the city for the 2026 Commonwealth Games. On our third morning, after breakfast at the famous Macintosh Tea Rooms, we collected our rental car and headed north to Fort William. The idea was to have a few short drives each day as jet-lag was still a factor.
Tricia discovered that the Hill House designed by the same Charles Macintosh in 1903 was located in Helensburgh on the way to Fort William. A slight detour was necessary to visit but well worth it. I won’t bore you with details but the design and construction at the time was considered unique. For those interested in looking further it is just a case of googling ‘Hill House Helensburgh’. Plenty of info there!
Fort William is a small town and used by many trekkers as a base for climbing Ben Nevis. I say ‘climbing’ but at only 1,345 metres it is more of an amble! As a comparison Mt Pirongia is almost 1,000 metres.
Our next drive was to Portree on the Isle of Skye where we were staying for two nights. Again it was purposely short at just under three hours for a direct drive. As the weather was still a bit patchy we decided to take the ‘bird in the hand’ approach and took a more scenic route once reaching the Skye. Scenery was quite rugged and dramatic; even though it was mostly dry, the strong wind made for an interesting drive. The real bonus of this route was stopping, albeit briefly, at the Talisker Distillery. Needless to say Tricia drove the rest of the way to Portree!
The first couple of hours today was quite rainy however again the wind took control and within minutes of a heavy shower, that had blown away and it was dry. We drove around the northern part of Skye with various scenic (and windswept) stops along the way. Tomorrow we head back to the mainland and further North to Scourie. Hopefully the conditions will improve.
Going back to when we planned this two week drive around Scotland we had hoped to be able to book accommodation along the way rather than be bound to a set itinerary. We did a lot of research and realised that August was not the time to be doing that; the Travel Agent in me took over and accommodation bookings were made for the whole time. Just as well as every hotel or B&B we have passed so far has had a ‘no vacancies’ sign out front; even many of the camp grounds are displaying ‘fully booked’ signs so some of those in camper vans will be roughing it. Sleeping in the back of a car would have been a terrible result!