Road To The Isles

Last Thursday evening we were thinking about what to do at the weekend to try and make something of the long weekend.

Why don't we go back to Skye said I - lets make a weekend of it and go on the steam train and see the castles et al..

Carolyn and I have not been to Skye for 23 years before children and expensive mortgages and so it was a great idea to see the lovely part of Scotland again.

We made a late call to get B&B accommodation (which turned out to be excellent) and called Susan & Roland to see if they wanted to come.

The plan was to drive to Fort William see as much of the "lower road to the isles" (Fort William to Mallaig) on Saturday and then drive across the bridge to Skye on Sunday after taking the "high road to the isles".

So thats what we did....

On Saturday we left home and drove through stunning scenery in Glenncoe, and then on to Fort William and turned left on the road to Mallaig. You can see some pictures above of the monument at Glenfinnan which commands a great position at the head of Loch Shiel.

Then we went on to Mallaig and this fabulous sunset over the mountains of Skye.




On Sunday we left Spean Bridge after a huge Scottish breakfast at our very luxurious B&B and drove north towards Eilean Donan Castle which is probably the most recognisable castle in Scotland as it adorns so many tourist posters and calendars.


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When we arrived the tide was out and the seaweed from the sea loch made the whole scene even more autumnal as you can see here.






Then we headed for Skye over what was for us "the new Skye bridge" as the last time we had been here the only way to cross to Skye was with the small ferry.

Here are some pictures from the Isle Of Skye.







On Monday we took the Steam Train version of the Road To The Isles to Mallaig and probably better called the Railroad To The Isles.

This route has been made internationally famous of course because of its use in all the Harry Potter films as the train crosses the Glenfinnan viaduct.

Here are some pictures from our trip:







A really great long weekend and highly recommended to all whatever the weather, especially considering that it is only 102 miles from home to Fort William, it seems a great pity that we have not returned sooner.

We will make sure that we do not leave it another 23 years before coming back.

There are more pictures from the weekend and you can see them all here: