Yesterday we day tripped to Fort Agustus and Loch Ness. It was a gorgeous day the sunniest of our trip so far but the rain and cloudiness that we’ve had did not diminish the beauty of Scotland! Our first stop on our road trip was Fort Agustus. A cute little town at the base of Loch Ness. We stopped for a takeaway lunch at a chip shop and ate outside. After lunch we walked around the town visiting shops. Its a great little town to stopand have lunch before heading to Urquhart Castle in the middle of Loch Ness.

Urquhart Castle was built in the 1300s it was pretty awesome to see the remains of walls and buildings from that age. It is a tourist hotspot though and parking can be a little bit of a wait but it is a beautiful view of Loch Ness!!

Today we packed up our Stuff and left our little cabin at Glencoe. We were all a little sad to leave the Scottish highlands as it was such a beautiful area and we felt like we just scratched the surface. We definitely want to come back one day and spend all of our time in the Scottish Highlands hiking and exploring all of the sites. It is a gorgeous area!

On our way home we stopped and did a few hikes in the mountains at Glencoe and then drove to the airport, dropped off our car and Ubered back to Edinburgh for one last dinner and people watching in the city. It was a really great trip and Scotland exceeded our expectations!

Fort Agustus

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

Rainbow!

Cool car in Glencoe

Goodbye little cabin!

Houses on our street and the view from the end of the lane to the ocean

En route to Edinburgh via Glen Etive and Glencoe mountain trails

Karen building another Cairn

Dad and daughter on a quest to destroy the one ring!

Last night in Edinburgh!

The Isle of Skye was our adventure yesterday! It took three hours to get there from our cabin in Glencoe but driving three hours here is not a hardship! The views along the entire route were amazing! We saw lots of Loch’s and mountains and gorgeous scenery.

Our first stop on the Isle of Skye was the village of Portree, where we had a seafood lunch. Karen and i had the raw oysters and assorted local fish and it was really good!!

Next we drove to Fairy Glen it was amazing!! It actually reminded me of the Teletubbies set but on a more awesome, fairy like, magical scale! 🤗 There were goats that carved little foot paths all along these little hills and rocky crags and Fairy Rings and rock Cairns

A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn [ˈkʰaːrˠn̪ˠ] (plural càirn [ˈkʰaːrˠɲ]). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes, from prehistoric times to the present. Cairn – Wikipedia

The road to get to Fairy Glen should’ve been marked with a sign at the beginning that said “Good Luck!”. It was a one lane narrow road with small pull off’s on either side every few hundred feet, but there were so many twists and turns and little hills on the road that you could barely see if a car was coming so you just had to punch it, and hope that you didn’t run into a car around the corner!🤣😳 Imagine it’s like a big game of leapfrog (kind of ) you go for a little bit, pull over another car passes through. you go for a little bit someone else pulls over you pass through. You get it…it was very stressful to say the least but we made it and it was so worth it!

If you ever go, when you come upon the first cars that are parked at Fairy Glen, keep going down the road because that’s not the best part of the glen. It’s just around the corner about a quarter of a mile and you will see more parking along the road and amazing hills to walk!

Leaving the Fairy Glen, going back out on the same road, was a bit of a challenge. There was a hill coming down into the glen where cars were coming down and cars are trying to go up, there was no pull off and it was a huge cluster!! Karen hopped out of the car ran up the hill to stop traffic on the other side of the hill from coming down✋🏼 oddly enough all of these holiday goers from different countries obeyed a 17-year-old and didn’t try to come down the hill 😳😳 it was awesome! anyway we got on our way to our next destination and we were laughing about the one lane road and how terrible and stressful it was as we turn… on to the next one lane road!!!😳😳 We just about crapped ourselves! As we’re driving up the road, it wasn’t terrible, until we reached the first turn. We got a sinking feeling because up the hill coming down we’re about five tour buses! We are in a queue of cars waiting to go up the hill. From the back seat we hear Karen say “F-it let’s turn around” and George and I said “I totally agree I was thinking the same thing” and we hightailed it out of there because it was not worth the stress of going 26 miles on a one lane road to get to the next attraction!! So instead we headed to Old Man of Storr

The two lane road leading there was heaven!! We parked along the road and walked up the first hill, it was socked in with clouds so we could just make out a bit of it. Karen hiked up the next section to se if she could get a better pic, my legs were beat and george was sweet enough to stay back with me. Unfortunately Karen couldn’t get much better photos, but she got some awesome ones of the view which i will include below.

Our next stop was Kilt Rock. A gorgeous cliff with and awesome long waterfall that goes into the ocean!

After our last stop at Kilt Rock it was around 6pm and time to head home.

Long day, we were pooped! 😴😴

Enjoy the pics!

Fairy Glen

Karen building a Cairn

Old Man of Storr

Kilt Rock

tx

Our last day in Edinburgh we woke up, it was a gorgeous morning, so we decided to climb Arthur’s seat.

“Arthur’s Seat is the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh, Scotland which form most of Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as “a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design”.[1] It is situated just to the east of the city centre, about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 250.5 m (822 ft), provides excellent panoramic views of the city and beyond, is relatively easy to climb, and is popular for hillwalking.” – wikipedia

It was a gorgeous walk a steady climb but very doable. After that we roamed around Edinburgh making sure we hit all the spots we wanted to see before we left for the Scottish Highlands.

Early this morning, we caught an Uber back to the airport to go pick up our rental car. Last night I was thinking to myself “why did we decide to rent a car and drive accross the country??” It sounded daunting to drive to Glencoe! Scary not only because the roads are very narrow and all the roundabouts, but also the steering wheel is on the other side!!! and you’re driving on the other side of the road!!! 😳😳 needless to say it was a little stressful and we made our blanket apology for things that might get blurted out on the road, and we left the parking lot! By the time we got to the scenic two lane roads George was a pro at driving 🤗♥️. There was still the occasional stressful roundabout but we got the hang of it and it was all good!

The drive to Glencoe was AMAZING!!! The mountains and the views as we were driving were like nothing we’ve ever seen. I’m not sure our pictures will do it justice but we are going to try!

Glencoe is a village in western Scotland. It lies in steep-sided Glencoe valley, in the Scottish Highlands. The area is known for waterfalls and trails – wikipedia

Tomorrow we head to the Isle of Skye and I’m sure we will see many more beautiful vistas along the way!!

Until then here are some pics from our last couple days in Edinburgh and the drive to Gencoe…

The acts at the Fringe Festival were crazy!!

Edinburgh Castle

Karen found a really cool used book store Armchair Books , it was a magical bookshop!! Of coarse we bought a copy of Jane Austen’s Emma from 1905 🤗🤗

Climbing Arthur’s Seat!

On the road to Glencoe we stopped at Stirling Castle.

One of the many Loches we passed on the way! They are so gorgeous!! Acouple pics then were were back on the road! Along the way we took loads of pics but u cannot capture the awesomeness of this place!

Made it to our cabin in Glencoe!!♥️♥️♥️♥️

Our first day did not disappoint. After stashing our bags at the “Left Luggage” counter in the train station (couldn’t checkin to our apartment till 3pm😩) we explored the city on foot. We wandered the streets and went wherever the wind blew us. Edinburgh is a vibrant city with a rich history. Its cobbled streets twist and turn down alleys that link up with a larger bustling boulevards with shops and pubs. Needless to say, it is a fun city to explore!

The Fringe festival is happening right now, actually the whole month of August the city is packed with festival goers and street performers. You can check out this link to learn more about the Fringe Festival

We had a great first day, walking about 10 miles! We are beat! looking forward to tomorrow!

Enjoy the pics!

View from our apartment. That hill is called Arthur’s Seat. I think we are headed to climb that tomorrow.

Another view out the backside of our apartment. We are staying at the Craigwell Cottages which were once a Brewery! Lots of character and staying in apartments is cheaper than a hotel and you feel like a local. We find it more relaxing 🤗