Wednesday 13th June Up at 5.30 & off at 6.40 on our way to Glasgow as fast as we could go as we didn't know what the traffic would be like. Luckily we had a good run & only made a few misturns in Glasgow itself & were there by about 9.45. d*** was greatly relieved to lose the car as it had been quite hard work on a lot of the roads. Took a taxi to our hotel & left our baggage before setting off to explore. We are fairly centrally situated B...

Saturday 9th June Warnings of heavy showers today. Left going south & east towards Fort William through some heavy showers which had cleared by the time we arrived. It sits at the top of Loch Linnhe & has an aluminium smelter but is otherwise not particularly noteworthy. Then on to Glencoe to the visitor centre. This is the site of the famous massacre of 40 of its inhabitants in February 1698 for failure to sign allegiance to King William, in time....

Friday 8th June Woke to a beautiful sunny day & after breakfast set off for Skye across the bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh along with a fleet of campervans & cars, many from Europe. The island is very fine particularly in good weather but the roads are bad enough to give the Maltese a run for their money with plenty of pot holes & minimal width. We went north & then west to see Dunvegan Castle the home of the MacLeod Clan chiefs which they hav...

Wednesday 6th June First up we drove over to the battlefield of Culloden, the site of Britain's last battle in 1756. Here the English government soldiers beat the Jacobites lead by Bonnie Prince Charlie in a pitched battle which finished in the slaughter of 1500 of the latter for the loss of 300 of the former. It changed the whole lifestyle of the Scottish Highlands & the suppression of the people for many years after. Culloden is about 10 k east of Inv...

Tuesday 5th June Left Aberdeen on our way to Inverness, following the east coast. First stop was at Cruden Bay where we walked about 2k to Slains a huge ruined castle on top of high cliffs without any apparent owner as it is quite open. Originally built as a tower in the late 1500s it has been extensively revised 3 times but has fallen into ruin. We were surprised to see it in such a state but apparently plans for its restoration have been around since 2009....