Touring with the Kinates - Loch Lomond, Glencoe and the Glenfinnian Viaduct

So it has taken me a ridiculously long time to find the time to catch up on our adventures, but now that I'm a house spouse I don't really have an excuse.  So be prepared to see a lot from me over the next couple of weeks.

Luke and I decided when planning our time with Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris that while the highlands are amazing, we knew that there were other parts of Scotland that we hadn't yet seen that would be just as amazing.  So we took the opportunity to do some exploring of the unknown.  And Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris were total troopers and joined us for the ride.

A few of the things on our bucket list were Glencoe, the Glenfinnian Viaduct, Eilean Donan Castle and the Isle of Skye.  So we planned a trip based on spending a couple days on Skye and seeing what we could between Edinburgh and Skye.  I booked a cottage in Duirinish, a small crofting village just on the mainland side of the Skye Bridge (picture below).  You can also get to the island via ferry but that can add up.  Also, Eilean Donan Castle is only about 10 minutes away from the Skye bridge.  

Photo thanks to the Kinates

It takes about 5 hours to get from Edinburgh to where we were staying so we opted to make a day of it and make a few stops along the way.  The first stop was Balloch Castle and the Balloch Castle Country Park on Loch Lomond.  

Loch Lomond lies on the boundary fault between the highlands and the lowlands and is the largest inland stretch of water in GB.  It is a very popular holiday destination so we decided to check out the hype.  

Balloch Castle was okay from the outside.  It had some restoration work being done and you can't explore the inside so that was a bit of a bummer.  But the park grounds were lovely.  Just like at the botanic gardens, there were tons of flowers in bloom.  And we took a nice stroll down to the lake.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Photo thanks to the Kinates 

Photo thanks to the Kinates 

After leaving the park we stopped for a bite to eat.  We had a more difficult time than normal finding a place to go to with Luther, but we were able to find a nice restaurant with some outdoor seating and had a nice lunch.

From there we headed to Glencoe.  Luke is a huge Daniel Craig Bond fan and portions of the latest movie were filmed in Glencoe.  The entire region was amazing.  It is really hard to describe and there's really not much there except mountains and lochs, but every couple miles there is a place to pull off the road because there are so many picturesque views.  And we seriously stopped at most of those places.  

Luther watched while Luke, Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris went down the the water.  He wasn't allowed because he wouldn't be able to resist getting in the water and we still had a bit of a drive to go.

We lucked out and had an amazing day.  It was overcast but that added to the mystery of the mountains.  And there was no wind so we were able to get some amazing reflection shots like the ones below.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris decided to get artsy with their pictures.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

At the far end of Glencoe - just past Fort William is the Glenfinnian Viaduct.  If you're a Harry Potter fan you'll know that this is the bridge that the Hogwarts Express crosses on it's was from Platform 9 3/4 and Hogwarts.  There was no way we could allow ourselves to be that close to it without stopping to check it out.  If you time it right, you can plan your visit for when the stream train crosses it - but I wasn't that extreme.  

From here we headed to our cabin to rest up for the night after a long day exploring.  There was more to do with the small amount of time we had before we headed back to Edinburgh.

Hope you enjoyed this adventure.

Love you & miss you,

Aubs, Luke & Luther