After leaving the Lakes District it was off up the M6 briefly before heading across to the Scottish Borders town of Melrose. A delightfully clean well kept town which is famous as where rugby sevens originated.
Melrose Abbey
Melrose Abbey is probably one of the tidiest ruins we saw in England or Scotland. We only stayed here for one night before heading around the outskirts of Edinburgh to Stirling Castle.
After a couple of hours for a tour of the castle and the museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders it was off through the hills and “scotch mist” to Oban on the west coast for a few days.
We had 2 full days in Oban and watched the weather forecast carefully as we wanted to head out to Mull and Staffa Isle. The day was wet and windy when we left Oban to cross over to Mull. (The day’s special as announced on the ferry at 10am was a double shot of a single malt - can’t remember the name - for a bargain price of £3.90. I don’t recall the bar being over run not that I took up the offer either.) One and half hours in the bus across Mull to catch another ferry, still pouring, and as we headed out from the small harbour the weather forecast proved correct. The skies cleared and there was Staffa!
Staffa and its columnar jointed basalt, Fingals Cave on the right
Staffa is famous for its huge formation of columnar jointed basalt between other lava flows. This formation is the eastern part; the western part being the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. From what I’ve seen in photos, Staffa is much bigger and more spectacular. If you are into landforms and puffins, Staffa is the place to go. Unfortunately we were too late to see the puffins as they head out to the Atlantic for the summer.
From Staffa the ferry took us to Iona. There is where St. Columba came to from Ireland to set up the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Columba Church in Oamaru was where we were married so Iona had some significance for us.
Iona Abbey
Fingals Cave on Staffa.
A magnificent sea cave which we went into. A nice safe jetty and a fine but windy day made for a memorable day out.
Ben Nevis Distillery at Fort William. We had an entertaining tour through here to find out how the “water of life” is made. I was not overly impressed by their product – just a wee dram but not up to standard as far as I was concerned.
Ben Nevis Distillery
The day after our trip out to Staffa and Iona it was off up towards Fort William. First stop was Stalkers Castle, then onto Fort William and to see Neptunes Flight.
Stalkers Castle in Loch Linnhe
on the road between Oban and Fort William
Neptunes Flight, Fort William.
This is a flight of 9 locks at the beginning of the Caledonian Canal which allows small craft to travel form the west coast to the east of Scotland via Loch Ness to Inverness. A distillery visit in the afternoon involved the inevitable tasting of the product at the end, see comments above. Needless to say we didn’t purchase anything as we would have had to give it up to customs in Doha anyway.
Friday 14th August saw us heading towards Edinburgh in the pouring rain. It took one and a half hours to travel the six miles through Glasgow on the motorway!!! We were pleased to get to Edinburgh to say the least.
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| Kilchurn Castle. |
The main purpose of going up to Scotland was to go to the tattoo. We went to a show which started at 10.30 pm and finished with fireworks display. (The fireworks on New Years Eve at Caroline Bay is better and longer though.)
This photo here is off the internet as the late show is better to see the full effect of the lighting. The massed bands include the Auckland Police Pipe Band and the Tongan Army Band was there as well.
A truly magnificent show which was well worth going to even though there was bitterly cold wind swirling around the pipers kilts as well as the audience.
On the Sunday morning after the tattoo we set off back to Leeds for a night then to Manchester Airport the next day to catch the plane. We were all loaded on the plane, doors closed, the plane started to get pushed out then stopped after moving about 8 m. Some one messed up, the air bridge was still connected to the plane which had a big scratch and a hole punched in the fuselage. After a lot of waiting we were off loaded after 3 hours, spent 6 hours in the airport before finally sent to a hotel at 1am to be back by 10am after repairs to the plane. We got back a day late!!! I guess anyone can have a bad experience when flying – just as well ours was when we were still on the ground.
We got back to our apartment in Abu Dhabi at 0545 hrs and I was up at 0730 to go back to work by 0900!!!!
Hope you have enjoyed reading our travelogue and that some of the places we have been to in the UK are familiar to those of you who have travelled there.
Fantastic colourful photos John (and Gail). Thanks for posting them. John C.
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