[Potenza]

Europe. My first association with this beautiful place happened in 1999 when my parents and I took one of those 8 countries in 17 days wala tour packages. That tour package obviously covered only the very very touristy places in those eight countries but it did make me fall in love with the continent. Over the years, work took me to a few places in the EU and those trips, peppered with personal holidays in between gave me a taste of what real Europe felt like. However, this was all about mainland Europe. My experience of the UK was limited to one three day visit to London in the aforementioned "holiday package"

So when the missus (TBhp username- Sadaf) said "Lets go to Scotland!!!" I didn't really know the what's and the where's of the place. We knew the "how" of the place, which meant that we planned to drive across Scotland but little else apart from that. Hence started the research and that took us to Rick Steves. We loved his videos and the fact that his website suggests holiday itineraries for individual travellers. So with Rick Steves as our reference we decided to go to Oban (3 nights), Isle of Skye (2 nights), Inverness (2 nights), Edinburgh (5 nights).

The planning started in October 2019, and the date was set for mid February 2020-a time of the year where the weather is cold (just the way we like it) and the crowds are less (nice!). We didn't really know how much we were going to end up loving Scotland and how fortunate we were to have chosen the dates we did.

What follows is a set of pictures which tell the story of our visit to the magnificent Scottish Highlands.

We landed at EDI on the 20th of February 2020 and took a rental car from AVIS at the airport. We had booked a Hyundai Tucson AT but as it happens most of the time our chosen car was not available. I was not complaining though because in place of that we were offered a spanking new C200. And by spanking new I mean just that, it had only 1600 Miles on the clock!


Here's a picture of KT69 YSB-our companion for the trip.



Our first destination was Oban in the Scottish Highlands.

Day 1- Edinburgh Airport to Oban-115 Mi/184 Km

The drive to Oban took us around 3 hours. The route was through Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and while most of it was on country roads, the landscape was to die for!










We reached Oban by around 6.30 pm and checked in. We were quite tired after the long flight and went out to Cuan Mor for an early dinner. We got back to our room at around 930 and slept off with this view of Station road from our window.


Coming up...Oban

[Potenza]

Day 2- Oban:

Oban is a small little fishing town which is also known as The Gateway To The Isles, the isles being Mull, Kererra, Lismore and Iona.

The town has a lovely harbour and a small train station next to the harbour.

A view of Oban town from McCaig's tower- a tower that somewhat resembles Rome's Colosseum and is located on Battery Hill overlooking the town.


Oban's lovely waterfront.


Another view of Oban's waterfront. You can see McCaig's tower on the hill, while just below that is one of Oban's most famous attractions- The Oban Distillery.


The waterfront from the other side.


The street is called George Street.



We stayed at Hotel Perle Oban. We had chosen a Ocean view room which gave us a lovely view of the harbour. The small cottage kind of structure next to the harbour is the railway station!


Scottish people are very very passionate about how they serve food. They may not have a very elaborate cuisine as such but the way they serve very normal things is just amazing! Some examples from breakfast.

Here are my "Eggs Royale" perfectly plated and equally delicious.


My wife chose to have porridge, it was served with fresh cream and (wait for it) whisky!


Our plan for Day 1 was to just relax. It was wet for most of the day as you can see from the pictures but we were out and about for the whole day. Our plan for Day 2 was to take the ferry to Mull and Iona but the weather Gods had something else in store.

Next up-Wishful thinking

[Potenza]

Day 3- Shopping, Fort William and very cold weather...

Our plan for Day 3 was to take the ferry to the Isles (islands) of Mull and Iona but the weather gods had something else in mind. The rain was quite intense with bad winds and the ferries were cancelled. This as we realised was the one drawback of travelling in February.

So instead of whiling away time we decided to shop! We discovered this fantastic brand of outdoor clothing called Trespass and bought some nice Down jackets for the missus and myself. The trick to enjoying cold weather is being as warm as possible, and we usually rely on Columbia Omni-heat jackets and other assorted winter wear to keep us warm. But the stuff from Trespass is really nice too and probably even a shade warmer than the Columbia ones.

Shopping was done in an hour or so and we decided to head to Fort William and Glencoe for the day.

Fort William was around 45 Mi from Oban and took around an hour to reach.

While it was all rainy and grey in the morning, we were greeted by some lovely sunshine as soon as our drive started.

This is the same waterbody as the pictures above, transformed by the sunshine.






Sparse traffic meant a relaxing drive.


A typical scene in Scotland. Old stone structures with conical towers.


A typical road sign in Scotland. Most signs are bi-lingual with Scottish Gaelic in Yellow and English in White.


"Don't like the weather? Well, wait for five minutes" is a very popular saying in Scotland, and on this day we got to see a classic example of that. We reached Fort William to some of the coldest weather we've ever experienced after having bright sunshine throughout the drive. It was so cold that we barely took any pictures, walked around as fast as we could and took refuge in Wetherspoon- a nice restaurant which seemed to be very popular but we later found out was one of the most unloved restaurant chains in the UK.

Here are a few shots from Fort William.





Post lunch and a much needed hot coffee, we trundled towards our car in the freezing cold. I didn't dare to get either my phone or my camera out, because operating either meant that I would need to take my gloves off and I was not going to do that, it was so cold. Pretty soon it started snowing as well. So on this day we had seen bright sunshine, rain and snow all in the space of a few hours! Crazy weather.

It was almost 4.00 pm by the time we got into our car and we decided to drive back to Oban, with a short halt at Loch Leven which needed a small detour but was worth seeing.


At Loch Leven. She's not hiding her face, she's just shielding it from the freezing wind . Sadaf always carries that coffee flask with her on every road trip, and on days like this one its an absolute saviour. Sipping hot coffee on the banks of this lovely lake was heavenly.


Glencoe in the distance.


Next up: The road to Skye...

[Potenza]

Day 4: The road to the Isle Of Skye...

When we started planning this holiday, most of the people we met told us that Scotland can easily be "done" in 4 days- 2 days in Edinburgh. 1 at Glasgow and one day trip to the Highlands. We didn't listen to them and we're really glad we didn't. There is so much to see in Scotland that going and spending just 3-4 days there is barely scratching the surface. The Highlands are so mesmerisingly beautiful and there are so many places to see that one ten day holiday is not enough, let alone a day trip. We could've easily spent 5 days at this piece of mind blowing beauty that is the Isle Of Skye.

But before that it was time for breakfast and we decided to have it at this small cafe called Dolce Vita which was on George street, overlooking the lovely harbour.





By the time we left it was approx. 11 am and after a quick halt at the nearby Esso to tank up the Merc we left for Skye.

The road till Fort William was uneventful and within a short while it started snowing. The snow and the beautiful countryside made for a memorable drive, especially while we were driving past the huge Loch Cluanie.







The blue hue to the pictures is natural. It was actually looking like this!











The drive was absolutely mesmerising, we took a number of halts just to admire the landscape and by the time we reached our hotel in Skye it was almost 4pm.

Next up: Skye...

[Potenza]

Day 4 continued...

All of our Hotel bookings were done on Hotels dot com or booking dot com since they seemed to give the best rates. For reviews we relied on TripAdvisor and filtered out anything that had a rating of less than 4. This seemed to work well since all of the hotels we booked turned out to be excellent.

Our stay at Skye was at the lovely Skeabost House Hotel. It was a ten minute drive from Portree city center. The hotel was old and quaint and had this lovely old world charm but at the same time was equipped with all modern amenities.

Skeabost House at Skye. Built in 1871.


Another view of the hotel.


After checking in we were greeted by this lovely English tea. Sandwiches and Scones with clotted cream and jam. Couldn't have been better.


Skeabost House had a number of lovely lounges where one could sit back and relax.


Or... you could just take a wee walk behind the hotel and relax at this little loch.


Our plan was to make a pre-sunset visit to The Old Man Of Storr. We did drive till the foothills but sunset was about to happen and we didn't want to stumble in the dark so we changed our mind. We did get a lovely view of the Old Man from afar. The sharp pointy rock poking up on the right side is the Old Man of Storr


We drove back to the hotel and had a lovely dinner. We had a lot of things planned for the next day...

Up next: Day 5- the incredible Isle Of Skye...

[Potenza]

Day 5- Fairy Glen, Kilt Rock & Mealt Falls and Fairy Pools.

This day was all about incredible views. Our plan was to first visit The Fairy Glen which is a set of small rolling hills caused by a landslip, then a place called Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls and finally finishing with the Fairy Pools. The drive would take us past the Quiraing and some really stunning views of the North Atlantic.

But first, here's another example of Scottish attention to detail. I've never seen Sunny Side Up being served with so much passion and style


The drive to the Glen took us past the small port and fishing village of Uig.
A bird's eye view of Uig. You can see the jetty in the distance.


And another.


We drove past Uig and on to the Fairy Glen. Sadaf particularly loved the peace and calm of the glen, it was indeed very quiet and we were the only people there. Apart from us there was only a friendly excavator operator who even moved his steed just for us to take pictures.

The Glen.


Yes, we can see you!


Water bodies are almost everywhere in the Scottish countryside. You see them all the time and they're always super clean!


After spending the better part of an hour we moved on to our next destination.

On the way we were treated to some stunning views of the Trotternish Peninsula.


The angry Scotsman.


We loved the drive, it was raining on and off, but the landscape and the view was to kill for and we didn't want to hurry up.

Eventually Kilt Rock and Mealt falls was reached.

More views to take in.




And another one like a picture postcard.


By now it was well past lunch time. But since we had only one full day at Skye we had lunch on the go. Theplas from back home were consumed along with some nice coffee picked up on the way. Our next halt the Fairy Pools was a good hour away.

Next up- The Fairy Pools...

[Potenza]

Day 5 continued...

The theplas and coffee had done their job and we were all set for the rest of the evening. The drive to the Fairy Pools took us back to Portree, so we basically drove a full circle of the island. Started from Portree drove past the Trotternish Peninula and back to Portree from where we drove ahead to the Pools.

The two girls on the drive.


The Fairy Pools are a set of numerous waterfalls which end up in pools of various sizes. The colour of the water, usually a vibrant blue or green is what makes them look beautiful. People do swim in the pools but I'm guessing that that would be in summer. There was no way anyone was getting into the ice cold water in this weather.

This was also one place where we saw quite a few tourists.

The entrance to the car park.


Reaching the pools from the car park is a good 40 minute walk over uneven terrain. Not tiring at all but can be very slippery. Good shoes, preferably waterproof are a must because one crosses numerous streams on the way. In fact good shoes are an absolute must for the highlands.

The walk to the pools. The end of the walk cannot be seen in this picture.


A small stream on the way.


The pools. Pictures don't do justice to how pretty they look.




By the time we finished with the pools the sun had started setting, and that combined with the partially cloudy sky made for some lovely colours.







We drove back to Portree, dead tired but after having had one of the most memorable days of our lives.

Dinner that night was at a place called Antlers in the city center. A lovely steak was waiting for me, which got gobbled up before I could think of taking a picture.

Unfortunately this was our last evening at Skye. We could and should have planned for at least one more night. There was a lot more to see, many more stunning vistas to capture, but we had run out of time.

Skye made us realise that if Switzerland was a beautifully polished flawless diamond, Scotland was like a rough cut diamond. Equally stunning but in a very different way. Raw, and pristine. Skye really took our breath away.


Next up- The drive to Inverness...

[Potenza]

Day 6: Skye to Inverness...

We had breakfast and left for Inverness at around 10am. After a quick tank up at Portree we were on our way to our first stop of the day- Urquhart Castle just outside Inverness.

This was the sunniest day of our stay in the Highlands. The weather went from Grey and wet to bright sunny and stayed like that for the entire day which made for some really lovely pictures.

Like this picture that we took from Skye Bridge.


On the way we passed Eilean Donan Castle which we didn't visit. Its a beautiful castle and in hindsight maybe we should have stopped there but we didn't want to get late in reaching Inverness so we skipped it.

We also passed the same Loch Cluanie which we had crossed on the way to Skye. The place looked very different in bright sunshine, scroll back to see the earlier pictures, which came out very blue vs the pictures that we took on this day.

Loch Cluanie in all its glory. Look at the lovely reflection of the hills in the absolutely still water!















Thankfully most of the roads we traversed on had parking places every ten minutes or so. So the car was never parked on the main road at any time.

After taking in the gorgeous view of the loch we moved ahead towards Urquhart Castle.

On the way we came across this road construction. I wonder how many people in India will actually stop at such a sign, especially when there is no cop around.


Next up- Urquhart Castle

[Potenza]

Day 6 continued...

Lack of rain on this day and the usual sparse traffic meant that we made quick time and reached Urquhart Castle faster than expected. The castle is located on the A82, just outside of Inverness and is just besides the vast Loch Ness. The castle is in ruins and was built sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries.

The castle being in ruins is frankly okay. The whole draw is about the location. Loch Ness in the background makes up for the lack of sense-of-occasion for this castle and elevates the whole experience.

The entry fee was somewhere around 14 pounds if I remember and they let you inside in batches which is a great idea since it never gets too crowded. We had to wait for around 15 mins to be let inside.

Walking pathways are made for all areas of the castle. If there is a pathway you can go there.


As I said, the whole beauty is in the location.




The other side.


The Scottish Saltire- Remember David Coulthard's helmet?


Boat tours of the Loch are also available from Inverness.


There are steps to go right down to the water, where boats can also dock.


The castle has a pretty big cafeteria available. We had lunch and coffee there, shopped at the souvenir shop and left for Inverness.

We had booked ourselves at this place called Hotel Heathmount, which was a small but very pretty boutique hotel where the décor of every room was unique and quite quirky with bright colours for the bed linen etc. It was very nicely located as well, being a ten minute walk from the city center, which was a pedestrian-only zone.

We wandered around without any agenda really and then went to this place called Bella Italia for the most heavenly Lasagne I've ever had.


As usual with all the walking and stuffing ourselves with delicious food we were tired and called it a night.

Next up- Drive to Dufftown for a distillery visit.

[Potenza]

Day 7- Inverness-Dufftown-Inverness- Wandering aimlessly in the highlands

After a smooth distillery visit we decided to have lunch at the adjoining cafe. I had an absolutely smashing Venison burger which was something I tried for the first time and loved it, and as usual forgot to take pictures of the meal. Post lunch we left for Inverness but this time instead of following the Navigation we decided to try our luck with something else. We decided not to follow the route our car was telling us to. Instead we decided to take some random unknown turns and see where we landed up. We had tried this earlier on our previous road-trip in the EU and it was great fun. Sometimes you end up seeing some truly breath-taking places off the beaten track and boy were we in for a treat!

Can it get more spectacular?














The quintessential Scottish "Coo"



After almost an hour of wandering around we decided to call it an afternoon and drove back to Inverness.

On the way we saw another unique sight.

I've seen all sorts of tankers before, but never thought I'd ever see something like this. No, this is not an advert, its the stuff being taken for bottling!


Next up- Inverness and our last day in the Highlands

[Potenza]

Day 7 continued and Day 8- The last of the Highlands

We reached Inverness at around 4.00 pm and immediately set of for the city centre. This was our last evening in the highlands and we obviously wanted to make the most of it.

Inverness Castle- which is now a courthouse.




We had heard of this lovely book store called Leakey's and decided to pay a visit. Its Scotland's largest second-hand book shop and was definitely worth seeing. Their collection of books was mind-boggling.






Post Leakey's we wandered around a bit in the city centre and then decided to pay another visit to Bella Italia for their heavenly Lasagne.

Day 8- This was to be our last day in the magical Highlands. The plan was to visit Inverness Castle (courthouse) in the morning followed by a quick visit to the Cathedral and then leave for Edinburgh.

The day started with a lovely breakfast at our hotel's restaurant. One thing we repeatedly experienced in Scotland was how friendly everyone was (more on this later).

Post breakfast, we loaded our massively heavy bags in the Merc for one last time and headed out to the Castle.

As mentioned earlier, Inverness Castle is used as the local courthouse now. Its not really a castle anymore.




Inverness Clock Tower.




While we were at the castle it started snowing. It was the second time we encountered snow on this trip, and this time it was proper snow. After enjoying it for a while and getting drenched we decided to take shelter in the car.




We then left for the Inverness Cathedral.

Inverness Cathedral was a simply beautiful place. It was simple, but really regal and elegant with lovely stained glass and perfect lighting that really brought out its beauty.







As with most places in Scotland, the cathedral had its own little cafe. We were pretty much frozen after getting wet in the morning snow and had some nice warm coffee with some Victoria Sponge before leaving for Edinburgh.

We continued on to Edinburgh and stayed there for five more nights and visited Glasgow as well before leaving for Mumbai with massively heavy hearts.

And that concludes this travelogue of the magnificent Highlands. But before I leave you, in true Team-Bhp style let me recap what we liked and disliked from our beautiful vacation.

Likes:

- Breath-taking landscapes. The Highlands are filled with vistas which just take your breath away. There's not a single place in the Highlands where we didn't feel like spending more time than we did. And this is after spending almost eight days there. Frankly, I don't know how people can manage to see or even get a flavour of the highlands in a day-trip or even in 3-4 days.

- The most amazing people. We've travelled a fair bit to Europe, for work as well as leisure. We've never met locals who are so friendly with tourists. Hotel staff, restaurant guys, or even just locals on the street were super friendly. The most amazing example was in Oban, where an elderly person who was reading a newspaper in a cafe offered us his table because we wanted to have breakfast and there was no place to sit.

- No racism. On our travels, we've encountered racist behaviour from locals/hotel staff/immigration people etc. on quite a few occasions in a fair number of countries. Sometimes its very overt and obvious, other times its not. Rome is one such place where we've experienced rampant in-your-face racism very frequently. In our entire two weeks of staying in Scotland we didn't experience it even once. It was simply amazing to see how nice people were. It was truly refreshing.

- Lovely Weather. Like in most countries in that part of the world, the weather was lovely. We prefer travelling in cold weather rather than summer and it was just perfect for us.

- No midges. The Scottish Highlands are infested with this bee like thing which is called a midge. Apparently they are quite irritating. But they are only present in the summer. Since we travelled towards the end of winter there were no insects around.

- Food. All the food that we had was prepared with a lot of passion. The cakes from small Scottish cafes were to die for, the Scones with clotted cream and jam were delightful and in general the stuff from small bakeries was delicious. Every hotel serves a wide variety of hot dishes and their egg preparations are lovely. Very different from the hot breakfast which is served in hotels which is basically just eggs to order.

- Sparse traffic. We didn't really encounter any notable traffic in all the days that we drove there. Sure, February is not really high tourist season but even then I dont think the Highlands would be very crowded except during peak summer.


Dislikes:

- Well nothing really, but if we were to nit-pick the only thing that needs to be improved was the availability of washrooms at Skye. Most of the sights at Skye are remote and the lack of washrooms can be an issue.

And with that we come to an end of this travelogue. I hope it helps someone plan a holiday to this truly wonderful place on earth.

Thank you!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful trip.

My wife studies in Edinburgh and started her career there as well. We have taken several trips al over Scotland. But to see it all you do need to allocate sufficient time.

Glad to see you enjoyed the famous Scottish hospitality. Scott’s are the least prejudiced folks on the planet I often think. With really good food, excellent bed and breakfast and glorious scenery one of our favourite touring destination..

I was just discussing with my good friend Peter our next destination for our annual Alfa Romeo Spider trip. And last night we chose Scotland sometime during end of September 2023. Look forward to it and your story helped a lot to bring back our own memories. I believed we once stayed in that same hotel in Oban. The owner used to have an Alfa Romeo Spider too. We were melted by him personally and were given a pretty generous amount of Oban upon arrival.

Jeroen

[humbleroadster]

Hi Potenza,

Nicely done!
There are travelogues, and then there travelogues with detailed descriptions and mind blowing pictures. Yours is definitely the latter.
I actually had to open up the computer to enjoy the pictures, as the phone just doesn’t do any justice.

Favourite pics : Mealt Falls and Inverness Cathedral.

I almost feel like asking the both of you to globe trott a bit more, so we could enjoy more pictures to come!

Cheers,
AM

[sukhbirST]

Thanks a lot for bringing out the lovely Scotland at its best. Added to my must visit list and your trip will be the guide. You managed to get good photographs even in cold weather and details were also very nice.