One weekend, I persuaded my sister to accompany me on a roadtrip out of Glasgow. I am very fortunate in that I have been able to bring my faithful car, Astrid, the Volvo C30, up to Glasgow with me. Parking is an absolute nightmare, but for the weekends when I have some free time to escape, it is more than worth it, and she is a great car for distance driving, and for driving in the cold!
I picked up my sister mid morning on the 14th January, to drive to a mysterious destination. Almost immediately she began to guess, but amazingly Inverness never came to mind. Perhaps it was a little too distant for her imagination.
We took the M80 out of Glasgow ("Is it Edinburgh? Is it Stirling?" "No.") and headed north up the M9, listening to sombre news on the radio of the attacks in Paris. Shortly after passing Perth, Sister pointed out an amusing looking roadsign for "Tullybelton". "Shall we check it out?" I asked her, trying to encourage the impulsive state of mind which makes roadtrips so fun. She dismissed it, and then, "alright then". So we turned off onto a single track B-road, winding through farmland. The scenery was quite beautiful (typical Perthshire), but the signs for Tullybelton eventually petered out. GPS told us we had driven past it. So I turned the car around and we retraced our tracks. There was a property with the name "Tullybelton" outside, but otherwise nothing. No picturesque village, no village sign, nothing to warrant a road sign off the motorway. Disappointed, we pulled over in a passing place, ate some fruit and nut bars, and admired the scenery, before returning to the M9.
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| The highlight of Tullybelton: its name |
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| A good view for a deep think, in the wake of 13/11/15 |
Luckily, our next stop would be much more rewarding. We stopped off at Dunkeld in persuit of Atholl Memorial fountain, which we totally missed because a) it was labelled as "The Cross" on the map, and b) it didn't involve any jets of water. Indeed, we missed both the fountain and the cathedral (which I assume would have been interesting to look at) because we drove straight up bridge/Atholl street, instead of turning left after crossing the river Tay. We drove as far as a timber plant, and then turned around when we realised that we had left the village. However, we did have the pleasure of driving through the gorgeous villages of Birnham and Dunkeld, and absorbing the kind of scenery that told us we were on the very border of the Highlands.
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| Driving through Birnam |
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| Perthshire timber co. |
On the way back down Atholl road, we turned left before the river (yes, the exact opposite direction to the fountain), and used a carpark so I could get some nice autumnal photos of the bridge. Sister stayed in the car, she was enjoying the heated seats too much.
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| Dunkeld Bridge over the river Tay |
The drive through Perthshire only grew more scenic, winding past Tay Forest Park toward Pitlochry. We didn't get much further up the M9 before we saw the sign for Blair Atholl, and Blair Castle. We had spied a stunning castle from the road, and I was hopeful that we might be able to get a photo of it. Furthermore, it was long past lunchtime and we wanted somewhere to stop and consume the nutritious sandwiches I had consumed. (When I say nutritious, there is a reason that this isn't a food blog!)
Blair Castle was closed, but we could still enter the grounds, so we ventured up the long drive, and settled Astrid in the near empty carpark under an enormous tree. Blair castle may not have been the castle we were searching for, but it is spectacular.
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| Blair Castle |
The gardens were also beautiful and varied, and we took them as an opportunity to stretch our legs. The evening was beginning to draw in however, and we still had a long way to drive, so after taking some photos on a slower shutter speed than I would have liked, we hopped back in the car, resolving not to stop until we arrived at Inverness.
We got quite excited at that first glimpse of snow. However, as dusk drew in, we found ourselves passing between hills speckled with snow, like powdered icing sugar. The enormity of the lanscape dwarfed us, and we were in awe. We arrived in Inverness after dark, which in November in the Highlands is about 5pm, and got ourselves a double room at Inverness Youth Hostel. The room was acceptable if not quite pleasant, so we walked into town for dinner.
Inverness is quite an unremarkable town. It has occasional pretty bits, but it lacks the grandeur of Edinburgh or the liveliness of Glasgow. There were people swaying drunk in the street by 7pm, and we dove into a pub which had been recommended in the pamphlet we'd collected at the hostel. We dined on pub food and then set out to photograph the castle. We couldn't see it from the East side of the river (perhaps because we couldn't get enough distance, and with my sister rapidly getting fed up, we wandered back to the Hostel.
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| Inverness Castle St at night |
In the morning we had a naff but sufficient breakfast at the hostel, then jumped back into the car to refuel and cross the river. Sister was keen to see Loch Ness, and I finally got my photos of Inverness Castle.
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| A typical November morning in Inverness |
Whilst Inverness castle in the drizzling rain may not be the most photogenic, the haunting Loch Ness would more than make up for it. A visiting friend referred to Loch Ness as "that series of Lochs" but far from it. They are all one and the same: Loch Ness is simply enormous.
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| 23 miles of misty loch |
We spent the entire morning driving only most of its length, stopping at Spean Bridge. We had a coffee and cake in a roadside cafe shop, where we read up on Loch Ness Monster conspiracy theories, and contemplated ugly souvenirs and Christmas presents for the rest of the family,then drove on (with numerous photo stops) to Urquhart Castle. We didn;'t go in the castle, as my rule of thumb for castle viewing is that the best photos come from the outside anyway - and we didn't have the time or money to spare, For some reason, castles are unreasonably expensive in Scotland.
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| Urquhart castle under a broodily low cloud |
The next stop was Spean bridge, where the low hanging cloud over the graduating autumn forest made such a beautiful image I had to pull over and take a photo:
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| Spean Bridge, where they're apparently big on recycling. |
The route back to Dalwhinnie (where we stopped to have lunch) was very scenic, glimpses of romantic lochside houses, more misty munros, and silent lochs. I insisted on playing the soundtrack to the final Harry Potter movie, which wasn't popular with my passenger!
