13.10.2011 – 13.10.2011  13 °C

Well I’m back in my buggy again today and am on the road to Skye! My first stop of the day though was to drive back out to Glen Finnian to see the Jacobite monument. The monument was built to honour the memory of all the people who died fighting to return the ‘rightful king’ to the throne during the year’s of the Jacobite revolution.

The monument is probably in one of the most picturesque places on earth. The monument is this huge stone pillar topped with a Highland hero. It is sitting proudly on the banks of a loch with two large mountains flanking either side of the loch. Just beautiful. I had travelled the same route as the train had travelled the day previous, so I did spend a heck of a lot of time snapping more photos of the loch and its reflections… I think I may have a few photos by the time this trip is over!

On the way back to Fort William (from Glen Finnian) I decided to drive on the other side of the loch to get a shot of the Jacobite as it travelled out to Maillag. This was a great idea and I got a heck of a lot of nice snaps except I hadn’t realised that the road on that side of the loch actually ended up at a dead end on some peninsular (because the loch that Fort William is on is a sea loch not a fresh water!). I realised this quite a while after I had been driving down it, so I ended up doing a good hour and a bit round trip just to get back to the Fort William road before I even got back to Fort William! Needless to say that it was well after lunch before I made it back to Fort William and with a good three hour journey to Skye ahead of me…. Aaah

The road from Fort William to Skye must be one of the most beautiful road trips you can do. The mountains are really breathtaking and nearly every valley either has a loch or a stream with countless waterfalls. Just amazing! Unfortunately for me the weather was pretty poor so I wasn’t able to snap too many pickies because it wouldn’t stop raining. I did make a stop at Eilean Doonan castle (the uber famous castle I mentioned the other day) to get some ok snaps. (Its pretty hard to get a good photo when the sun isn’t shining and the tide is out!) I can only dream of how beautiful it must look at high tide (and the castle is surrounded by water) and the sun is shining.. Must be pretty specky.

My other stop was to a tiny town called Plocktown. (About ten minutes off the main road to Skye right before you hit the Skye bridge). Plocktown is the town where Hamish MacBeth was filmed back in the 90s and is a really quaint little fishing village set on the banks of another loch. I had planned to have a late lunch here but the only item I could get to eat was a microwaved sausage roll so my lunch was pretty ordinary! The view was worth the poor lunch though. On the opposite side of the loch (to the town) is this gorgeous 18th century castle surrounded by woodlands with a back drop of a huge mountain. Really spectacular.

I finally arrived out on the Isle of Skye just on dusk so I grabbed myself some dinner and headed off to bed.. Driving all day is damned tiring (esp in the rain). Tomorrow will be a full day of exploring the Isle of Skye