Scottish Highlands!

I'm just back from a week long trip to the Scottish Highlands. It was cold, wet, windy and extremely picturesque!

We drove up from Shrewsbury to Oban, on the west coast beyond Glasgow. We spent 2 nights there and did a day trip to the Isle of Skye. From there, we drove to Fort William, at the base of Ben Nevis - Britain's highest mountain. We took a gondola up to the top of the mountain and managed to get both a snow storm and the first piece of blue sky in 3 days! All within 20 minutes!

We then drove to Loch Ness, Scotland's biggest Loch (and most famous!). We stayed about half way up the Loch and did a boat cruise to Urquhart Castle - a famous castle with particular prominence in the Jacobite uprising in support of Bonny Prince Charlie, the 'young pretender' to the throne.

We continued along the rest of Loch Ness the next day and spent the night in Inverness, where we drove a bit further north to the Firth of Moray and walked along the first sandy beach I've seen in Britain! We then started to drive back south, staying in Stirling (and visiting the castle on the windiest day I've ever experienced!). We also walked up to the Wallace Monument, commemorating William Wallace.

Our last night was spent just outside Carlisle and we arrived back into England yesterday. Our trip back was constant heavy rain and gale force winds, so the motorway was pretty interesting!!
Here are some pictures from the trip - I don't think that any of them fully show the wind and cold that we were feeling!! We did get a couple of not-so-rainy days, which were when we at Loch Ness, which was great. No sightings of the monster though!!

Our first Loch - Loch Lomond

The 'Bridge over the Atlantic' - note the sideways tree - it was very windy that day!

Inverary Castle

Along the road - all the trees were turning

Typical view from along the road - ruined castle

Autumn colours

Luckily, there were loads of places to stop along the road and take photos - unlike in England!

I think this is the first time I have ever seen the end of a rainbow. I think the pot of gold must have been at the bottom of the Loch!

Pete and I at the top of Ben Nevis - Britain's highest mountain. It was very windy up top!

This was the only time we saw the top of Ben Nevis

Our first sighting of Loch Ness - and the sun!

Urquhart Castle

Our only sighting of 'Nessie'!

Just for Rob - one of my many 'window' photographs!

The Wallace Monument, Stirling.

The Falkirk Wheel - there's a canal at the top and boats sit in the end bit. The wheel then turns and brings them down to the canal at the lower level! We did a boat trip to the top and back again. Takes about 4 mins to turn.

Horse Riding!

I've been having weekly horse riding lessons for awhile now, which I am really enjoying. It's a 20 minute drive out of town (along the really narrow English country lanes with zero visibility of what's coming towards you - exciting!!). I couldn't go much longer without putting a photo of Mickey, the horse I ride, on the blog!! He's a lovely boy! Very tall though - jumping off is always the exciting time of the lesson!