Hello again! We have continued our road trip of Scotland and have continued to have amazing weather! Let’s get into it!
Driving: Tongue to Applecross
For most of our journey through Scotland so far, we have been following the North Coast 500 (NC500) which covers about 500 miles of coastline. Because we only have limited days here, we had to cut out a chunk of it on this day otherwise it would’ve been a little bit ambitious!
Our first stop along the road was in an area called Heilam. It caught our eye because there was a very thin beach that connected an almost-island to the mainland. We were looking out across Loch Eriboll which although is called a lake, isn’t actually a lake. It’s just a massive harbour.
Next along the road we found an amazing white sand beach which we walked down to. There was a flying fox over the beach between the cliffs on either side. Looked pretty cool, but I think we were too early for it to be open!
We continued driving and stopped again at Smoo Cave which is an ancient cave that has evidence it was used by Vikings. We walked down to the cave but didn’t go too far in as we weren’t really prepared for muddy paths in our Birkenstocks! The cave opens out to the ocean and the walkway goes up both sides of the cave mouth for an amazing view of the cave and the ocean!
We next started heading for Ullapool and this is where we left the NC500. If we continued following it we would have had about a 7 hour driving day!
On the way to Ullapool, we drove up some mountains and saw some incredible views! We can’t get over how good the views are – and they just keep coming!
Ullapool was a lunch stop (Tesco, obviously), 50p toilet stop, and petrol stop. It was nice to sit down by the harbour and chill for a bit before driving again. We also grabbed some food for dinner as we knew there wasn’t going to be anything available at the next place we were staying!
The rest of the journey mainly took us inland. We started to head back towards Inverness before turning around and heading into Applecross. This took us down the most winding, steep, narrow mountain road with signs everywhere saying “road impassible in wintery conditions”. The views were once again incredible and we get to go back out the same road in the morning to get to the next location!
I haven’t spoken much about our accommodation at places because they’re mostly uninteresting, but on this night we stayed at the Hartfield House Hostel. It’s a pretty old building and I remember when we booked it we struggled to find much in the area. We went for the “superior double bedroom with private bathroom” because that’s all that was really available. We are pretty much in the presidential suite! It’s massive! Not only do we have a massive bed and private bathroom, we also have a lounge area with a view out the garden. Crazy.
Driving: Applecross to Oban
Our next day was probably our most ambitious with how much driving we had ahead of us!
We started by driving back over the mountains we came into Applecross over and there were much fewer cars to pass first thing in the morning!
Our first stop was Eilean Donan Castle. We didn’t want to go in the castle, but just take photos of it! It’s a very cool castle set on the waterfront of Loch Alsh and it’s very picturesque!
We then continued driving and crossed the bridge into the Isle of Skye. This is a stunning island with huge mountains and it almost didn’t seem like we had left the mainland! We drove along the east coast of the island and grabbed some lunch before heading almost to the northernmost part where there is a cool waterfall that flows into the sea.
We then drove all the way back down the island and caught the car ferry over to the mainland again.
We drove through more mountains and valleys and arrived at the Glenfinnan Viaduct which is an incredible curved train bridge built in 1898. The bridge is amazing and was cast out of concrete. You can see marks on the concrete where the wooden structure was that they used for casting it! This bridge will be familiar to you if you’ve seen the Harry Potter films as it’s the big curved bridge that the Hogwarts Express travels over! It was a very cool piece of engineering to see and we even got to see a train travel over it!
Next we just aimed straight for Oban as it was getting into the evening and we needed dinner!
On arrival at Oban we realised we hadn’t booked accommodation with parking, but managed to get some free parking on the street! We then headed to the Lorne Bar for dinner which was recommended by a friend!
We ate so much food and Miriam was able to try the Oban whiskey. It was a great place to stop and have dinner!
We walked a little bit around Oban but it was getting cold so we called it a night! It seems like it’s an awesome place and we were yet to discover that it’s extremely busy during the day!
Driving: Oban to Beattock
Wednesday morning we had a ferry to catch! We made a bit of a blunder and didn’t book the car ferry in time so we decided to just go as passengers. Our destination was the Isle of Mull which has one thing that we wanted to see: Duart Castle.
Duart Castle is the home of the MacLean clan. It is still lived in by the MacLean chief.
So we caught the ferry and got to the island. We decided that we would walk to the castle which was about an hours walk. It wasn’t too difficult with not many steep hills or anything! 10:45am and we were at the castle! The only problem was that we had booked a return ferry for 12:40pm. So if you factor in just over an hours walk back, we needed to leave no later than 11:30am! So, we spent 45 minutes at the castle.
The castle is in an amazing position on the island with fantastic views. There were plenty of boats out sailing, the kitchen had a view out to sea. Honestly, it would perfectly suit the MacLeans I know!
We enjoyed a fairly quick tour around the castle and it was very cool to see a family history laid out like this. So many artefacts collected over the years and their direct line family tree spanning 26 generations!
Most importantly, Miriam got to sign the special MacLean visitor book and the guide was stoked that she had come to visit! I also noticed that the stonemason doing repairs on the outside of the building is named Andrew Bradley, so I’m glad the Bradley’s can also be part of it.
The walk back to the ferry was the same as the walk there but backwards. It was nice to see the stuff that was previously behind us. Most importantly, we made it to the ferry!
Once back on land, we jumped into the car and started heading for Beattock.
Matt and Jade had recommended that we went through Glencoe valley at some stage while in Scotland. It was a little bit out of the way, but we were close so we decided it was a good way to go. We are so stoked we did!
We saw so much of the Highlands on our drive, but Glencoe valley was easily my favourite! The mountains were amazing, the valleys were amazing, and there is a little white house which sits in front of the mountains and really shows you the size of them! If you’re ever in the Highlands, drive through Glencoe valley. It’s great.
Not much stopping the rest of the way to Beattock, and we mainly took the highway to get there faster. Our time in Scotland was almost coming to an end! But first, we were staying a night in an old pub called The Old Stables Inn.
We had the true pub experience with a rowdy local crowd and a busy restaurant. Luckily they prioritise people staying the night otherwise we wouldn’t have got a table for dinner!
We both absolutely smashed our dinner – we were so hungry! It was a great little place to stay with very friendly people!
So that is our final part in Scotland! The next day we headed to York and everything we did was in England which I definitely cannot write about in a blog about Scotland! That’ll have to wait for the next one.
Bye for now! 👋🏻
