Wednesday 19 November 2014

THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS - GLENCOE

 As promised here's a flavour of our recent holiday in the Scottish Highlands.  Following an eight hour drive we arrived at our destination of Glencoe.  The directions from the cottage owner were a little out so we found ourselves piling out of the car at a lovely little house with a notice pinned to its gate asking us to close the gate to keep the deer out of the garden.  Metal gates ... the directions said wooden gates!!!

A second scrutinizing of the directions and we saw we should be 200 yards further along and on the other side of the road.  Yes, there were the wooden gates and as soon as the herd of highland cattle were through their own wooden gate the way was clear to find our way to our own home from home.

You'll see the house in a moment but first just feast your eyes on the views we were luckily enough to have from that cottage perched high on a hill overlooking the mountain range known as Bidean nam Bian : with its nine peeks and three corries.   It's the same view in a range of weather conditions.  Oh wow!





We unpacked, lit the open fire, ate dinner and drank the bottle of complimentary wine kindly left by the owner and looked forward to the following day when we would start our little adventure.

Next morning a five minute walk brought us to the beautiful, quaint and picturesque village of Glencoe and from  there we set off on the first of many walks.

Along woodland paths, over little streams and out into the majesty of wonderful Scottish pine forests and mountains.  Oh joy!  My camera was white hot!  :D

A different walk on a different day took us to a small lake with a mirror still surface.   It was created by a Canadian man for his Canadian wife to remind her of home.   We spent hours there taking in the views and making heavy use of our cameras.  The photo below of the lake shows the Pap of Glencoe mirrored in its depths.  Beautiful.

Though our trip to Loch Ness was less successful .... it rained and rained and rained.  Ah well!




The Pap of Glencoe


Loch Leven flows out to the sea

The banks of Loch Leven
An Torr with water cascading from its summit
A derelict house with trees growing through its roof.  We daydreamed as we walked about rebuilding it and living there. 
Mmmmm I thought these were poisonous!
Tree mosses cover the branches of many trees in this very wet part of the UK

A dark and moody Loch Ness!














6 comments:

Curtains in My Tree said...


what fabulous picture and your holiday home it's fabulous and so cozy looking all the scenery is beautiful

Karla B said...

Amazing photos Ann.Scotland is such a dreamy place.

indybev said...

Oh my dear friend. How can I thank you for sharing these photos of your trip to Scotland. What a magical and beautiful place! Each photo was more lovely than the last. I can well imagine this won't be your last trip to Scotland!

Deann said...

Okay now I'm officially jealous but on the other hand I hope you had a great time. I am surprised how much these picture look like Utah. Thank you for sharing this lovely scenery with your blog mates...I love the little cottage too.

sirkkis said...

Looks like you've been a wunderland. Marvellous scineries and gorgeous photos.
I love the autumn colours of Scotland. What a beautiful country. Never been there, but liked to.
Thanks you for sharing your lovely holidays with us, Ann.

johanna said...

thanks for taking us to this trip through scotland... what a wonderful nature. and of course i would visit you in this tree-house;) gorgeous one! if you take some small doses of the mushroom, maybe you could really dream there, haha.
and rain, well, it´s part of the Scotch charme i suppose...