After arriving back on the Scottish mainland, our journey continues more or less south along Scotland’s west coast. We take a hike to a hidden valley in Glencoe, check out the Hogwarts Express, climb Scotland’s southernmost Munro, and experience much more, but read for yourself.

Glenfinnan Viaduct

The Glenfinnan Viaduct may be familiar to many from the Harry Potter movies. It stretches over a semicircle over the river Finnan. The old Jacobite steam locomotive in the familiar red runs over the bridge two times a day. In order that we don’t miss the train – that means the sight of it on the bridge, we are still on the road with our Ben – we leave early enough to Glenfinnan for the morning train. A short walk takes us to the western viewpoint, from where the view is best in the morning. And already during the walk we realize that we are not the only ones. There are even people who have thrown themselves into student robes in Harry Potter style for a selfie with the train.

Through the hilly landscape we hear the steam engine from far away. Sometimes less and sometimes more, it takes for sure another 10 minutes until the train is in sight. A wonderful sight, especially since for this morning hour the clouds make a little room for the sun and therefore it dips the train in beautiful light. Also, the locomotive driver does his job perfectly. Just at the turning point of the viaduct, he slams full throttle and lets a considerable cloud of steam rise to make the picture really cinematic.

We enjoyed this experience very much and can gladly recommend it! Despite huge tourist crowds.

The winding road through autumn forests past lakes is a pleasure even without a stop. We continue to Fort William to stock up our supplies for the coming days.

Glencoe Lochan

The whole region is very beautiful and offers endless opportunities to admire nature. We make our first stop at Glencoe Lochan and walk around it. A good evening walk before we rest to gather strength for the next day. We take on another hike.

The Three Sisters & Hidden Valley

Not far from the night camp rises the mountain formation of the Three Sisters. These are three almost pyramid-shaped peaks close to each other. The view from the pass is already very impressive. Here we get off and take the hike to Hidden Valley. This is a real hike again since some time. Here we have put on the hiking boots not only for fun. The ascent leads along a reiver bed. And not only along the creek, we also have to cross it. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch the junction perfectly and so we climb more than we hike over big boulders to the other bank.

The Hidden Valley itself doesn’t knock our socks off. It is the turning point of our hike and consists of a plain with steeply rising gravel walls. According to our impression we descend rather sooner than later. As we all know, the way is the goal and on this hike the path is very natural and beautiful to look at.

The onward journey leads us through a high lying swamp area. The landscape is impressively barren, and we enjoy the kilometers with this view.

Inveraray Castle

On the way to our next hiking adventure, we stop at Inveraray Castle. We are still in Scotland and it has been a long time since the last castle.
Inveraray Castle is still the family home of the Duke of Argyll. A large part of the rooms is nevertheless open to the public and can be visited with their historical furnishings. In addition to the imposing furnishings, there are also numerous paintings and wall and ceiling paintings to admire. To some, the interiors might also look familiar from the well-known series Downtown Abbey.

April-October: Thu-Mon 10:00-17:00
October: Thu-Mon, 10:00-16:00
Admission £16.00/adult, £12.00/child

Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park

We spend the next few days in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. In the low season, there are a number of signposted overnight pitches here that are free to use. Some are even equipped with freely accessible sanitary facilities. We don’t let ourselves be deprived of this luxury and so we more or less stick to the official overnight places.

Ben Lomond

The eponymous mountain Ben Lomond rises directly on the largest loch of Scotland, Loch Lomond. The mountain Ben Lomond is one of the highest peaks of Scotland and Paddy is already excited to do this hike. Mimi is rather restrained and so we wait for supposedly good weather so that Paddy can hike over the mountain. The supposed rainy day, which we wanted to wait through, was then but very moderate, for Scottish conditions even quite beautiful. And on the day of the ascent the weather looks good at first, but then it turns into continuous rain showers. Well, fortunately it turned fully on the summit, but the descent is now all the wetter and colder. Fortunately, the dry van is waiting at the foot of the mountain. But not without a short swim in the lake, because after this effort a short lake wash comes in handy.

Conic Hill

The Conic Hill is with its 360 meters of altitude rather modestly high, but nevertheless you have a magnificent view of Loch Lomond and the islands in the lake. Therefore, we don’t miss this experience and take a morning walk up the hill and even make friends with one or the other Scottish Highland Cattle on the way.

From the beautiful nature parks and impressive landscapes, we now slowly come back into more densely populated areas. The next bigger city is Glasgow.

Glasgow

We visit Glasgow on the one hand because of the famous street art, on the other hand we have to do a small administrative job. We had Mimi’s parents send us some documents to Glasgow – hopefully we can pick them up at the appointed post office.

If you search and walk the most famous street art pictures in a city, you accumulate quite a lot of walked meters. But it is also a very nice way to get to know a city. You end up in places that you almost certainly won’t find in a travel guide.

Besides the street art we also wanted to visit the cathedral of Glasgow. But we took too much time for the city tour and so unfortunately the cathedral is already closed when we arrive. Well, for a little walk around the cathedral and the entrance of Golfhill, the large-scale cemetery, there is still enough time.