Day 3 - The Great Scottish Tour

Stranraer to Ft. William

We left the kind, little village of Stranraer early... 

 ...and headed up the road, along Loch Ryan

Up the A77 coastal highway ...

...through Glasgow and into the Highlands.

There’s a distinct difference between the views of the LowLanders (closer to the English border) and the infamous Highlanders. The Highlanders have such a fierce pride of Scotland and we heard lots of talk of seceding from Great Britain (which they have been trying to do for centuries). It wasn’t that the Lowlanders weren’t proud. They were, but the people we met weren’t as interested in being exclusively ‘Scots’, bringing the native Gaelic language back into the schools, and forming their own nation.

Our first stop along the way was to check out Finnich Glen and The Devil's Pulpit. This is actually a spot on the tourist maps and Sean had plotted out how to get there via several websites (that clearly pointed out the multiple dangers of exploring the Glen). 

Once we got there, though, we found it was marked only by a path created by adventurers before us, and signs telling us not to pet the sheep, and no cell service to help with directions.

We finally stumbled across the footpath that led down into the narrow crevice formed by millennium of a single stream cutting through the rock.

 According to the Atlas Obscura website The Devil's Pulpit is “…a strange rock with a sinister reputation lurks within he crimson waters of the Scottish glen”

Yep – Strange Rock

Crimson waters

Sinister reputation (just getting down there was enough to keep most people away, even without the sinister reputation).

They forgot “magical*” which it truly was. We had the whole ‘pit’ to ourselves and spent time exploring, amazed at the blood-red water and rock formations.

Side note: *this is the first reference to Scotland being ‘magical’ and no doubt we’ll use that word over and over and over. You can’t describe Scotland without using the word ‘Magical’.

For Outlander TV series fans, a couple scenes of the first season were filmed here, but I still have no idea how they got cameras, equipment and crew down into the ‘pit’

Eventually we made our way back up the glen...

...and back on the bike. We headed north along Loch Lomond stopping at the ancient Drover’s Inn in Inverarnen...

...where Rob Roy plotted the overthrow of the British back in the early 1700s and probably drank a pint or 12. The photo above is lifted from the interwebs. I forgot to take a picture.

Onward to the Falls of Falloch.

Obligatory yoga pose by the waterfall

I’m not sure why I thought we wouldn't get enough exercise on this trip, but wow, we sure walked and climbed a lot.

Back on the bike we drove the road to Glen Etive. 

James Bond fans will recognize the landscape as where, in the move Skyfall, Daniel Craig/James Bond drove his Austin Martin to his family home in the Highlands. 

Funny story, there’s a castle at the end of this road – in the movie – but in reality it was superimposed over the real backdrop, apparently to make it look as isolated and desolate, (and, as Scottish) as possible.

We knew this story heading up the road, and had fun trying to guess the spot where the castle and other scenes were shot in the film.

Skyfall pictures from the interwebs, obviously.

There were four things Sean wanted to see in Scotland – a red stag, Highland Cattle, authentic bagpipers and real Scottish thistles. We hit all four on our first day in the country.

Red Stag (yeah, well, taking pictures from the back of a motorcycle isn’t easy)

Highland Cow

and a real Scottish Thistle (those were kind of hard to miss).

More riding through the sunny Highlands (and we aren’t sure how often you hear “sunny” and “Highlands” in the same breath) around Lock Leven KinLochloven and another hike to Inchree Falls.

We headed to Ft. William and once we found the TravelLodge and a parking spot, we cleaned up and headed out for a little pub crawl, where we encountered authentic bagpipers (item #4 on the great Scottish Treasure Hunt).

After an exhausting day, we turned in early, ready for another long day tomorrow.