We had an overnight stop in Abington,
a small village off the A 74(M) about halfway between Carlisle and Glasgow, which has some beautiful scenery surrounding it with quiet roads and sweeping valleys.
Friday, we travelled up to Fort William in bright sunshine with some spectacular scenery all the way, our hotel being just outside the town on the banks of Loch Linnhe.
Saturday saw us visiting Glen Coe in misty but dry weather, which improved during the morning so that when we drove up Glen Nevis in the afternoon the sun was out. At the end of the road in Glen Nevis is a footpath that takes you up a steep gorge for about 1 mile to the spectacular Steall Falls; well worth a visit if you have time and energy.
Sunday we travelled to Mallaig along a scenic road that runs parallel to the West Highland railway. The Jacobite Steam Train runs on this route from Fort William to Mallaig passing over the Glenfinnan Viaduct as used in some of the Harry Potter films. Unfortunately, during our visit the train wasn't running so we couldn't go on it.
From Mallaig there were stunning views of the Isle of Skye and the other smaller islands of the Inner Hebrides. We returned via the coast road to the Loch Linnhe car ferry at Ardgour where 4 of the 5 cars got onto the ferry, our car missing out! It was a long way round via the road but we did this instead of waiting for the next ferry and it was very scenic and gave great views of Ben Nevis.
Monday saw us travelling down to our next hotel in Tarbet, on Loch Lomond via the scenic coastal route stopping off in Oban on the way. The journey was taken in bright sunshine until we got within about 2 miles of the hotel where we ran into torrential rain. Having all got our hoods down at the time meant we FLEW into the car park and threw our tops up PDQ!
Tuesday started off damp so we decided to visit Inverary Castle, home of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll and lunched in the village during which time the sun came out again. After we had eaten we drove on some very quiet roads around Loch Fyne and Loch Goil and 'Rest and be Thankful' where the old road was used to be somewhat of a steep, twisting climb to the top of Glen Croe.
Wednesday was the first full day of rain so we went shopping around the bottom end of Loch Lomond and in the afternoon drove to Helensburgh where we visited The Hill House, which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the Glasgow publisher Walter Blackie and considered as the finest of his domestic creations.
Thursday we had a tour around the Trossachs in a mixture of heavy rain, sun and cloud but thankfully no snow! Part of the route followed the same roads that the actor Richard Wilson drove in his TV series 'Best Drives in Britain', through Brig o' Turk to Loch Katrine and then The Dukes Pass to Aberfoyle: very scenic even in wet conditions.
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