I got up and repacked my bags for my upcoming flight then left my car at the hotel and hiked uphill (of course, everything is uphill here!) to Stirling Castle. I passed by some cool old buildings along the way on cobbled roads with historic structures which were pretty neat. I spent a couple hours wandering the castle before heading back to my car and hitting the road to Edinburg. I’m happy to report that despite road construction and a bunch of obstacles, I made my way to the rental car return without scratching or denting the vehicle. Woo hoo! After dropping the car off I hopped on a bus to the airport and wandered around until Aer Lingus got us on a mud skipper propeller plane to Dublin. The flight was short and uneventful, which is always good. I checked into my hotel and was thinking about going out for a drink, but decided instead to hit the hotel bar for a cider and some Irish BBQ wings and chips. Tomorrow will be a busy walking day around Dublin!
It was pouring when I woke up this morning, so instead of heading out early per usual I decided to stick around as late as possible until the rain let up. Then I went over to the viaduct where the Jacobite steam train goes by, and although I wasn’t planning on being there that late for the train, I figured it wasn’t too long out so I waited. But despite being there on time the steam train never showed up (although a regular one did). Ah, well. I had planned to take the gondola up the Nevis mountain range, but with all the rain I had already lost half the day so I skipped it and drove through them instead, passing by Ben Nevis along the way. I made my way to Steall Falls through Glen Nevis, and like everything here what looked like it would be easy turned into a 30+ minute uphill mountain rock climbing experience. But I made it to the valley and the waterfall was huge and gorgeous. There was a path that would take you right to the base of the falls, but to get there you had to cross a single wire bridge with two other wires for balance. It had been raining, and people far thinner and fitter than I were having to go very very slowly to get across, so I opted out and decided I’ll just have to come back here later when I’m not quite so fluffy.
After climbing down the mountain back to my car, I doubled back through the mountains and got on the road to Glencoe. It was back to pouring again by the time I got to the most scenic and majestic spots, but dang was it still pretty. I continued south, stopping every couple miles to enjoy the view, and watched the sunset over the mountains at one of the pull offs. At the sunset pull off there was a very nice German lady that I gave my camera to for a picture. She wound up being all into it and wanted me to do a “jumping” pose, she was so funny I kept laughing through it. It took like 3 tries but we got it good enough. Then I drove very stressfully in the pitch black dark to Stirling where I stayed in a spa hotel for the night. I wish I had more time in the morning, I’d have loved to engage in the “spa” portion, but I headed for Stirling Castle in the morning, and then it’s off to Dublin!
I had planned on leaving early to hit all the sights, but I didn’t end up getting on the road until after 10am. My first stop was supposed to be The Old Man of Storr, but they were doing construction on the parking area and had turned it into a giant mud pit. That, plus the fact I didn’t realize you had to climb a mountain to get there, made me pause to take a look but then continue driving onward. I stopped at quite a few outlook points and passes to enjoy the amazing views until I made my way up to Kilt Rock and Mealt Waterfall. Then I drove all the way up and around the Quirang and stopped at Duntulm Castle for a bit to take in the sights and sounds. Then I continued the loop and detoured off into the Fairy Glen. The Fairy Glen was really cool, it’s about 10 or 15 acres of these random hill formations that have wavy footings because of the wind in that particular spot. Where erosion occurred you have little holes, so it literally looks how you would imagine fairy houses to be. It was all very Tolkien-esque. After making my way down the narrow, steep, winding roads (which I’ve gotten a bit more used to by now) I got back on the main road and headed south to Armadale and waited around a bit for the ferry to arrive. The ferry landed in Mallaig, and although I saw a neat rock beach there, it was getting late and I headed to my B&B in Glenfinnan. It’s a very old B&B just down from the aqueduct, so I’ll stop by there tomorrow.
