Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

This evening, I am in Fort William which is the self-styled Outdoor Capital of Scotland.

Our Scotland tour commenced in Glasgow this morning, when I collected my tour group from the Argyll Hotel, Sauchiehall Street and then proceeded north as follows:

• First stop was the charming, heritage village of Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond. The original houses here were originally built to house the workforce from the local slate quarry but now are home to a community of seniors. The houses and gardens are immaculately maintained with the latter very colourful at this time of year. After a brief foray into the village shop we strolled down to the small pier which affords good views of the loch and Ben Lomond (mountain). Photographed a family swans and cygnets and then went on to St Kessog’s church where we fortunate enough as to gain entry and were treated to a short film and talk On the history of this Christian site which goes back to the 6th century AD. Outside are some very early grave markers including a Viking era ‘hogback’ from around the 9th century AD which confirms the antiquity of the site.

St kessog's Church

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This evening, I am focusing on Glen Nevis which is a quiet valley but one full of natural interest and steeped in history. Access is via a narrow road leading from Fort William in the Western Highlands.

This Glen (valley) shows the effects of glaciation. As recently as 10,000 years ago Scotland lay under ice sheets up to one mile thick which have left their mark on the landscape. At the foot of the valley runs the River Nevis which has its source at the top of Ben Nevis. At 4406ft (1344m) Ben Nevis is Britain’s highest mountain. The prefix Ben is Gaelic for mountain. In common with other parts of Scotland, some of the oldest rocks in the world can be found here. At and around Ben Nevis the rocks have eroded to make a good face for climbing which is one of the many outdoor sports and activities available in and around Fort William.

This Glen is synonymous with the Camerons and was used as a set for the filming of the movie ‘Braveheart’.

The image above and video 2 below show Lower Falls which can be found about 2 miles along the valley floor. The other video shows a small herd of Highland Cattle in their natural element.

Today, weather was as predicted-dry in the morning and increasingly wet in the afternoon- so we achieved most of objectives by concentrating on key sites in the first half of the day, viz:

Start 0930 from Distillery Guest House in central Fort William then a short trip down the road to visit Old Inverlochy Castle.This is a substantial ruin on the banks of the River Lochy and dates from the 13th century when it was associated with the Comyn family of Badenoch. The Comyns were powerful establishment figured but were pushed aside by Robert the Bruce in his endeavour to gain control of the Scottish Crown.

Next we move on for a trip down Glen Nevis, a delightful ride around the base of Ben Nevis (Scotland’s tallest mountain) and the associated Nevis Range. En route we encountered a very docile herd of Highland Cattle which was quietly munching away on the side of the road.There were no fences and we were able to get the car right up close to obtain a great set of photographs.

Just a short distance from the cattle we arrived at Lower Falls a modest but impressive waterfall set in magnificent Highland scenery. Here we spent about 20 mins enjoying the scenery and taking photographs.

Our next destination was Glencoe about 40 minutes south of Fort William. We drove through the village where the infamous massacre of MacDonalds by Campbells under British military control took place in 1692 and thence to the National Trust Visitor Centre for refreshments and more scenery and photos.

After Glencoe we continued south across the desolate Rannoch Moor down into the Trossachs and our final destination of Luss on Loch Lomond. This is a quaint heritage village on the banks of Loch Lomond where we enjoyed a very pleasant light lunch at the Loch Lomond Trading Company restaurant, However, we were thwarted by the increasingly heavy rain in plans to tour this charming village and churchyard so we headed back to the car and moved on down to Glasgow for final destination of lodgings at the upscale One Devonshire Gardens Hotel in Glasgow’s West End.

Overall, the day went more or less to plan for this final day of our round Scotland tour.

The videos below cover the Highland Cattle, Lower Falls at Glen Nevis and Old Inverlochy Castle