Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

This morning our tour group departed the hotel about 09.00am and embarked on a tour of Skye taking in the following places and sites:

• First stop Portree, capital of Skye. Here we visited the colourful harbour, strolled around the shops and availed of some coffee.

Portree Harbour

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Loch Lomond

This morning, our group left Glasgow on schedule at about 9.15am, suitably refreshed and recovered from jet-lag of previous day. Reports of good food at the Argyll Hotel. continue reading…

• Drove through the old industrial port areas of Greenock and Port Glasgow, past Port Glasgow Timber Ponds along the River Clyde and acroos the Erskine Bridge to our first stop at Luss, a very quaint and colourful village on the banks of Loch Lomond. Just before the village we stopped to admire some extremely colourful gardens at private houses.

Colourful Garden at Luss

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This morning, tour commenced at Glasgow’s Radisson hotel at 0915. We drove up to Stirling Castle in central Scotland which ranks as one of Scotland’s top visitor attractions. Here we visited the Great Hall, Chapel Royal, Kitchens and Tapestry Weaving. Good views from this high vantage point.

Stirling Castle

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Today, commenced with a very early start. At 5.00am I was able to take some stunning images of  a brilliant red sunrise at Broadford on Skye.

Sunrise on Skye

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Today, the weather on Skye proved relatively benign (cool but no rain) which greatly assisted our tour of the island which proceeded as follows:

• Broadford to Portree, the latter being the island’s capital. We tracked to the coast passing islands including Pabay, Scalpay and Raasay during the drive which took about 45 mins. Note that island names end in ‘ay’ which is Old Norse (Viking) for island.
• Upon arriving at Portree, we parked and spend about 1 hour walking around the town with its pretty harbour and shops. A friendly local butcher provided information on Haggis which he had for sale.

Portree, Skye

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This morning, our tour group departed Inverness lodgings (Mardon Guest House) promptly about 9.00am  and then commenced a drive south-west taking in the following:

• The Great Glen ( a geological fault) including Loch Ness.
• Increasingly mountainous scenery.

En-route to Skye

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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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Today, I drove up from Glasgow to Fort William in readiness for a Speyside Whisky Tour commencing tomorrow morning.

The journey was relatively uneventful with plenty of opportunities for photo stops on Rannoch Moor and around the Glencoe area.

Glencoe

On the way to Fort William the road runs parallel (for a short length) to the West Highland Way, a popular hiking trail which connects Fort William with Glasgow. This trail takes about one week to complete and was well patronised today. continue reading…

This evening, my theme is Glencoe, possibly the most famous of the Scottish glens (valleys) which offers spectacular scenery throughout all seasons. Glencoe is actually a deep glacial trough bounded by steep slopes rising steeply to over 3000 feet. For the geologist, there is a mix of rocks including metamorphic, granite and extrusive volcanic. The landforms were moulded by glacial action which finally ended about 10,000 years ago.

In addition to the images below here are a couple of video clips taken about 8 months apart in different parts of the glen:

Video 1

Video 2

In course of my Scotland tours I invariably visit Glencoe about 5 times each year.

Elsewhere today, I have busy as usual, designing tours and responding to numerous new tour enquiries including a family of eight who desire a one day trip to the Trossachs from Glasgow.

Noticed an interesting report in the national press today commenting on the increasingly tacky appearance and product offering of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. I agree entirely. Edinburgh is really on a slippery slope at present aggravated by the debacle of the new tramway system which is now years behind schedule and fraught with conflict between the principal contracting parties.

On the ancestry side, posted information on Inglis family to my Glasgow Ancestry blog.

Weather here is relatively dry but still cold.