Victoria's Voyage

Today we travelled in the opposite direction to anywhere we’d yet visited, heading further West across the country.

Our first stop was a gorgeous stretch of beach that was so silent, virtually abandoned. It was a bit of a trek down narrow, winding roads, but it was well worth it. Ardtoe Beach is unbelievably picturesque, and it’s especially great when the tide is pulling out, exposing long stretches of sand, shells and large rocks, as well as a host of marine wildlife, including tiny little flat fishes that blended into the ground below.

We then moved on to another short stop, which was so nice it didn’t turn out to be that short after all – Castle Tiorem. Used in the film Highlander, from a distance the view of this island castle is impressive, and you can walk across the water to it for a closer look. The mounds on the island are bigger than they first appear, and while the routes are incredibly muddy or involve climbing large pieces of rock, there is plenty of space to explore, and as well as seeing the castle and the views over the water and mountains around it, we also had the good fortune of encountering a wild deer among the ferns!

The drives in between all our locations are a treasure in themselves, as there’s nowhere you can go that offers a bad view, and the random spot we stopped at for lunch in Glenuig was no exception. Our final stop for the day was Glenfinnan, home of the Glenfinnan Viaduct that you might have seen the Hogwarts Express travelling over in Harry Potter. It’s a cool thing to look at if you’re a fan of either railways or the magician, but there are still better things to see if you’re in the area, so if you find yourself short on time, maybe have this as a lower priority stop. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t good though, and across the road from the main car park there’s a pretty woodland waterside walk.

Everything we saw today was nothing like what we saw yesterday, which just adds to the beauty of travelling around and exploring different areas. Considering we’ve only been away a few days, we sure have seen a lot.