After a long day of driving, and a couple of diversions, we arrived at Loch Lomond slightly later than expected but more or less just slightly too late for sunset. I managed to catch the tail end of it, but I suspect if we’d been there at the time I’d planned the sky would have been more interesting for longer.
Can’t do anything about that though, so thankful for the bits of pink and orange I managed to get!
Goodbye Arran! Until next time Scotland 
As storm Doris passes over the United Kingdom, we seem to have gotten away with it! Apparently the ferries off the Isle this morning/early afternoon were cancelled, but later in the afternoon the sun came out. 
Tomorrow morning looks to be calm so hopefully we will be on our way on time.
Once the rain had passed this morning we drove around the Isle, stopping off occasionally to take a photo. 
Fingers crossed that the weather stops OK for tomorrow morning, as I plan to get up for sunrise to pop out and take a shot. The weather hasn’t been to great so this is the only opportunity I will have to do this!
Today was forecast to be the best day of our mini break, so today was the day we would try to reach Goatfell Summit. We got up a bit later and had a more relaxed morning, before driving a brief way to park at the start of the walk. 
The weather forecast had remained favourable so we set off optimistically to reach the top.
The first thing to note was that it was very windy. Due to this we didn’t make it all the way to the top. 
The second thing to note was that on our way back down it started hailing pretty much sideways and we got soaked – so we were glad we didn’t go all the way to the top!
We are now both pretty pooped! 
Today has been a reverse day of yesterday. The weather started out OK and got worse, so we made a run out of the south of the island this morning to find some waterfalls. 
The red squirrel count is still at 0. I seriously have no look!
After a rather miserable start to the morning, it brightened up around noon. We managed to squeeze in a couple of walks (North Sannox and Glen Sannox) as well as a trip to the distillery. 
A gym session in the morning and two walks has left us a bit pooped.
Overall Arran is exceeding my expectations, which I had set low after Skye and Norway last year. 
After a long drive we arrived on Arran. The ferry crossing was smooth, but it was really misty/foggy and raining.
Today saw a almost seven hour drive from the Isle of Skye to Bamburgh. We drove West to East through the Highlands, past Edinburgh. It was a lot more wintery, and there was snow on the ground, and along the way it started to snow.
We arrived in Bamburgh just before sunset, and even though the tide was in I grabbed a couple of shots of the beach and the castle. I stopped because a rather large wave came in and literally soaked my up to my knees. Luckily I managed to grab my camera and tripod so they didn’t get too wet; but my Dr Martens, socks and jeans were sodden! I decided to take this as a sign and leave it there for the day.
Into our last hotel for a shower before mussels for tea. Up for sunrise to shoot the castle again, and have a little explore of said castle before returning home.
Today we had a slightly more casual start, as we had a lot of walking to do! The plan was to drive up to and walk the Quiraing, then drive via Kilt Rock down to the Old Man of Storr and walk that too. In total that’s about 4 hours of walking according to the guides I found on the internet before we went. The weather forecast had changed a bit and it looked a bit more wet, but off we went anyway. Quiraing was a lovely walk. The path was narrow and there was a bit of a drop on one side of it, but it wasn’t that steep so we were both OK (kB is afraid of heights). The weather was really nice and the views were spectacular. We got hailed on very briefly as we reached the half way point but it soon passed. 
The views were really epic and we could see for miles; so we could see all of the rain showering the other places in the distance.
We managed to walk the walk (Or “hike” as kB insists I must call it) in under 2 hours.
Just as we got back to the car it really really lashed it down with sleet, and it lasted for a good 5 minutes so we were glad we made it back to the car when we did – seems to be a bit of a theme for the holiday!
Next we drove to Kilt Rock, which was a bit disappointing because it was really hard to see the waterfall from the viewing platform, and it was pretty much impossible to photograph it from up there (Well, you can photograph it, but it’s at an awkward angle).
Then we set out to walk to the Old Man of Storr. This walk had a really steep uphill start which, for some reason, we ended up walking up really fast in hindsight.
Once up the starting path you go up some more step like rocks up to the Old Man itself. This was a lot easier to walk up!
Once at the top we took some photos, it started to snow, and then we set off back down. It was only as we were coming down that we realised just how far we had walked, and just how quickly we had marched up – no wonder I was tired.
We got back to the hotel pretty early, had a warm shower and a nap before going down for tea. The hotel does really great pizzas so we’ve had pizza two nights in a row now! hahaha not even sorry.
Tomorrow we have a really long drive through Scotland and then on to Bamburgh. I’m hoping that the drive down will be as epic as the drive up, especially as once we get to Fort William we are veering off to the East into unchartered Scottish territories so all of the views will be different!
We decided to go out at night to see the night sky. Boy was that a good move. So. Many. Stars.
Today we have managed to get around and see quite a bit. We started off a bit later than I had originally planned as the hotel we are stopping in doesn’t start serving breakfast until 8am (Apparently they do do a packed breakfast for those who want to leave earlier, but I want a full cooked breakfast!). 
Due to the fact I’d ninja’d in the Cuillins and Shigachan Bridge yesterday, we had a bit more free time anyway; but we were working against the clock due to the weather.
In the last few weeks I have become someone obsessive about checking the weather. The forecast has been favourable, especially when you consider that we are in Scotland, but today has showers forecast in the afternoon.
Luckily the only major walking we really had planned for today was to the Fairy Pools. Off we went and just as we were 1 minute from the car it started to rain – so the timing was spot on.
Next we drove to Talisker bay, and we arrived there almost by accident. There isn’t a lot of signal on the Isle of Skye so we had to kind of aim in what we thought was the right direction. kB saw a sign for an Oyster Shed which said it served lobster and chips for £8.50 and so following his belly we went that way rather than the direction I thought Talisker was in. It turns out that this was a good move, because before we made it to the Oyster Shed we saw a sign for Talisker and followed that.
As we got to the Bay we could see the rain coming in so we didn’t stop long. We got showered on as we walked back to the car but the rain wasn’t too heavy and it didn’t last too long.
The last stop of the day was Nesit Point Lighthouse. Again with no sat nav we set off blind, but I knew that Dunvegan was in the right direction so we started off following the signs for that. Once we had reached Dunvegan we started following signs for Glendale as I knew, again, that that was in the right direction. On our way to Glendale there were signs for the lighthouse so we followed those and arrived without getting lost! 🙂
It was really, really windy at the lighthouse, and once again we could see the rain coming in. This time we made it back to the car before it started to pour it down. So we’ve been quite lucky to mainly miss the rain today. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! 🙂
Manadh Photography 