It was an early start for a flight from Heathrow to Glasgow,
and uneventful flight that arrived 15 minutes early, bags arrived and we were
in the hire car and heading north before 10.00 am.
As we left the outskirts of Glasgow the clouds rolled in,
and with rain and sleet. The temperature was just above freezing and
there was snow on the surrounding hills. As a result the journey
around Loch Lomond and the Trossachs was obscured by low cloud and rain.
Our journey would take us north on the A82, through Bridge
of Orchy, with a planned stop off in Fort William for provisions. Before
then though the rain ended and there were periods of sunshine and cloud as we
drove through the beautiful scenery of Glen Coe.
The Glen was formed from the remains
of a super volcano, then the wonderful "U" shaped valley was finished through the wonder of glacial erosion.
As
we approached from the east the mountains on either side were wild and snow
capped on either side, but as we approached the village of Glencoe the
landscape became softer its rolling hills
Driving into Fort William it was clear blue skies and
plenty of sunshine. It seemed strange to still be in the UK with
cold temperatures and snow capped mountains visible from the supermarket car
park.
From Fort William we continued north on the A82 through
the Great Glen, or Glen More. This a long straight valley that
stretches from Fort William to Inverness. It follows a long
geological fault that bisects the Scottish Highlands with the Grampians to the
south east, and the Northern Highlands to the north west.
The Glen
is a natural travelling route for the A82 and the Caledonian Canal. Much
of the Glen is taken up with Lochs joined by rivers, the canal uses the lochs
but the rivers are not navigable.
At Invergarry we turned off the A82 onto the A87 and headed west
towards Kyle of Lochalsh our crossing point to the Isle of Skye, our home for
the next seven days. We passed many more lochs along the route, this one is Loch Cluanie
The weather was now glorious, plenty of blue skies and snow capped mountains
Closer to the Skye bridge the sun was dropping in the sky.
From the bridge we continued north through the village of
Broadford before turning west again at Sligachan, and then north
westerly towards Dunvegan. As we wound our way around the lochs we found we had to
stop to take photographs of the wonderful views and the setting sun.
And looking back the snow capped peaks of the Black Cuillins
With the tide out as we passed through the valleys the light was very dramatic
And with every turn another view.
We finally arrived at our destination, the Black Shed in
Skinidin just before sunset. The Shed looks out across the valley to
the north over Loch Dunvegan, and to the south there are stunning views of
Macleod's Table.
Once settled in the wood burner was lit, and we closed up
for the night.
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