Northern Scotland

June 17/10

Off to Glencoe with Elinor and Billy. Left around 9:30 and made our first stop on the Bonnie, Bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Our second stop was at the Drover’s Inn. What a place! An pub that is over 300 years old, with dust on things, a fire going in the old fireplace, old stone walls and ancient furnis hings. The cubical in the ladies washroom was so small, Bonnie knocked her head on the door lock when using the facilities. A large group of people came into the pub. Some of the men were dressed full Scottish attire with kilts ans knee high socks with a square tag of the tartan of kilts, plus all the accompanying attire . One fellow was in full gear with a fox sporran. I wish we had taken pictures there. We had a coffee and moved on.
We had a picnic lunch at the Clachaig Inn, which is the site where the Campbells massacred the MacDonalds in the 1600’s. There is a sign on the door which reads “No Hawkers or Campbells allowed”. Unfortunatley our driver (Billy) is a Campbell, but we didn’t tell on him.
The scenery in the Scottish highlands is absolutely beautiful with rolling hills to high mountains, rivers and lochs, wild flowers, mostly wild rhododendrons, and quaint houses. We stayed at the Ardmore B&B in Ballachoullish. Our suite faced across the loch and gave us a wonderful view of the river and the hills. We all went to dinner at The Holly Tree and had a pre dinner drink on the balcony. The weather was glorious the whole day.