Post Pandemic Road Trip Around Scotland - Sept/Oct 2021 - Part 1

Back in 2011 I was at a low point. I had been made redundant, my family and I had lost our home and spent about 6 weeks homeless. To cut a long story short, we eventually did get another home, but the estate agents and previous owners took the piss, hence why we ended up being homeless for 6 weeks. Anyway, in 2011 I had secured a job at a factory thanks to an old friend, I was looking for a bit of adventure and got the stupid idea of wanting to climb the UK’s highest mountain - Ben Nevis. So me and my mate I was working with, went on a long weekend to Fort William and went up that mountain! And it was an amazing experience. Driving through Scotland to Fort William was an experience I had been wanting to repeat but always found an excuse to put it off. Even when I lived in Manchester which was closer to Scotland than West Sussex by a fair margin, I still never went back to Scotland! The closest I got during my 6 years in Manchester was Hadrian’s Wall!

Roll on 2021. After a year of on and off lockdowns due to the Covid pandemic and restrictions had been lifted allowing us to go on holiday again (but not fly abroad yet), I was struggling to think of somewhere to go. First I went to Torquay (see previous post) which left my thinking of where else I could go. And then it hit me. I could go back to Scotland! And so, I made plans for a two week road trip around Scotland!

I chose to make it a two week trip for several reasons. Firstly, two weeks is pretty much the maximum amount of time I could get off of work and secondly, I wanted to see as many regions as possible whilst there and believe me, two weeks is nowhere near long enough to explore Scotland. For a relatively small country, there is so much to see and experience there.

The biggest challenge for me was actually getting to Scotland! From where I live in West Sussex, it’s just over 350 miles to cross the border into Scotland and 420 miles to get to my first destination point. The distances weren’t the real problem though when leaving for my trip however. In the days running up to the day I was due to depart the UK, namely Southern England, had a sudden rush of shit to the brain and started panic buying petrol. Which straight away put my whole trip into jeopardy! I was due to depart on a Saturday but by Friday afternoon I was running on fumes. I had less than 20 miles left on the tank according to my car and there was nowhere within any distance where I could find any fuel! Needless to say, I was panicking a tiny bit but also stressing myself out because I knew I didn’t have enough fuel to even make it on to a motorway and grab some fuel at a service station! But I got lucky! Thanks to Facebook, I kept an eye out for updates on any petrol stations and my local Tesco store had a delivery of fuel at about 8pm at night! So I immediately rushed out to join a queue of cars so I could get half a tank of fuel which would allow me to start my journey! That was probably THE most stressful pre-holiday experience I’ve ever had!

And do you know what the best part about the whole fuel panic buying crap was? It was limited to London and the South East. Once I cleared the M25 and got on to the M40 there was no issues with fuel anywhere I went. Every other part of the country appeared, from my perspective at the time, to have had their heads screwed on properly and didn’t resort to panic buying. It was such a bizarre time period. Hey ho.

My first stop for my trip was Galloway Forest Park and the place I stayed in was an AirBnB in a small town called Creetown that was around 30 to 40 minutes from the Car Park near the Bruce’s Stone, which was going to be my first stop to explore. Creetown itself is a small town with only a single shop and no other amenities of note. It’s a cute little place with a few attractions ranging from some sculptures in the town centre, a gem museum and a old church. There wasn’t much going on, but it was quiet and the few people I met were all really lovely and pleasant. Their hospitality during my short stay there was lovely. However, when it came to evening entertainment I had to head to the Lairds Inn on the Castle Cray Holiday Park to grab a well earned pint after being on the road for 11 hours.

I had left at 6am and arrived at around 5:30pm.

The Ellangowan Hotel in Creetown. A famous local landmark that's famous for being used in original Wicker Man film in 1973.

As I mentioned, the first place I was going to go for a walk and explore was the centre of Galloway Forest Park. My aims here were to explore the area around Loch Trool and walk to the summit of Merrick. The highest point in Galloway Forest. Now, this was a simple enough plan in my head but sadly, the one thing about travelling to Scotland in the September to October months is that the weather is rather… temperamental. And on my first full day in Scotland the weather was wet to put it mildly! Even before I left my accommodation it was already raining. I had left before sunrise in my forlorn hopes of enjoying some sort of clear spell, but also because I’ve always liked starting early because the roads are clearer and there’s less people about. Especially when going up mountains! Bare in mind, the road to the car park near Bruce’s Stone is very narrow and slow going, so if you ever head in that direction, take it easy on that road because you’re bound to meet someone coming in the other direction and its very tight!

So I pulled up, double checked my route via maps and the information boards at the area and then donned my waterproof clothing. Because I was going to need it! And so I began my ascent up towards Merrick. To cut a long story short, it was a miserably wet experience. The rain never relented and as I passed a certain height, there were relatively high winds. Thankfully the path to the top was clearly defined! Because once I cleared a forest line that marks the boundary line better the mountain and woodlands, visibility dropped to about 50 meters! Maybe even less! Unsurprisingly I didn’t take many pictures on that hike because of the conditions. My equipment at the time wasn’t weather sealed, especially the lenses and so I was apprehensive to use them! Plus the fact that there was NO visibility from the top of Merrick at all! I did have a circular route planned, but the conditions were so bad I dared no follow up on the loop I was planning to do because I couldn’t see the path I was due to go on. I had no idea what it was like and so I back tracked once I reached the summit of Merrick.

Shot on the way down, close to Bruce's Stone of the surrounding hills. As you can see, the conditions were not the best. 

Bruce's Stone 

Needless to say, my first adventure on my trip around Scotland wasn’t the best. Creetown itself was pleasant place to visit and everyone I met there was courteous and friendly. And the pub at the Lairds Inn at the Castle Cary Holiday Park was particularly welcoming when I went out seeking a beverage! However, my trip up Merrick and visit to Bruce’s Stone was somewhat ruined by the weather. It took my a whole to fully dry out my walking boots because it was THAT wet on my walk. On the bright side, that was the worst weather experience I had on the entire trip. Although it was perfect for the rest of it, at least it was better!

Sadly I only had the one day to spend in Galloway before heading off to Helensburgh near Loch Lomond. It was a trip that took a few hours and on the motorway through Glasgow with a short stop in Ayr for some fuel and supplies. And mostly my trip was uneventful. Although the drive through Galloway Forest following the National Cycle Route 7 was particularly beautiful. Although bare in mind the road is a narrow and single lane road but Scotland leads the UK here in that there are passing points every few hundred meters, so meeting any on-coming traffic really isn’t a problem!

I stayed in a Travelodge in Helensburgh and to put it politely, the place needs a tiny bit of refurbishment. It gets quite cold and damp in the rooms at night. I quickly learned why they included a spare electric heater in the room. Free parking on site though, so it wasn’t all that bad! As for the town itself, it was a pretty town. Very quiet whilst I was there, but that’s mainly because I went off season and not much was going on during the days. I spent some time wandering the streets of Helensburgh seeing what was about. There’s some pretty architecture there and I learned something I never expected to learn whilst there - Helensburgh was the birth place of John Logie Baird! The man who developed the first working principle of the television! Being a major town, it wasn’t difficult for me to find somewhere to get something to eat. The next day was when I decided to head out on the road to explore the surrounding area.

The next morning, again before sunrise (although at the time of year I went sunrise is around 7am) and made my way to Arrochar. A small village at the end of Loch Long. Small village with plenty of parking over looked by mountains, namely The Cobbler and Beinn Narnain. Sadly I didn’t have time to walk into the hills but I wandered the village and grabbed a few shots there, especially of the ruins of the old Torpedo Testing Station which now looks like a wrecked pier stumps before following the road out of town on to the Rest And Be Thankful viewpoint on the A83. Although the Rest And Be Thankful viewpoint has an odd name, when you’re there, you can understand why it’s called that. It’s a beautiful place to stop and just take in the views. A wonderful place to to reflect.

The ruins of the Torpedo Testing Facility in Arrochar with The Cobbler in the background. 

The view at the Rest And Be Thankful Viewpoint. That twisty road is not the road you come in on. That's just an access road for the farms in the valley below. The main road is that straight line you see in the mid left of the image on the mountain side. 

After catching a short break at the Rest And Be Thankful Viewpoint I made my way only a short distance down to Butter Bridge which is basically a 5 minute drive from my previous location. A beautiful single arch bridge that was built to bridge the stream for the old road built a few hundred years ago and it’s in fabulous condition. It was a great place for me to stop, grab a few shots and take in the views. And I should have warned you earlier, but I will say "‘take in the view’ a lot because Scotland is a very beautiful country. After my short break here, I continued to follow the road (the A83) all the way to a small coastal town called Inverary. It’s a beautiful location to stop for a break and explore a little with several tourist attractions to keep visitors entertained from the famous (or is it infamous) jail there, to independent gift shops, whiskey as well as take in the beautiful countryside and architecture. Before I chose to head home I noticed on Google maps that Kilcharn castle wasn’t to far away from my location. So before heading back to my hotel, I paid a visit to the view point to grab some shots there before re-joining the main road and home.

Butter Bridge. Nearby is a large layby where you can park up to visit this bridge. 

I revisited both the Rest And Be Thankful point and Butter Bridge the next day on the way to my next location. However, whilst I was still in the area on my first visit to these points, I kept following the road and ended up stopping in Inveraray. This stop was an impulse stop. Inveraray wasn’t on my itinerary when I planned my trip but I decided to stop because the town, although small is a beautiful little place to visit and the countryside and views are spectacular. Sadly I couldn’t go on any exploration walks due to the limited amount of time I had available to me which was only a couple of hours sadly! I would like to return there because some of the views from the hills look amazing! Anyway, after mooching around a bit in Inveraray and grabbing a few shots I made my way back to Helenburgh to get a well earned rest because the next day I was going to head to Fort William. Before getting back to Helensburgh I stopped once again at the Rest And Be Thankful point because the weather had cleared up really nicely and I wanted to grab a few extra shots and maybe the odd selfie!

So sadly, after only a day in the area, I had to bid farewell and begin my journey to Fort William! This involved following the road around Loch Lomond, which sounds simple enough but the day I left was the day the weather changed again and it began to rain again. Normally this isn’t too much of an issue but I found the surface water on the road heading northwards on Loch Lomond to be very slippery when wet! It’s not a fast road and it’s not a particularly wide road so if it’s busy keep your wits about you, especially for on-coming fast vehicles. And don’t rush! I was barely able to achieve 30mph on that road because of the conditions, twisty nature of the road and the volume of the traffic. Many a time I could feel the car lose grip slightly on the road due to amount of surface water! Don’t rush the roads in Scotland. They have the best driving roads but when they’re wet or icy, they’re a whole different ball game!

The drive from Helensburgh to Fort William takes place entirely on the A82 road. Apart from Loch Lomond there’s no other surprises on that road and the whole trip went smoothly for me. The views however are breath-taking. Well… if the weather behaves itself that is! When I left it was raining but it eventually cleared up by the time I was halfway to Loch Ba. The road through Loch Ba and Glen Coe are beautiful! They’re amongst the best views in the whole UK (on a good day) and I had to stop there to grab a few shots! There aren’t many places to stop, but there are some. Just be mindful of other road users when you do so. I stopped in a large layby that’s simply called the ‘Loch Ba Viewpoint’ on Google maps to go for a short walk and grab a few shots of the view. There are other stops up and down that road though, however, turning around to try and get one might be a tiny bit difficult! This stretch of road though is burned into my memory. It was so beautiful. And straight after Loch Ba comes Glen Coe and that’s just as spectacular and beautiful. Have I told you enough times yet how gorgeous everything was?! haha After a few hours I finally reached Fort William where I made the first mistake of the trip in terms of accommodation… I went camping in the Highlands. In Autumn.

But that’s a tale for the next blog post. This first part is already long enough and I don’t want to bore people too much! So stay tuned for Part 2 of my road trip around Scotland!

Inveraray War Memorial 

Looking over a part of Loch Ba towards Stob Ghabhar