UK 2014, Eilean Donan Castle

Our little Clio

We were up early and walked to the West End garage and rented a little Clio, 2 door, gutless, cute little car. Off we drove. The guy who rented us the car warned us that the first 45 minutes was on a road that had not been built for the logging trucks that were using it, it was too narrow and had no shoulders. Don set out driving and we immediately found that the rental man was right about the trucks, it was exhausting, mentally shrinking the car as the trucks barrelled towards us. Soon the scenery made us forget the stress.

Frost on the top of the rental car when we picked it up this morning.
 

Magnificent house across the first loch, Loch Laggan.

Laggan Dam. This is a huge dam and plumes of water were pouring out of the tubes and
roaring down into the river below.
 

Mists over the river below the dam.

At times we were above the clouds that poured over the tops of the mountains
and down into the valleys.

The scenery was wonderful and we were tempted by one lay-by after another to stop and
take pictures.

The rain has given us flooding and all the rushing highland rivers are full. We look
up the mountains and see water rushing over flat rocks, trickling over rocky crevices,
dropping over waterfalls and oozing down mossy narrows.

We had a number of animals we were hoping to see, this holiday: stags, eagles, badgers, otters, hedgehogs and highland cows. We checked two off the list on this trip.

Red deer doe and fawns.

Magnificent male.

The older stag, rose and challenged the younger one. He gave the impression he was just indulging
the older one. They had a short tiff and then went back to grazing. Just keeping the tourists happy.

We drove through areas of beautiful gorse, heather and grasses turning brown. Every now and then there
were copses of evergreen trees and yellow leafed trees. It made for soft colours on the hills, muted until
lit by the sun, which happened occasionally as we drove home.

Heather picking Heather.

Really? Just for half a mile?

The second item to be checked off our list occurred as we drove along the first tidal loch. I was watching a v in the water that I thought might be a duck, getting closer I could see it was a head. When it dove there was a long sleek back - I had seen an otter. Heather saw it too. Just as we were commiserating with Don, as he was driving, we all three saw another one. First otter I have ever seen!
No pictures, it happened too fast.


Our first view of Eilean Donan Castle.

Eilan Donan Castle is at the intersection of three Lochs; Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh. They are tidal so we were greeted by the smell of seaweed and the call of gulls (love it).

This is promoted as the most romantic castle in Scotland.

It is actually an old (16th century) castle that was demolished by the English and then the family/clan that owned it rebuilt it in 1912 to 1932, as a family home. It is open to the public and we viewed the dining hall, kitchen and bedrooms as they were in 1912 to 1932.

Views from the castle up the lochs are lovely in all 3 direction.

A castle resident.

Getting later and tides further out as we left.

We drove back through the magnificent mountains and lochs as the sun was going down. Don and I shared the driving but he got the last shift; in the dark, dealing with the logging trucks on the narrowest roads. Home by 6pm, whew!!
As we walked back through town we noticed that the second fish  and chip store, The Happy Haggis(?) was open. We ended up doing "Take away" from there. I had Scampi and Chips with curry sauce and green peas (as opposed to the grey ones).
Tired after a lovely day.