Out of six and a half months of travel, I was surprised when I realised we have spent over a month in Scotland alone. Time just went to quickly since we first arrived in Glasgow, and before we knew it it is nearly Christmas and we have only just left it behind. I am grateful that we have got to spend so much time in this beautiful country amd see more than the average tourist would ever get to. Since we were based in Oban for three and a half weeks, we got the chance to immerse ourselves into the Scottish culture and see some of the sights that makes the place so beautiful. We used our free time and days off from work to take trips around the sights near Oban, the islands nearby, and up to the Scottish highlands in search of an elusive monster.
KERRERA:
The Isle of Kerrera is just across the bay from Oban. It is so close in one part that if the weather was warmer, I swear Mike would have actually tried to swim there. Instead we walked to the tiny ferry port 45 minutes away and got a two minute boat ride over to the isle. On the ferry we ran into an Austrian lady who was a guest at the hostel (a rarity at this time of year), and so we spent the day making the walk to the islands castle with her. We got to Kerrera on a sunny day and it was picture perfect- it felt like we were the only people alive. On our 8 km walk we passed just two houses, one car, and a whole lot of sheep. After walking for about two hours we arrived at Gylen Castle- perched right on the edge of a cliff, the ruins of the castle were so blissfully quiet. This was during our first week in Oban, and it was from about this point on that I really started to fall for the charms of Scotland.
LOCH AWE AND KILCHURN CASTLE
They say that pictures speak a thousand words, so for this place I will just let the photos do exactly that. Just to set the scene though, this is the ruins of a castle on Loch Awe about a 30 minute drive from Oban. The owner of the hostel Imogen took a group of us on a little Sunday drive one day after we finished work, and this is what we found:
INVERNESS, LOCH NESS AND URQHART CASTLE
Aside from the perks of minimal work and the chance to settle in and feel like home for a while, the hostel in Oban also came with another benefit- free accommodation at any of the sister hostels in the Macbackpackers clan. So we decided to stockpile our days off and take two days to head to the Highlands, basing ourselves in Inverness for a night. The journey north took about four hours, but it gave us a chance to see some great scenery along the way. Since it was a lot colder up there snow covered the sides of the road and we got to see the snow-capped peak of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK; plus we got to see the awesome highland cows who a famous for looking like they are in need of a good haircut:
We arrived in Inverness in the afternoon which gave us just enough time to talk a walk down the banks of the river of the town, and walk through the Ness islands in the middle of the river. That night we went to a little Italian place for a cheap meal, and then spent the night in the hostel- it was a great feeling to turn up to a place and just check in without having to pay for it. It was also by nightfall that we realised just how far north we actually were- it was about -4 degrees when we were walking to and from dinner.. It's definitely winter now!
The next day we took the public bus down to a little place called Urqhart Castle, right on Loch Ness. Although we at first thought it was a bit steep to pay £7.40 to see the ruins of a castle (the other ones are normally free), we were happy to find a visitor centre inside complete with a short movie about the history of the castle- definitely made it worth the money. While we were there we did a quick bit of Nessie hunting, though sadly the elusive monster just must have been in hiding that day.....
ISLE OF MULL
Just a 45 minute cruise ride away from Oban, the Isle of Iona and its snow-capped mountains are always there to tempt you from Oban. So on our final days in the town we decided to take a trip over to the isolated beauty and see what we could find. The plan was to make it to Mull, catch the bus to the very west of the island for about 40 miles, and then catch another ferry over to a tiny little island called Iona. We took the big Caledonian McBrae ferry over from Oban on a rainy Thursday morning, hoping the weather would clear when we made it to the island. Once we arrived though we realised it wasn't just the rain that could thwart our plans.
It seemed we had overestimated the public transport system of Mull in winter, and underestimated how vital a car is for getting around the island. We got off the boat to look for the bus that was supposed to be there waiting and, surprise surprise, it wasn't running. They had just changed the timetables so now only two buses ran a day- one that we had missed already, and one that would leave us stranded on the isle of Iona with no way of getting back. So with that plan out the window, we had a two hour wait at the Ferry port called Craignure, which had a total of one cafe, one pub, and a charity shop that we took refuge in to escape the cold by reading the books. I think Mike's face sums up our excitement levels at that point:
But eventually a bus did come and we travelled for about an hour to the main part of the island called Tobermory. This was our home for the night, and we stayed in a little b&b called Harbour View guest house that was the perfect way to spend one of our last nights in Scotland. The little town of Tobermory is tiny, and the harbour is lined with all of these quaint little guesthouse painted different colours. Since the only hostel in town was closed for the winter season, we decided to treat ourselves to a little tat on the island and stay in one of the colored places right on the harbour. For £55 we got a double ensuite room with views over the harbour, a tv which was a perfect way to spend a cold rainy night (and there was no tv in Oban so it felt like a real treat), and the best part- an amazing hot breakfast in a little dining room the next morning, complete with warm porridge, bacon, eggs, potato scone, baked beans, and even a little haggis on the side for mike. And side we were the only guests there, we had a table overlooking this little garden with a 'bird viewing table' and classical music in the background- it was the epitome of a bed and breakfast experience.
We spent our time in Tobermory doing one of two things- going for walks on the forest trails, or eating. We walked a muddy path for a couple of hours to a lighthouse:
And we walked through a rainforest for about 7km to these waterfalls that had great views of the bay on the way:
And to make up for all that exercise, we had a pub meal one night (where mike got a free meal because he found a bit of plastic on his burger- since he didn't get sick we are counting that as a win), and in a little cafe where we whiled away the time drinking hot chocolate, eating soups and sweets and dodging the rain while we waited for the only bus of the day so we could get back to Oban. A beautiful (and slightly rainy) island in complete isolation- the perfect way to finish our time in Scotland.
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