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Eilean Donan, Loch Ness & The North West Highlands - Day 2
Added: May 31, 2008
Loch Garry
We left Fort William a bit late (10 minutes caused by us, additional time was wasted by two guys staying at other accommodation). Being late might be the reason we did not have many stops in the morning, because we needed to get to Eilean Donan Castle at particular time to attend pre booked tour there.
We passed Loch Garry, Loch Oich and had short photo stop over Loch Garry. We were asked by Gary to find out what the shape of loch reminds us. You can beat me, but honestly I do not know.
Yet another possibility to get rid of a few of those annoying copper coins :-)
Eilean Donan Castle
Before we got to castle, we passed several lochs and at least two glens, but I could not remember them all. They were beautiful and that should be enough. At least for me :-)
As we sighted the castle in the distance, my first thought was "Is that it? Really? ", fortunately it was only incorrect angle and distance. From close distance it looks fantastic! I need to show more photos...
Three different lochs are around castle. This one is Loch Duich.
Loch Alsh on the right
Loch Alsh on the left, Loch Long behind the bridge (the left one).
Isle of Skye is visible in distance. We could be there if we were able to attend 3-days tour :-(
Some glen near Five Sisters
I am not able to find on google where was our next stop. I will probably repeat myself, if I say it was beautiful place. There was old military bridge and also old military road on the other bank of stream.
Loch Ness
Original plan was to go to Fort Augustus for lunch and to attend boat trip on the Loch Ness (yes, that one). But our guide got intel that it is over crowded there (Bank Holiday?) thus he changed plan (and route) and we went to Drumnadrochit for lunch and then we had short photo stop at loch. Additionally we have seen 2/3 of Loch Ness instead of 1/3 (and it has 37km).
Apart from lunch in Drumnadrochit we have seen also plenty of Loch Ness Monsters. In shops, of course. Made in China.
Hermitage
We traveled without any stop from Loch Ness to Hermitage. We have seen a bit different landscape (of more kinds), very nice, but less attractive for us than mountains on the west.
Then we stopped in the very nice park Hermitage in Perthshire, about one hour from Edinburgh. Nice place for relaxation. There is nice waterfall and the tallest tree(s) in UK are there too. 5000 years old tree in Fortingall is quite close (but we did not go there).
Falls of Braan
One of 2 tallest trees in UK. I was lazy to go 20m to take good picture of other one and also people were there (I took picture from distance, but I do not see reason to show it here).