Our last morning in Mull started the same as the last, a nice breakfast at the hotel and then a drive up to Tobermory. Our plan was to take the ferry from Tobermory on the north end of Mull to the town of Kilochaon on the mainland on the peninsula of Ardnamurchan. From Kilchoan it was a lot of winding single track roads through the winding northern mountains, with sheep and cows occasionally dotting the landscape. And road.
For the most part I really enjoyed the driving, thought it was a little intense. It was such a beautiful and wild landscape. Eventually we got closer to civilization, with more cars going the other way and sometimes even a two laned road! There was not much to see alone the route here, stopping once or twice for gorgeous outlooks that appeared as we drove. I had hoped to stop at the Glenfinnan Viaduct, a masterpiece of Victorian engineering for a rail bridge curving across the valley. Twice a day a Jacobite steam train still crosses the track. I really wanted to stop for photos, but unfortunately that same Jacobite train doubled as the Hogwarts Express and the little town is overwhelmed with visitors. With no where to park we were unable to see the viaduct nor the Jacobite memorial on the other side of the road.
So we carried on into Fort William. We stopped at the Steps of Neptune to see the great lock system there, and then drove into town for lunch. There isn’t too much to Fort William, the fort that was the prison of the Jacobites is now just some gentle low rock walls along the shore. The town centre has some nice pubs and lots of stores of those set to challenge Ben Nevis. We tried to stop at the Inverlochy Castle, but it was fenced off due to repairers needing to be done to the mortar.
The drive was fairly straight forward from there, past Dalwhinne, which I know from my cousins love of fine whisky, down the A9 to Pitlochry. It is known in some parts as the gateway to the highlands, a perfect little town on the edge of Cairngorms National Park. We did learn that Pitlochry has a theatre festival that has just come under the attention of Alan Cummings. Unfortunately he was not in town when we were, but would be back for a spooky Halloween event this year!
Settling into the Pitlochery Hydro Hotel, another old building with a slightly modern spa area, which was set at the top of the hill. It was an easy trek down to Auld Smiddy’s Inn for dinner, with a slightly arduous trek back up the hill after we were full of a delicious steak pie!
