DanRoM
Forum Addict
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2009
- Messages
- 10,520
- Location
- Ruhr Area, Germany
- Car(s)
- MX-5 ND, Tracer 900 GT & two bikes
Just a day after this year's ringmeet, I set off for a proper vacation to recover from you guys. 
I went for a 10-day 1,000 mile trip around Scotland with a friend using a rental car. Start and end point of the journey was Glasgow Airport, and we went clockwise, the Isle Of Skye as the most Western and Inverness as the most Northern point of stay. Because we're cautious people, we had everything pre-booked, so no daily search for a B&B with vacancies was necessary. If anyone is interested, I can give some recommendations where to stay and warnings where not to.
In short, I had a blast. And to make you feelenvious glad for me, here is a selection of about 30 of the 700-odd pictures I took.
For this is the Photography Sub-Forum, a word on the technicalities: I used a Canon PowerShot SX230 HS compact camera. No post-processing has been done, apart from the resizing to 1200x900, of course. These are just holiday snaps, not attempts at getting artsy.
The car-themed pictures I posted over the last week as well as the ones of myself from the same time were all taken on this trip as well.
Enough introduction. Let's get started. First station: Glasgow, where the Necropolis next to St. Mungo's Cathedral was an early highlight of the trip. Even if you don't care about cemeteries, if you visit the city, go there.
We then headed out North and paid Loch Lomond a short visit.
As there is absolutely nothing to do at Luss, after a short lunch we continued and made a little detour off the A 82, heading to Loch Etive. On the road leading there we just had to stop here for a photo op (yes I really didn't travel alone ):
The inspiration was this:
I should have switched to 16:9 format for those, but I forgot the camera had that option. Thanks again to Cowboy for providing location information.
As the weather worsened, we turned in for the night at Fort William. Only remarkable sight: This ship in the fog.
The following day, weather wasn't exactly dry either, so we continued our route towards the Isle Of Skye. View from the ferry:
At least the unsettled wearther made for a nicely lighted view of Portree Bay:
The next day was dearly anticipated because my friend apparently read a lot about The Old Man Of Storr. The road leading there was already a spectacular sight:
The way up to the Storr didn't look too easy, but dumb as we are, we didn't care and went up there without any equipment or even drinks. Well, it turned out to be just a two-hour stroll, so no harm done.
View from the top:
Further down the road to, we stopped at the pass of the Quiraing because the landscape there is simply wallpaper material (my friend should have replaced the photoshopped-to-death one she had with the actual picture I took by now):
Regarding the beauty of the landscape, the Trotternish peninsula was clearly the highlight of the whole trip.
Because everything in Scotland is close by, we went to Dunvegan Castle (no picture-taking allowed inside, as with almost all castles we visited) and then on to the most Western point of the Island, Neist Point. The lighthouse:
The next day, we changed coasts. Again because of distances being just too short, we didn't take the route via Loch Ness, instead taking A 890 and A 832 to Inverness. There, we finally had clear skies:
Later that evening, a light shower fell and made one of the most beautiful rainbows we had ever seen. And just about everyone on the street took pictures of it.
Of course, we had to visit Loch Ness, too. More to the point, Urquhart Castle:
We then stopped at Fort Augustus where I annoyed my friend by taking many pictures of classic MG cars and then doubled back to Inverness by taking the Southern route, past Loch Tarff...
... and generally awesome roads.
Next up: Touristy stuff at Dunrobin Castle...
... and then a detour westwards. This is Loch Glascarnoch, a large dam in the middle of nowhere.
Our destination, however, were the Falls of Measach. From there, we could actually see the West coast again.
Our journey then took us to Elgin Cathedral. I like church ruins.
That day, my friend drove. Because of that, I could really enjoy the beauty of Cairngorms National Park. Sadly, it also meant that I missed out on driving the absolute best roads we met on the whole trip. The only consolation is that my driving was considerably more civilized than usual by having my dear friend on the passenger seat anyway. Just to give an idea of what we encountered:
After an overnight stay in Pitlochry, we detoured to the Falls Of Bruar which were recommended to us by the Hotel owner.
View from/through the upper bridge:
Last stop were two days in Edinburgh. The castle including the temparary stands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo:
And the view from the top of the Camera Obscura. As you see, you see nothing. That was the one day the Scottish weather somewhat ruined for us...
I went for a 10-day 1,000 mile trip around Scotland with a friend using a rental car. Start and end point of the journey was Glasgow Airport, and we went clockwise, the Isle Of Skye as the most Western and Inverness as the most Northern point of stay. Because we're cautious people, we had everything pre-booked, so no daily search for a B&B with vacancies was necessary. If anyone is interested, I can give some recommendations where to stay and warnings where not to.
In short, I had a blast. And to make you feel
For this is the Photography Sub-Forum, a word on the technicalities: I used a Canon PowerShot SX230 HS compact camera. No post-processing has been done, apart from the resizing to 1200x900, of course. These are just holiday snaps, not attempts at getting artsy.
The car-themed pictures I posted over the last week as well as the ones of myself from the same time were all taken on this trip as well.
Enough introduction. Let's get started. First station: Glasgow, where the Necropolis next to St. Mungo's Cathedral was an early highlight of the trip. Even if you don't care about cemeteries, if you visit the city, go there.
We then headed out North and paid Loch Lomond a short visit.
As there is absolutely nothing to do at Luss, after a short lunch we continued and made a little detour off the A 82, heading to Loch Etive. On the road leading there we just had to stop here for a photo op (yes I really didn't travel alone
):
The inspiration was this:
As the weather worsened, we turned in for the night at Fort William. Only remarkable sight: This ship in the fog.
The following day, weather wasn't exactly dry either, so we continued our route towards the Isle Of Skye. View from the ferry:
At least the unsettled wearther made for a nicely lighted view of Portree Bay:
The next day was dearly anticipated because my friend apparently read a lot about The Old Man Of Storr. The road leading there was already a spectacular sight:
The way up to the Storr didn't look too easy, but dumb as we are, we didn't care and went up there without any equipment or even drinks. Well, it turned out to be just a two-hour stroll, so no harm done.
View from the top:
Further down the road to, we stopped at the pass of the Quiraing because the landscape there is simply wallpaper material (my friend should have replaced the photoshopped-to-death one she had with the actual picture I took by now):
Regarding the beauty of the landscape, the Trotternish peninsula was clearly the highlight of the whole trip.
Because everything in Scotland is close by, we went to Dunvegan Castle (no picture-taking allowed inside, as with almost all castles we visited) and then on to the most Western point of the Island, Neist Point. The lighthouse:
The next day, we changed coasts. Again because of distances being just too short, we didn't take the route via Loch Ness, instead taking A 890 and A 832 to Inverness. There, we finally had clear skies:
Later that evening, a light shower fell and made one of the most beautiful rainbows we had ever seen. And just about everyone on the street took pictures of it.
Of course, we had to visit Loch Ness, too. More to the point, Urquhart Castle:
We then stopped at Fort Augustus where I annoyed my friend by taking many pictures of classic MG cars and then doubled back to Inverness by taking the Southern route, past Loch Tarff...
... and generally awesome roads.
Next up: Touristy stuff at Dunrobin Castle...
... and then a detour westwards. This is Loch Glascarnoch, a large dam in the middle of nowhere.
Our destination, however, were the Falls of Measach. From there, we could actually see the West coast again.
Our journey then took us to Elgin Cathedral. I like church ruins.
That day, my friend drove. Because of that, I could really enjoy the beauty of Cairngorms National Park. Sadly, it also meant that I missed out on driving the absolute best roads we met on the whole trip. The only consolation is that my driving was considerably more civilized than usual by having my dear friend on the passenger seat anyway. Just to give an idea of what we encountered:
After an overnight stay in Pitlochry, we detoured to the Falls Of Bruar which were recommended to us by the Hotel owner.
View from/through the upper bridge:
Last stop were two days in Edinburgh. The castle including the temparary stands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo:
And the view from the top of the Camera Obscura. As you see, you see nothing. That was the one day the Scottish weather somewhat ruined for us...
Last edited:
