Scotland: Highlands, Skye and Mull (1993)
In 1993 my wife Corrie, Walter and I (Jan) made a 8 day long train trip to
and through Scotland, using Bed and Breakfast facilities in the places we
vistited. Eventually, after crossing the highlands, we reached the
Inner Hebrides and spent some days on Skye and Mull.
Walter could nearly all the time be found at some open window, making photographs
of the panoramas.
"FÈilte ort a dh'Albainn".
Our Tour
- London, reached by the night-ferry of the Olau Line between Vlissingen
(the Netherlands) and Sheerness (England), and followed by a connection
by train to London. The rest of the day we slept a little on our way
to Scotland, passing York and Edinburgh.
- Stirling, the old capital. We visited the old castle here.
- Inverness, by train via Perth and Aviemore. We stopped at
Blair Athol
to visit the castle there. From there on many wet
highlands were seen.
- Portree (Skye),
via Kyle of Lochalsh. Perhaps the line
Inverness - Kyle is the most beautiful train connection in Scotland.
It offers many nice views to several lochs, with at the end nice panoramas to
the sea. After the ferry in Kyle to Skye we took the bus to Portree.
Here we got the last family room that was available on Skye, because
the Highland Games had just started. We attended a piping-concours
(part of these games) where the complete jury put their fingers in
their ears: piping should be done loud.
- Fort William,
via Mallaig. First a bus took us to the south east
part of Skye, where the ferry
started to Mallaig. At the railway station we had to
wait some time because the Royal Scotsman
train was occupying the line.
It was steam driven and had very nice passenger cabins. From our train we again had
magnificent views. The area near
Glenfinnan was a nice spot, the view to the
Ben Nevis a promise for the future.
- Tobermory (Mull), via Oban.
We took the bus along the coast to
Oban via Ballachulish. In Oban a ferry was found to Craignure on Mull.
From the ferry we had splendid views to the surrounding islands and mainland
parts we could see. Finally a bus brought us to Tobermory at the other
end of Mull. Here we made a nice walk along the coast to the
lighthouse,
where we could smell the Atlantic Ocean.
A small ferry was operational between
Tobermory and the main land.
For us it was a very satisfying and beautiful day.
- Stirling, via Oban, Crianlarich and Glasgow.
By ferry, we returned to Oban,
did some shopping, and took the train to Crianlarich, where we had
to change for Glasgow. Here we changed again to return to our B&B address
that we had found when we visited the place some days ago.
The next day we returned to Sheerness and were able to get the night ferry
to Holland in time.
Morar: Cuillin Hills on Skye.
Some good Scotland links
- Scotland:Photos
- Scotland:Gateway
- Scotland's Munros
- Scotland Online Home Page
- Scotland Travels
- ScotRail
- Western Isles
- Links at the Old Royal Guest House
- On-Line Scotland - Accommodation
- Scotland: A Hypertext Journal (Johnson/Boswell tour)
- Stornoway Gazette
- Shetland News, main index page
- Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail
- List of Scottish WWW sites
Return to: 
Jan ter Maten's Home Page.
