Saturday 26 to Saturday 2 September: Coldingham to Killin
We drove into Edinburgh from Coldingham the next day (27th) and after parking, found The Elephant House cafe that we remembered from last time and stopped for what was becoming our essential before-spending-the-day-walking-around-for-hours cup of tea. Enjoyed a 'highlights' tour of the National Museum after that. Fantastic collection. Then we walked back down the BIG hill to the carpark, under my mistaken impression that we only had limited time. I had somehow missed seeing the second column of hours indicating that all-day parking was available! Back up the BIG hill to find the pub which was the meeting place for the 'Rebus' walking tour. Our tour guide was mildly opinionated and enjoyed the sound of his own voice, but it was still fun walking around the streets and seeing the settings for the stories.
After a quiet night and some beautiful birthday fruitcake which Jane had thoughtfully brought from home, we drove north towards Lonmay. It was a 'funny' (read grumpy travel) day. We stopped in Arbroath, but didn't go into the Abbey (to see the Declaration) because we also wanted to get to Forfar, a little further west, where Jane had found a good place for ordering a made-to-measure McEwen kilt for Mum. We had wanted to stay on the coast at Stonehaven, and so stopped there on the way north after Forfar, as well as cramming in a quick walk down to see Dunnottar castle, before going further north again to Lonmay (just south of Fraserburgh). It was a pretty long day.
We left Lonmay and went first to Fraserburgh to see the lighthouse museum and then towards Inverness and the walked around the battlefields of Culloden before heading to Tomintoul for the night. We made our way from Tomintoul to Fort William the next day and were glad to arrive at Achintee mid-afternoon. It was as nice as we remembered from last time, in a perfect location at the foot of Ben Nevis with nothing else around except for a handy pub about 20 metres from the house.
The 31st was a big day for Jane - she was up and out at the crack of dawn to climb the mountain (Nevis is usually translated as 'malicious' or 'venomous mountain'), whilst Mum and I opted for a steam train ride to Glenfinnan and back.
Friday 1st September was a momentous day. We said goodbye to Achintee and Ben Nevis and drove to Kilfinan on the east side of Loch Fyne on the Cowell Peninsula with the singleminded aim of finding Castle Ewen after our failed attempt three years ago. We were cutting it fine, arriving around 3.00 pm in the afternoon at Kilfinan. We weren't exactly sure of the location even though Jane had done a lot more research, so we stopped in at the Kilfinan Hotel to enquire. It turned out that the hotel has a strong connection with the 'Castle'. Clan McEwen keeps a huge visitors' book of sorts there and the manager had a handy printout with directions. Getting there would take us about 40 mins walking each way - cross country. In spite of the time of day, we were pretty determined and set off. We successfully (mostly) negotiated a few small creeks, some fences and finally a bit of a bog and arrived at the cairn that marks what is supposedly the site of the original castle. In the attached Google Earth shot, you'll see (maybe) a pin that marks what from memory is about the spot.
I'm impressed Anne! You found Castle Ewen at the second attempt.
ReplyDeleteThat was a wise decision to leave the hiking to Jane and take the train ride.
Looks a bit cool in the photos.