by JoanM

Created on: February 17, 2010   Last Updated: February 18, 2010

Majestic mountains, dense forests, babbling burns through peaceful glens, deep mysterious lochs, hidden coves, grazing deer, a soaring eagle, empty white sandy beaches, I could go on and on, because our few days in the west of Scotland have had all this and much more too.

Failte. That is welcome in Gaelic, the greeting you see as you enter many of the places in the West Highlands of Scotland, and a very warm welcome we had everywhere we went on our few days break. We travelled on a Sunday, passing through

Glasgow and heading over the Erskine bridge, through Helensburgh along the Firth of Clyde, then on the shores of Gare Loch and Loch Long, climbing up to Arrochar. This we realised was to be a holiday of Lochs and forests! My husband was singing his repertoire of Scottish songs by then, and “Yon bonny banks” and “Ye tak the high road and I’ll tak the low road” were being sung! We travelled through Argyll Forest Park, passed and admired the Cobbler, not being a climber I wasn’t tempted to try the well known climb! We paused at Rest and Be Thankful for a walk and to take some photos and then continued down to Loch Fyne and to the little town of Inverary, which is on a Loch Shira, an arm of Loch Fyne. This was the first time we had found a traffic queue, because there are lights to cross the narrow picturesque bridge into the town.

*INVERARAY*

Our hotel overlooked the loch, so was in a lovely setting. Nearby was the Castle, home of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. There is some beautiful furniture and amazing swords, it is more of a stately home than your usual castle. It was built in the 18th. Century and the Duke cleared the village to build on the best site, and then decided he needed to have a village that complimented his castle and built new homes around the church and school for the villagers. Inveraray Jail won an award as a visitor attraction, it was a very enjoyable visit and the guides were dressed up as prisoners. You even get locked up! But we were released and continued to explore the area. There is a Pictures of The West Coast (Scotland) Inveraray maritime museum aboard the Artic Penguin which is a 1911 3 masted Schooner, and there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore and things to try as you move around the ship. Several hotels in the area, warning though it gets very busy ay weekends with day trippers!

*KINTYRE*

With the words of the famous McCartney song, Mull of Kintyre, we drove the next day along Loch

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