Our Winding Journey to the Isle of Skye

As we made our way north from Glasgow, we had marked several places we wanted to stop in this area, but it wasn’t exactly a straight line to Isle of Skye. Although, I don’t think there are any roads that are in a straight line in Scotland. It did help us avoid some of the crowds along the main road from locals travelling over the holiday weekend. We visited several castles, a few waterfalls, and had plenty of tasty treats on our way to the other side of Skye.

Our First Scottish Castle

In the morning we left our RV park at the Paddocks and headed North along the west coat of Loch Lomond and visited a Brit Stops site called Slanj Bar to reserve our spot for the night. Brit Stops is a membership that is only £35 per year and lets you park up at bars, wineries, distilleries, farms, and shops for the night for free, but with the idea you would support the business. We had done something similar in New Zealand (called Okay2Stay) and it really added to our experience, plus the cost for a year is the same as a single RV park so it’s quite reasonable!

After reserving our spot and booking a table for dinner we drove back to the town of Tarbet and bought some tickets for a cruise of Loch Lomond that afternoon. We made some sandwiches in the parking lot in the van and had our lunch until it was time to walk down to the boat.

We didn’t realize but it also doubles as a ferry if you are staying at the hotel across the Loch that has minimal or zero car access from the other side. They did share some information about the land and Loch as we went and after an hour’s round trip we were ready to warm back up in the van. In the carpark we witnessed our first kilt and bagpipes! I’m not sure what he was doing in that particular spot but what a lovely Scottish welcome!

We went back to Slanj and parked in our spot for the night until dinner. Mr. Wander got fish and chips and I enjoyed a burger. I did try my first bit of Scottish whiskey in my go-to, ginger ale.

The following morning we visited the Inveraray Castle and joined up with a tour which really made the castle more interesting. We learned that Inver refers to the mouth of a river, and this was situated near the river Aray, so “Inveraray” means sitting on the mouth of the river Aray.

The building of the castle that exists today started in 1748 by the 3rd Duke of Argyll to match with their elevated status from Earl. The castle took 40 years and the 3rd Duke never lived in it as he died the same year the castle was completed. It has been kept up because the family still uses it for Christmas dinner and other events but they have had it open to the public for tours since the 1950s. The site was also used for training troops leading up to D-day on the shores of Normandy in 1945.

At the dining table there were 4 silver ships coated in gold that have use while at dinner. One can hold wine, while the other three have a little drawer that allows you to put the food item in and pass it down the table.

Another unique serving dish was a double walled gravy pot that held hot water between the walls to keep the gravy hot. One of the former Dukes hated getting cold gravy by the time it arrived from the basement kitchen. There is now a modern kitchen in the room off the dining room but it was closed to the public.

They had a beautiful tapestry room with many tapestries made specially for this castle. There was one that bent in one of the corners where there was a hidden room, the tapestry was actually cut to stay on the wall when the doors opened.

There was a grand main hall with impressive displays of old spears and guns with windows into upper floors and plenty of natural light. In one of the rooms they had a piano, which was used to compose the musical, My Fair Lady. In the basement kitchen they had a few costumes you could try on to take a picture! We also walked around the gardens a bit and enjoyed the trees.

We made ourselves some lunch in the parking lot and headed to a series of standing stones that were raised about 5000 years ago. Experts say these may have been used for some sort of early calendar. Nearby was another castle that was free to visit with a short walk up from the car park. The roof was mostly missing but there was one spot that let you go up to the top of the tower 5 floors up and it really had a gorgeous view of the surrounding area.

That night we stayed at another layby but this time we were right next to Loch Feochan and had a lovely view outside our window. We got there at low tide so we walked walk up and down the rocky beach a bit.

When the van is just too big

In the morning we headed into the town of Oban to get some more groceries and find some Wi-Fi to finish and upload a post. Unfortunately, the coffee shop we picked didn’t have Wi-Fi and it was really busy so we decided to just hot spot my laptop with our phones.

Once we finished we headed to a nearby castle, we didn’t feel like touring inside so we just did a little walk in the woods to the church nearby and explored until it started to rain.

We hopped back into the car and headed towards St. Conan’s Kirk. One downside to a campervan is you aren’t going to always fit to be able to park at these old sites. We ended up having to keep driving and stopped by the castle that had a really large car park where many campervans could fit and then took a little walk around the castle. WE had a great view of the Church from across the Loch, but we didn’t get to see inside on this trip.

Our last stop was also foiled by a tiny parking lot down a hill on gravel, we actually got stuck in the entrance waiting for cars to move while the back end was sticking out into the road until we were finally able to leave. There wasn’t a layby anywhere near that would have worked for us so we decided to just go to our spot for the night. We reserved another campsite to make sure we were all charged up and to shower. It wasn’t the nicest facilities but I’m thankful that all the midges (like gnats) in the shower weren’t hungry when I was in there.

The Elusive Highland Cow

The morning started out with one of the more stressful drives just with more narrow roads and less than ideal laybys to see the sights. We eventually made it to Glencoe and pulled into the visitors center hoping for a larger parking lot to just stop driving for awhile, but the campervan spots were pretty tight. After paying for parking we walked through the gift shop to the paths behind the building which took us to our first highland cow! There were two hanging out and trying to say hi.

There was also recreated sod house you could go inside that was a pretty impressive build. On the way back through the gift shop I couldn’t resist a highland cow reusable shopping bag, we needed a second one for all the grocery trips we’ve been taking and I’ve been thinking about it since we were in Japan back in March! They’re also useful for in your luggage for separating shoes or laundry (but more on that in our packing post, still to come).

That evening we had picked out another Brit Stop at a pub called Roam West. We waited in the parking lot for them to open to check we could park overnight, booked a table for the evening, and each had a pint.

Since we had failed on seeing a waterfall the day before, Mr. Wander found that there was one down the road from the pub. We spent a good hour or more on the nice hike to the waterfall and back.

It was time for dinner and Mr. Wander had his usual fish and chips and I had a burger. We also split a whiskey flight and some delicious cheesecake with a honey-whiskey topping.

The next day we had 2 stops before we crossed the “Skye bridge”. First up was to the spectacular Glenfidden viaduct that carries the Jacobite steam train. For any Harry Potter nerds out there, this is THE spot in the movies where they show the train going across that curved bridge.

If you get to the lot by about 9am, pay 10 pounds (5 for car), walk 15 minutes, find a spot to stand on the hill, swat at midges for an hour, then at 10:50 am (give or take 20 minutes) you can get your own Hogwarts Express pictures! The train actually stopped and started up in the middle of the bridge, you could really hear those steam pistons working! I tried to put a video in here but it’s being difficult so I will put them up on Facebook and Instagram.

As we were walking back to the van, we wondered where everyone parked because the lot seemed nearly full when we arrived, and the crowd kept streaming in over the entire hour we were waiting. Along the road there were cars lined up on both sides on the grass and some spots were pretty sketchy. Glad I didn’t try to do that in the camper van!

While we could have continued on that road towards Mallaig and taken a ferry to Isle of Skye, to avoid waiting or having to reserve a spot we decided to drive around up to the a bridge that takes you from Skye to the mainland. As a bonus we were able to stop at the Eilean Donan castle. We didn’t go inside this one either but just got a ticket to walk around the grounds. This is another place I had seen in a YouTube video from the Piano Guys.

Finally, we crossed the sky bridge and made our way to Broadford to get gas and groceries. Then we headed down a B-road with 4 digits meaning it is a small and low traffic road, which ended up being a single lane but with passing lanes pretty well marked.

There were a few parking spots we could stay the night with a view but the first one din’t really have a flat spot and someone was already there, so we ended up at a car park for a trailhead with a toilet, which was nice to have.

A Few of My Favorite Things

After venturing back to the main road in Broadford we headed west to visit a waterfall on the side off the road, with a ton of space for parking for once!

We took advantage of a little coffee truck to get some caffeine and snacks. I got to have my first millionaire shortbread, which is a bar (or tray bake) with a shortbread base covered by layers of caramel and chocolate. It’s somewhat like a Twix but 1000 times better. Scotland really has some amazing shortbread, this treat became a favorite of mine and I might have to add that to my baking repertoire. I’m sure Mr. Wander wouldn’t mind.

We were staying in the town of Dunvegan for the next two nights at an RV park but it was too early to check in so we headed over to the Dunvegan castle. This castle is home to the MacLeod clan, and is still inhabited so there were areas we couldn’t visit but one of my favorite parts as this gaming table, so clever!

They had fun uses of wax figures such as this one looking up at you from the dungeon. I jumped quite a bit when I saw this, wasn’t expecting it!

The gardens were really nice and we wandered around for awhile. I am so glad we had come in the spring to see so many flowers, but they also had a greenhouse with some cacti and other warm climate plants.

We made ourselves some lunch in the car park and relaxed until it was after check-in. I’m glad we booked ahead as it was completely full when we got there. Most of this week had been pretty busy since Monday was the Spring Bank Holiday and I think many people made a full week of it with tents or campers we saw everywhere.

We had a pretty nice view from our spot since we were up the hill. I think it was better than some of those down by the water, and we had less people walking by at night since we weren’t near the tents or bathrooms. We stayed here for two nights to intentionally give me one non-driving day.

They had a DVD library, charging station, and freezer converted from an old red telephone booth! Around Scotland we saw many of these converted to libraries, honesty boxes, and sometimes defibrillators. Very clever!

The next day we walked up to a standing stone on a hill and past a church where several of the former MacLeod chiefs were buried. The view from the top was lovely, and there was a bench we sat at for awhile and just took in the scenery. I found the hills across the water reminded me of those you’d find in western US, but here they are covered in moss.

We came down the hill and stopped in at the “oldest bakery in Skye” for some traditional treats for Lunch, and some dessert for after dinner. I had a meat pasty and cheese scone, Mr. Wander had a cheese pasty and a Sausage Roll.

The scone was SO good, I should really figure out a similar recipe and maybe try to use it in one of our favorite breakfasts of biscuits and gravy, as UK scones are very much like biscuits in the US. He also got an apple and cherry Chelsea bun (think cinnamon roll with other flavors) and I had jam filled cookies.

We relaxed the rest of the evening reading books, crocheting, and enjoying the view

Next Time

We are heading to the Island of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It was much more relaxing with fewer people and full of beautiful beaches you can usually have all to yourself! We had 5 days on the island and then spent a few more days on Skye before heading back to the mainland. We didn’t book the ferries until we had the van so we had to adjust our schedule for what was available, and it unfortunately affected the latter half of our plan too so we never made it to Shetland, but honestly I’m not sure how we could have fit it in! We really want to make it up there some day but perhaps by plane or without a vehicle. Until next time, cheers!