This is a crazy country for changeable weather, I don’t think I have ever experienced such procrastinating weather ever.
9* brilliant autumn morning, sunny warmth, sunnies on, ocmmenting how nice it was after Storm Ali had messed with our last two days, then within seconds, like someone had turned the light off, we were in a total deluge!
2 minutes later, again brilliant sunshine and the temperature had raced up to 12*.
Fort William is a very touristy area, in think due to the Caledonian canal, but mainly the fame Harry Potter has brought to the area, with the Hogwarts Express (Jacobite Steam train) and the Glenfinnan viaduct. To me, it hasn’t got a lot going for it otherwise.
A “golden mile” or two, of stunning stately homes on very large landscaped sections on the south entry to the town. The Main Street, like all main streets in Scotland, has no shelter/verandas, and is very ordinary, bnb’ H๏τels and appartments everywhere, but NO vacancies. The houses are different, whitewashed, rendered, almost like stucco.
Lot more trees, beautiful established trees, on the turn, we’ll see some lovely colours in a couple of weeks.
Lot more trees, beautiful established trees, on the turn, we’ll see some lovely colours in a couple of weeks.
We haven’t seen any kilts or heard bagpipes this past week, it’s just so different from Aberdeenshire and the Orkneys, as Edinburgh was different again.
We followed the coastline, “the inner seas of the west coast of Scotland ” a sign told us.
12.15pm we had a 1/2hr tour booked for the Cruachan Powerstation, otherwise known as the Hollow Mountain. Very interesting and extremely well presented.
Cruachan power station was constructed between 1959 and 1965. It was the first reversible pump storage hydro system on this scale to be built in the world. During the six years of construction, there was a large workforce of 1300 men, affectionately known as the Tunnel Tigers. The men used hand held air drills to bore holes in the solid granite rock, which were then packed with gelignite and blasted.
Cruachan, when built, was the highest head reversible pump/turbine power station on this scale in the world.
A lot of time was spent at the design stage, optimising all aspects of construction and operation. Many working models were built of the turbines and work tests were carried out on complete alternators before shipping to site. Because of the limitations of local roads and the size of the access tunnel, all the equipment had to be broken down into manageable loads for transportation.
We’d been thru Manapouri 11yrs ago, I think it very comparable, a much longer journey to the turbines and I think more impressive too. I’d recommend Manapouri to anyone.
Not very far along from Cruachan PS on the edge of Loch Awe we came across St Conan’s Kirk – what a find!
The pictures speak for themselves, but please do have a look at this website, this is a must for anyone if travelling in this area in the future. Stunning, magnificent, unbelievable.
We lingered too long at St Conan’s, couldn’t help it, and we’d have stayed longer but we’d booked a GlenCoe Ranger safari for 3pm and needed to move on.
Pᴀssed thru Bridge of Orchy on the way, only had time for a quick stop and a selfie on the bridge.
Traffic was very heavy, with some extremely impatient drivers pᴀssing in stupid places, first time we have experienced this atтιтude since being here. It is the main route from Edinburgh to Fort William, not even 3hrs, so lots of big tour buses as well.
The 1.5hr Ranger Safari was ok. Nothing to rave about, not really what we were expecting. It was in a 9 seater Range Rover – we were in the back and found it difficult to see. Stopped 3 times for a either a botanical or geographical “lecture”. We thought it would have been more a tour of the area the National Trust of Scotland (NTS) manage. It was still interesting tho and time did go fast.
Back here around 5.30pm. A good day after the last two.
