We’re back. Back from a mega-tour of Scotland. Highlands, islands, whisky trail, castle trail, east coast and the golf mecca of St Andrews. All in 4 days!

For each day we spent on the road, we all agreed we could have spent a week and still not seen everything we would have liked to see, nor did we have a real chance to soak up the inspiration of each setting. Nevertheless, what we did do was confirm how beautiful this country is and it will help us to determine where exactly we would like to return.

DAY 1: Glasgow to Inverness
We left rainy Glasgow at 12:30pm and headed out along Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond’s claim to fame is that it is the longest freshwater lake in Britain, and it’s just beautiful. We stopped in Luss for a pub lunch which was quite good – 2 fish n’ chips and 1 ploughman’s lunch with kippers (we were aiming for the typical!). Next stop, The Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum where we did a bit of browsing for walking gear, bought some excellent chocolate pecan fudge and did a quick tasting of malt whisky’s before hitting the road again and heading through Glencoe.

The mountains around Glencoe are so impressive it’s breathtaking. Thousands of walkers pass through these hills every year and once you visit you understand just why. We stopped at a couple of places in search of a tearoom and although we never found one with just the right amount of chintz, we did manage a good cup of tea and a scone just outside of Fort Augustus.

We arrived in Inverness around 19:30 and headed out to the Harlequin Restaurant on Castle Street. The food was superb. Enormous servings of typical Scottish fayre. We tried haggis, cullen skenk, lamb, salmon and venison served along with plenty of potato’s, beans, beer and red wine. After our meal we headed back to our B&B (Ness Bank) and finished the evening by watching the last ever episode of Friends (disappointing!), the first episode of Big Brother 5 and a hilarious episode of Jonathon Ross with a line-up of guests that included Janet Jackson. It was a lot of fun. We watched the telly together in Xtines room, sipping Laphroig and munching on shortbread biscuits (well, Michelle & Xtine sipped the whisky, I stuck with the shortbread!).

… to be continued….