Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the journey back from Glenfinnan to Arisaig on the Thursday.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my account of my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This is the final post about the excursion to Glenfinnan.
BACK TO ARISAIG
After finishing in the museum we had a few minutes on the platform before catching the train back to Arisaig. We managed to find seats well placed to capture the best sights of the return journey, and the service ran according to schedule.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the pictures from the journey back to Arisaig…
A look at Glenfinnan Station, as I continue the account of my Scottish holiday.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). I started my coverage of the Thursday with a look at the journey from Arisaig to Glenfinnan. This post picks up where the previous one left off.
A MINOR STATION WITH MAJOR INTEREST
As you will see in the next post in this series Glenfinnan Station is home to a small museum that well repays a visit. It also boasts two old railway carriages, one a sleeper, which you can arrange to stay in for a price, and one a pullman style restaurant carriage in which you can get a splendid meal, as we did. There is also an old oil store, a solar powered snow plough, which saw serious action the winter of 1962-63, an old signal box which you can look at, and a crane. There are also various walks which take in the Glenfinnan Viaduct, though the weather stopped us from doing that. We also overlapped with the westbound Jacobite Express.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here is the photo gallery for this post…
Moving on to the Thursday of my Scottish holiday, with an account of a train journey from Arisaig to Glenfinnan.
My account of Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th) moves on to the Thursday. This is the first of a number of posts about was originally the only day for which we had nothing planned.
A LATE ADAPTATION
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the weather that we had been led to believe was going to blight the Thursday actually showed up a day early. The Thursday by contrast was comparatively benign, so we decided to go out after all. We opted to make the train journey from Arisaig to Glenfinnan and back and do some exploring at Glenfinnan. There was a train heading east from Arisaig at 10:27 (the same train that my return journey from holiday would begin on two days later). It is policy at Arisaig that although all doors could safely be opened they only have one set operational, but we were able to board without too much difficulty. There are two stations between Arisaig and Glenfinnan, but Beasdale and Loch Ailort are both request stops, so we might very well have had an unbroken run. We arrived into Glenfinnan just in time to overlap with the westbound Jacobite Express.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here is the gallery:
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the Wednesday, when we visited the Isle of Muck.
I have completed my coverage of the events of the Tuesday of my Scottish holiday (May 30th – June 6th), so now turn my attention to the Wednesday. On that day we visited the Isle of Muck, which entailed catching a boat from Arisaig.
THE ISLE OF MUCK
The Isle of Muck is one four small isles very close to one another in the Inner Hebrides. It is the third of the four I have visited, having visited Eigg on a previous holiday, and Canna, as detailed in recent posts, earlier in this holiday. The odd one out is the mountainous Isle of Rum which I saw from Muck in the course of this day. The weather let us down on this day – the forecasts had indicated that the Thursday was due to be vile and we had planned accordingly, but it was actually the Wednesday that was the worst day of the week weather wise.
We did at least time our activities on the island well, going walking first and then sampling the pub later, which meant we were outside for the only dry spell of the day, and under cover for the very worst of the wet stuff.
It was worth making the journey, though unlike Canna, which I saw less of than I would have liked to, I would not particularly want to go again.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photos from this trip…
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the island of Canna and the return journey to Arisaig.
Yesterday in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th) I dealt with the grounds of Canna House. Today I conclude my coverage of the Tuesday.
THE ISLAND OF CANNA
Canna is a beautiful little island and we only saw some of it – the grounds of Canna House were as far as we got, meaning that much, including the main church and an important bridge escaped us. We found out not long after landing that the cafe was closed, but the shop, which operates an ‘honesty box’ principle was open, and there were tea and coffee making facilities there. We also saw a very curious little church – it was utterly devoid of any kind of embellishment, and had no altar, just a large pulpit from which the preaching would be done. There was some interesting bird life. The journey back did not feature any go-slows for wildlife, but there were still a few things to see.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here is my gallery for this post…
Some pictures of the Jacobite Express as it leaves Mallaig on the return run to Fort William.
On the way back from Mallaig after our return crossing from Canna yesterday we overlapped with the departure from that station of the Jacobite Express making its return run to Fort William. I capture a very short video which is below and a few photographs. For an account of what the actual journey is like start with this post from 2017 and read the next few as well.
A look at some of the creatures I have been privileged to see here in the wild west of Scotland.
There is some amazing wildlife to be seen in the wild west of Scotland, and this post shows of some of my favourites so far. Most are from today’s Canna Puffin Cruise including the Minke whale that has already had its own post.
WILDLIFE PHOTOS
I will again display one by one:
I saw this splendid wading bird while out walking in the vicinity of our cottage yesterday.
I also saw these two splendid equines while on a local walk.
These two pictures, one cropped but not edited, and the other edited show a large deer that was near our kitchen window.
Close focus on the three birds flying closest together.
Four puffins in the sea – the leftmost bird shows the characteristic bright coloured bill.
Four guillemots make their presence felt.
Four guillemots, one with wings outspread.
Closer focus on the guillemot with spread wings.
The Minke whale showing itself – the people who run these cruises recognize this as a great photograph (I have emailed them).
Four guillemots
A huge corvid, tentatively identified courtesy of Mastodon as a hooded crow perches on a fence post on Canna.
A pair of ducks of some species or other that like the far north – the one on te left with the elaborate colours and markings is clearly the male.
Two black and white (with a hint of gold) beauties, taken just before leaving Canna.
A post dedicated to a Minke Whale sighting during today’s ‘Canna Puffin Cruise’, where I was doubly lucky: 1) to be on it at all and 2) to manage to get photographs of the whale.
Earlier today I had the good fortune to go on today’s “Canna Puffin Cruise” during the course of which a Minke whale appeared above the waves on a few occasions, and I captured the evidence on camera. What follows is a short series of pictures…
The first, less good picture:
Another crop
An edited version of the final crop.
I will be producing more posts about this day, including a ‘wildlife highlights package’, but just to get things started I have opted to give the Minke whale a post all to itself.
An account of an epic journey from King’s Lynn in eastern England to Arisaig in the far west of Scotland, 14 hours door to door, with three photo galleries.
This is the first post in what will be a series about my annual holiday around the time of my birthday, which this year is in Arisaig, reachable by travelling to the westernmost railway station in mainland Britain. This post looks back at a long day’s travelling.
THE PLANNING
I was faced when I started looking at travel options with a choice between either leaving King’s Lynn on the 4:49AM train which would see me arrive in Arisaig at 5:28PM or a later train which would see me arrive at 11:30PM if all went well. Given that I was being met at Arisaig by my parents this was not really a choice at all and I duly accepted the necessity of a hyper-early start to the start.
THE DAY 1: KING’S LYNN TO GLASGOW
I left my flat just a tick after 4AM to walk to the station to catch my first train. I was there good and early and able to take a seat without fuss. My first change was at Ely, and although I had the longer interchange to make, using the curved subway from platform two to platform one I was never in danger of missing my next connection to Peterborough. At Peterborough I had a bit of a wait (it was full daylight and very sunny by then so this was no hardship). My train for the long northward haul to Edinburgh arrived more or less bang on time, and I found my seat without difficulty, and it was unoccupied, so I did not even have to get someone to move (there are people who ignore reservation signs and take prebooked seats, and I will make them move if they have taken mine). The train progressed smoothly through the east midlands and north east England to the Border Bridge at Berwick (the best way to enter Scotland) and then on to Edinburgh without any hitches, and I had enough time at the interchange to be waiting at the platform for my next connection. The run to Glasgow was also clear (Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city and Edinburgh, though smaller, is the capital, so services between the two are fast and frequent).
PHOTO GALLERY 1: TO GLASGOW
THE JOURNEY 2: GLASGOW TO FORT WILLIAM
The journey from Glasgow to Arisaig, a run of just over five hours, covers some of the most scenic railway in Britain. Between Glasgow and Fort William there is a splendid section travelling across Rannoch Moor, which features Corrour, seven miles from the nearest road among others. This section would be THE highlight of most routes of which it was part, but places second to the route beyond Fort William in this case.
PHOTO GALLERY 2: GLASGOW TO FORT WILLIAM
THE JOURNEY 3: FORT WILLIAM TO ARISAIG
Unfortunately this, the most scenic section of the entire day, also saw the worst weather, and rain spattered windows are not the best medium through which to take photographs. However barring a minor delay at Glenfinnan, where we had to wait for the outgoing train from Mallaig before we could continue the run was smooth, and the scenery was still splendid. We arrived more or less on schedule at Arisaig, and I was met by parents for the last short part of the journey to our accommodation. In all, from my door in King’s Lynn to that of the cottage we are staying in took almost precisely 14 hours.
PHOTO GALLERY 3: FROM FORT WILLIAM ONWARDS
The final tranche of photos from this epic day…
aspiblog 