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…
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the Glenfinnan Station Museum, with plenty of photographs.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This is my third post about the Thursday.
A COMPACT MUSEUM
There is a small museum at Glenfinnan station, around the history of the line and the station. For all its small size they have managed to cram a lot of interesting stuff in there. We visited it after the weather intervened sufficiently to prevent as from doing a walk that would have taken in a view of the viaduct. It is well worth a visit.
PHOTOGRAPHS
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…
Continuing my series about my Scottish holiday with a look at the journey to the Isle of Canna.
We have reached the Tuesday of my holiday in Scotland (May 30th to June 6th), which featured a trip to the Isle of Canna. This post is the first of three about the day, with the grounds of Canna House getting a post to themselves and also a general post about Canna and the return journey.
THE WAY THE TRIP WORKED
The boat for Canna runs from Mallaig, eight miles north of where we were staying, and the outbound trip from Mallaig to Canna was the ‘wildlife cruise’ element, with a professional wildlife spotter on board, and several go slows for good sightings. We then had a short time on the island and a swift return journey to Mallaig.
FROM THE COTTAGE TO CANNA
We had a straightforward journey to Mallaig, and boarded our boat in good time. The voyage out was magnificent. I have touched briefly on it in two previous posts, one covering a minke whale sighting and one about some of the best wildlife I saw during this holiday. The sea was calm that day, and there was much to savour.
PHOTOGRAPHS
With a reminder that individual photographs can be viewed at larger size by clicking on them here is the full gallery for the outbound voyage.
A look at the cottage we stayed in and its surrounding area, featuring pictures from among others three walks that I took on the Monday.
I am now back from my Scottish sojourn, though I have a large amount of photo editing still to do. I put out a few small posts while in Scotland, though have not put anything up since Thursday. I now resume chronological coverage of the week, going back to my second full day in the area, the Monday. My parents had to go to Fort William and back, and had to do so by car, because the most important thing they had to do was set for a specific time that was enough to rule out the train journey. I opted to stay at our cottage, and was left with the key so that I could go walking if the weather allowed.
THREE WALKS
My first walk started at 11:30AM after a couple of false starts, when opening the front door revealed that the rain had not in fact abated. I was out for an hour and a half on this walk, and did not get wet. I walked in an unfamiliar direction and got as far as Traigh Golf Course before I decided to return. For my second walk I took the second unfamiliar road and followed it for a while before turning back. The third walk followed the route of the first as far as the river crossing before I returned. Two of the pictures that featured in the ‘wildlife feature‘ post were taken during these walks, and in the gallery that follows you will see another of these pictures, taken through my kitchen window.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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.
An account in three parts of the return journey from the far west of Scotland to my home in eastern England,, by way of a conclusion to my series about my holiday around my 50th birthday.
Welcome to the final instalment in my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around my 50th birthday. The previous post dealt with the birthday meal, which was the last significant event of the holiday itself. This post looks at the journey home.
ACHNOSNICH TO CRIANLARICH
To combat the perils of Sunday travelling (necessitated by my birthday itself falling on a Saturday this year) I had limited the train part of my journey to Crianlarich, a junction station where the routes from Oban and Mallaig meet on their way into Glasgow, although I could have got significantly closer to the Ardnamurchan Peninsula had I trusted the Mallaig branch to be running. Thus for the first part of the journey I would be travelling in my parents car, sharing the back seat with my bags. We had decided that we should aim to be away by 9AM, to ensure getting to Crianlarich in good time. I did not have a booked seat on either this train or the connecting service from Glasgow to Edinburgh, but I did have a booked seat on the train from Edinburgh to Peterborough, and to make that I had to make both previous trains. We had a smooth journey to Crianlarich, though the sight of a crowd of people outside the station caused a bit of worry. It turned out that they were waiting for a replacement bus as a train heading towards Oban had malfunctioned and had to be pulled from service. There was thankfully no hint of trouble affecting services heading into Glasgow. Because of the role Crianlarich plays in this section of the railway the arrival of the service coming in from Oban did not end the wait – we still had to wait for the service from Mallaig to arrive and be coupled to the other for the onward run to Glasgow.
Here are my photos from Achosnich up to and including the platform at Crianlarich Station…
CRIANLARICH TO EDINBURGH
The run from Crianlarich to Glasgow was smooth but left me only a few minutes to make the change of trains at Glasgow Queen Street. The run on to Edinburgh was also smooth, and at Edinburgh Waverley I had the luxury of time. Owing to the station cafe at Crianlarich being closed and there being no other opportunities en route it was not until Waverley, around about 4:30PM, that I had the opportunity to get food. Safely ensconced in my booked seat for the long, though fast, run to Peterborough, and thus knowing that I would be home that night, I phoned my parents to let them know that all was going to be OK.
Here are my photographs for this section of the journey:
EDINBURGH TO HOME
The Edinburgh to Peterborough run was smooth, though a trifle crowded. Just south of York I visited the buffet car for further sustenance. Owing to the fact that Sunday night train and bus services overlapped very poorly I was making the journey on from Peterborough by train on this occasion, which meant a change at Ely. Fortunately there were no issues at any stage, and it would have been about 11:15PM, somewhat more than 14 hours after setting off from Achosnich, that I got back to my home in North Lynn (the train to Lynn arrived there at about 10:50, but when tired and carrying holiday baggage the walk from the station to North Lynn is not as insignificant as I generally consider it).
Here are my photos from Edinburgh to home…
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