The journey from Inverness to Greenock was quite stunning.We couldn`t quite believe how lovely it all was. The blue sky and the sun shining on the lochs and mountains meant that we saw them at their very best. We went west to Fort William with Loch Ness shining in the sun on one side and craggy mountains on the other. Set amongst the mountains just before Fort William is a memorial to the Commandoes as that is where they trained.Very lovely place for them to be ...

We went to Aviemore today expecting to see lots of evidence of a ski resort. It wasn`t quite like the ones in France and Switzerland! We went on the train, (well, bus, as something had collapsed on the line) but rather wished that we had the car to get up into the mountains a bit more. There was one lovely view of the snowy mountains from very nice coffee shop.

We went to Culloden Moor today and walked round the battlefield. The National Trust have worked their magic yet again with live enactments and a four screen cinema where you are able to stand in the middle of the battle. It was fought in 1746 and 3,000 Jacobite lives were lost and only 50 Government soldiers. It was Bonny Prince Charlie`s last attempt to get the Stuarts back on the English throne and in fact only lasted one hour.

The sun shone all day and the skies were blue (not so in England, we understand!) so we saw Loch Ness for the first time at its very best. It`s very large~23 miles long~and the views when we drove around it made for a splendid journey. We did try walking but it`s quite hard to keep the loch in sight so we sat on a beautiful little beach for a while comparing the loch with lakes Idra and Anneci and then decided to drive round it.

Today we could see blue sky and some sun so we went to Inverness Station and caught the train to Kyle Lochalsh which is over on the east coast. As we know very little about Scotland it was a fascinating journey. It took two and half hours. We saw many lochs, rivers~from rushing streams to meandering rivers, mountains~some of them snow topped, but very few people. We could see the bridge over to the Isle of Skye from the station so walked to,up and over it to the...