Trip to Scotland

Brown said:

I won't be lingering in Inverness on this particular trip but will come back sometime next year with my girlfriend and do somewhat more leisurely trip. We're not big ones for pubs but any recommendations for restaurants or coffee shops would be handy.

Here's the Wallace monument. Hanged drawn and quartered for his services to Scottish independence


Here's Stirling campus looking pretty in the late autumn sunshine:

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Been up that hill a few times. Cracking view.

No updates last night because I was busy chatting to my friends. I'm off again this morning and hope to reach the north coast by lunchtime. Here's Asda in Dumfries where i stopped for diesel yesterday and found my leg grabbed by some unruly children.


Just now I'm in the teeny tiny town of Tain in the rain, north of Inverness. It looks like this:

Deserted, apart from a few local characters having a smoke outside the Sheriff's Court. Here's a house that belongs to my Aberdeen friend's parents. As you can see it's been on fire.

It's languishing with the roof off because there is a dispute with the insurance company apparently. Looks very sad in the highland sleet.
Next stop John O'Groats.

Here i an at Duncansby Head sitting in the Land Rover eating my lunch as it is rocked by the wind. The rain is hammering on the roof n I'm very glad I'm in here warm and dry.

Here's me getting there:

And here's the lighthouse in the sleet:

what's your route home? or are you making it up as you go along?

Your quite close to me in Kinross. Been in Edinburgh all day but sleeting most of the day. The Ochill Hills behind Stirling are snow covered. Unless your looking for a high adventure route I'd avoid Glenshee Breamar Deeside route to Aberdeen. A good road to take is from Perth on the Coupar Angus A road. It brings you out a Forfar onto the A90 avoiding Dundee.

John S said:

Your quite close to me in Kinross. Been in Edinburgh all day but sleeting most of the day. The Ochill Hills behind Stirling are snow covered. Unless your looking for a high adventure route I'd avoid Glenshee Breamar Deeside route to Aberdeen. A good road to take is from Perth on the Coupar Angus A road. It brings you out a Forfar onto the A90 avoiding Dundee.

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And you could pick up a proper bridie on the way through!
http://mclarenbakers.co.uk/the-forfar-bridie/

That's a canny run oot, marra!
Camped at John O' Groats years ago. It was amazing, truely! Felt like being at the top of the world. Cape Wrath is epic too, different world again over there, awesome. We had good weather, mind!
Great trip. Keep the updates coming

The mobile coverage is a bit patchy in the North of Scotland, so no updates yesterday I'm afraid. Plus when I got back to base my friends wanted to talk to me so not much time on the computer! Sadly not too many photos because it was such a grey, wet wind day, and everything on the camera looks like grey mush but here's one or two:

I went to Dunnett Head which is as far north as you can go without going in the sea. I had a little walk around and got soaked and buffeted by the wind. Here's the lighthouse:

Very bleak and lonely.
I then headed westwards through the sleet which was rattling on the roof towards Dunnett Bay. Here it is in the rain:

Those waves were quite handsome. With an all weather insulated wetsuit you could have probably done some serious surfing.

Then on to Castletown, which once upon a time was famous for its quarry. They made flagstones here, and had their own little harbour for shipping them all over the world. Hre it is all made out of interlocking flat stones:

Some of the old buildings associated with the quarry are still there and derelict, and a few are being turned into a heritage centre:




Then I headed westwards as the rain beat down on the aluminium panels and the road got narrower and winder to Durness. No pictures because I'd lost the light completely at that point. I turned south westwards on the A838, left at Laxford Bridge and back to Aberdeen via Lairg, Bonar Bridge and Inverness, where I topped up on diesel. I was wondering about the route through the hills in case it was snowbound, but in the even it was mainly rain with the occasional bit of sleet and the road was clear.

Scotland's absolutely huge. I was quite tired after holding the car steady round little twisty roads and winds that seemed intent to blow me off the tarmac. Must do it again over a couple of days so there's time to stop and look at a few things. Fantastic beaches, cliffs, caves, archaeology. Just the thing for me.

Been working nights so only just seen these posts chap and the trip looks superb! Making lots of pkans for the 110 in my head now once it's up and running again...

That was some road trip. In summer the north west is spectacular.Especially around Torridon, Wester Ross. There's virtually no green laning though. The big shooting estates are very anti access. Pity cos they have miles of off-road tracks.

Right, back home at last and at my desk with a cup of coffee and time to do some updates. My Aberdeen friends give me a real workout, because Alex talks to me about tools and boats and Bertrand Russell's theory of truth and then when he starts flagging, Carrie talks to me about feminism, psychotherapy and old acquaintances from 30 years ago. Then Alex has recuperated and we start discussing rewiring the house. And so on. So not much time to sleep, let alone update Landyzone. Sorry folks.

Anyway, my tracker seems to be behaving itself again, so here's a map of my Tuesday drive:

As you can see, I did a big loop. Yes, I certainly would like to do it again in the summer with more chance of better visibility and lighter mornings and evenings so I can really appreciate the scenery throughout the drive. Yes, Scotland is rather different to England, in that you're allowed to walk pretty much everywhere, unless it's in someone's front garden, but vehicle rights off the major roads are very limited.

Wednesday wasn't a long trip - just a little trundle to Stonehaven:

The sun got out so there were some photo opportunities:

The 40 miles of single track from Laxford Bridge to Lairg is an excellent bit of road - esp when you can terrify the tourists in the summer! Shame the fish convoys rarely run it now...was an awesome sight.

Home today. But before i set off we went and found a big car park so everyone could have a go in the Land Rover. Round and round they drove. Look at that red squiggle near the letter P:

Now everyone in Aberdeen wants a Land Rover too.
Then back to Vilguy's favourite filling station at Carlisle. They've put their prices up. It's not 1.03 a litre any more.

A coffee and a cake and a drop of diesel and off I set for the last leg:

Heavy rain, loads of spray and strong winds making the traffic weave about, so quite hard work to stay safe and make progress. Around nine hours including the coffee break. Ooh, it's good to sit down.

Just gone through my post that arrived whilst I was away and found a few spares from LR Direct had arrived.


My handbrake will not adjust any tighter, even though the shoes are relatively new, so I shall try a new adjuster and handbrake cable. I also want to tackle the bearing at the front of the centre diff housing as there feels like there's a bit of slack in it. That box with a picture of a UJ on it in fact contains a ball bearing race, of what I hope is the correct size. Yes, it confused me too. Plus circlip and seal as well. In a few weeks I will put a thread up entitled 'Building the gearbox of my dreams' with a few other improvements. But I need to buy some more bits and pieces and find a weekend when I'm not busy and it's not raining.

snowing in edinburgh now

Looks like it was a good trip all round chap I am quite envious! Next year holds us moving house so all of our holidays will be UK based for a couple of years at least but you have certainly given me some food for thought on where to go and also in/on what...

Having driven all that way in a defender have your ears stopped ringing yet?

I did Perth and back in a day in mine a couple of months ago and I was virtually deaf for two days. Did you not take a detour in Tain to the Glenmorangie distillery? mmmm......

Some cracking photos though

Not much of a drinker myself - it doesn't agree with me I'm afraid. I'll quite happily poison myself with coffee though. But as you've probably seen, they're making big thing of the distilleries as tourist attractions now, so if you're into that kind of thing, it's a holiday in itself just doing the whisky trail. I didn't mind the noise too much - I quite enjoy the reassuring TD5 clatter. When I bought it, my Land Rover already had a lot of cellular rubber mating up the bulkhead, over the transmission tunnel and seatbox, and in the footwells. Those kinds of kits are really expensive if you buy them off Exmoor Trim or similar, so I'm really pleased I've got it. Mine's a bit tatty, but it helps to keep the noise down and the cab temperature up. Altogether, including the twiddly bits just tootling to the shops, I must have covered 1500 miles, mostly with the windscreen wipers on their high setting.