Scotland and the Lakes. Holiday 2011. part III

On Sunday we ventured into the town [Fort William] and strolled around .Stone me after paying through the nose for some much needed supplies on the way in at a Teco's Convenience store we found a Morrisons Then on the way out we noticed, joy upon joy LIDL have a shop here . Saints be we are saved !

We also located the Station where we will catch the train for Mallaig on Weds evening and the coach station for our trip around the islands on Tuesday.

A short drive a round established our bearings and we are but  half a mile from the Ski lift to Ben Nevis so when the skies clear we will venture up on the gondola . We also visited Spean Bridge .Don't know why ? but the name seemed familiar and we felt compelled to go there . we had a Car Picnic in the rain !.
The evening perked up and P went for a stroll around the area.

Not  a lot see but there was an old Land Rover .

Today, Monday before we ventured south to Oban, we  booked our tickets for the Cruise around the islands for Tuesday.

So on to Oban.







  After a short stroll around the town we retraced our steps and visited a castle we passed on the way in.








Dunstaffnage Castle an 800 year old edifice which was built upon an enormous rock base.
 Here we met the ubiquitous yank ! A dentist from Florida who new more about anything than any one else in the world !

Retracing our Steps we then went to a Gardens ? This was set in a an old priory grounds, Ardchattan Priory.

The Gardens were a disappointment but the Cacti house was impressive with its large collection ,a lot of which were in flower.

We did get to meet with the Gardener and had a long chat, he is also a Mcnab  so we had an in !.

He was very talkative and showed J his special Cacti ? It was something Prickly any how, judging from the gasps from the back of the green house.

Mr McNab aslo showed us some 'secret' Knights Templar Carvings in the stone work.

On the journey in from Fort William and along the way to the other sites we visited ,some interesting landmarks were noted and we stopped on route on the way home to take some photo's.

One of the Stopping points was Portnacroish where there is an Island castle  'Castle Stalker ' I thought I had been clever spotting it on the way down but we stopped to photograph it on the way back and so had half the camera brigade in our part of Scotland .

As we had forgone lunch and afternoon tea we stopped at the supermarket on the way home and bought supplies and tonight we feasted upon double steaks and all the trimmings American cheese cake with fresh strawberries and half a bottle of wine each !. So now we are pogged and tired