Week 41: Loch Lomond and Fife
This is going to be a long weeknote because I haven’t crammed this much into a week since before COVID hit. Buckle up.
Aided by Luke’s excellent map, we explored more of Edinburgh. We walked up to Arthur’s Seat (we’re very unfit but I blame it on forgetting to have my morning coffee before heading up).
This was a ridiculous thing to do We found out that there was a Chihuahua cafe round the corner from our hotel and we visited on a whim. The result is probably one of the more ridiculous pictures of me ever taken. Just look at us. The pups were quite sweet though and I got to eat cake.
We left Edinburgh on Monday, hiring a car to drive out to Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. We checked into the Airbnb and went on a gentle walk up to a nearby reservoir in the hills.
On Tuesday we drove to Arrochar and hiked for 12 miles, partway up Beinn Narnain and along Glen Loin to a dam. It was tough going at times but well worth it for the views. We ate sandwiches by the dam and felt very wholesome.
On Wednesday we drove up to Callander and walked along the shore of Loch Lubnaig, which is stunning. If we come back to this area I think it’ll be to stay in the cabins by this loch.
We visited Balloch on the way home and decided to try kayaking, which was loads of fun. My shorts got extremely wet and I had to drive home in my pants. I decided not to include Charlotte’s sneaky pics of this, you’re welcome.
Thursday was another travelling day, we packed up and waved goodbye to Loch Lomond to drive Falkland in Fife. It’s a beautiful little village – really picturesque. Once we got to Falkland we took a bus to nearby Newburgh for a distillery tour.
The Lindores Abbey Distillery was so interesting! It’s a super new distillery (they’ve only just released their first 3-year-old single malt) but the ruined abbey on their site is mentioned in the first written record of whisky being distilled in Scotland. The visitor centre is really geared towards tours and tastings, and we tried some excellent whisky and Aqua Vitae. We drank some of our purchases on the bus ride home and then some more after our pub dinner.
On Friday I felt (deservedly) a bit worse for wear, we cancelled our long hike up the Lomond Hills and instead we had a late wake-up and a more gentle walk along the coast from Kinghorn to Kirkaldy. We saw some seals basking off the coast in the hot sun, and later got completely drenched in a thunderstorm. Fish and chips at the end made it worthwhile.
Saturday was our travel home day. We packed all our damp clothes, dropped off the hire car in Edinburgh, and spent ~5 hours on a train. Tootsie was very pleased to see us when we got back and curled up between us to sleep.
So that was easily the nicest week I’ve had since the pandemic started. There are more pictures below if you’re interested 🙂
Gallery
Here’s a gallery of various pictures taken over the week.
