Glencoe - Day 4 - Lochan na h'Achlaise

Today was our final day in the Scottish highlands. This morning Gavin had to dial in to a work meeting, and as we had no telephone coverage where we are staying he had to drive into the village of Glencoe and sit parked up in the car having his meeting. While he was doing that, I walked around Lochan Glencoe again and had fun taking photos of the reflections on the loch. Although it had rained heavily in the early hours of the morning, it was a dry morning and the cloud had lifted sufficiently for me to finally see the Pap of Glencoe, which is the nub of the mountain peak in the area. I have added extras of the Pap and some reflections.

Gavin’s meeting took 2 hours and by the time he got back I was all packed up and ready to depart. We set off down the A82 and I wanted to stop at some of the well known lochs on Rannoch Moor that I had not yet visited. They are not that easy to find if you don’t know what you are looking for, as they are not sign posted or marked in any way, but by following instructions in my rather excellent guide book we found our first stop which was Loch Ba, and opposite it and across the the main road, Loch Stainge. We met another photographer there who was very chatty! (Not that I could always understand his Scottish accent)


Then we moved on a little further down the road to Lochan Na h’Achlaise. It is quite a risky stop as the best views are from a small spot right next to the bridge on the main road and there is not that much room to set up a tripod, while also trying to avoid camera shake as trucks come thundering past very closely. I would hate to be attempting that shot in the peak of summer when there are many photographers all squeezed up on the edge of the road. My blip is of Lochan Na h’Achlaise  with Black Mount in the background (at least I think it is that, as I said, no sign posts or markers….)
 
We carried on and visited Loch Tulla which is a very large loch running next to the A82 and one gets a good view looking down on it. It’s very pretty with large Scots Pines growing on the loch edge. I have added an extra of us at that loch. By now it was cold and a bit windy and we were hungry, so we went to the Green Welly in Tyndrum where we had a surprisingly very good chilli tomato soup for lunch.
 
Finally it was time to head back to Glasgow to the airport. We did make a few more stops along Loch Lomond, first at Tarbet, then Luss and finally Duck Bay. In my opinion that area does not have the same wild beauty as the Glencoe area.
 
It has been a wonderful 3 night visit to Scotland, We would love to come back again as I am sure each time one visits the weather conditions differ. It was also lovely to meet up with David last night for supper. He has a few days in Glencoe and I think he will be getting some good weather on the weekend.