Bannockburn

We left around 9.00 am but it seemed to take us quite a while to really get on the road. Chris wanted to stop in Ullapool and then we stopped at the new facilities at Corrieshallock Gorge which has a cafe. Not many places on this route back for a coffee stop unless you divert into towns etc. It seemed a good idea but tge car park was full and we had to park down the road.
The road works on the A9 were much better than expected, they must have removed the traffic lights for the weekend.
A tea break in Newtonmore and then our usual stop at Blair Athol for a picnic. Always seems to be nice when we stop here.

Now we are in Stirling for the night, haven’t been here since Alex was a baby when we stopped over with our caravan, thought it was time for another visit. We are literally over looking the site of the Battle of Bannockburn where the Scots, led by King Robert the Bruce, won over the English troops under Edward II in 1314

We took a look around the National Trust for Scotland site when we arrived. In the top picture you can see a statue of Robert the Bruce and to the right of the trees you can just make out Stirling castle in the distance which Bruce took at the same time. The group of students were American. The bottom picture shows the actual site of the battle.

We returned to the hotel and had a drink in the beer garden and got talking to some people from Huddersfield who were on the way back from Skye. We talked extensively about both our Scottish travels and theirs and suddenly it was time for dinner so I didn’t have time to do my blip till now!

We are going to the castle in the morning as are they. We went on that previous visit with Alex over 40 years ago and as we pass nearly every time we come up here a re visit seems a good idea. Extra 1 of the castle from the road 

The sun has followed us all the way. Last year we headed to the east coast below Edinburgh to stop over and drove into a Haar/ sea fret.

Said our goodbyes to the beach and the mountains from the house and the Summer Isles from the bottle recycling repository above Badentarbet this morning - extra 2  Always sad and always hopeful of a return.

11 consecutive days of sun, it’s been incredible and we’ve had a wonderful time. Thank you for your hearts and stars