Bannockburn disappoints and a rough drive through the Southern Uplands

Bannockburn disappoints and a rough drive through the Southern Uplands

Tuesday morning was bright and sunny giving glorious views as we drove east to Stirling along the base of the Ochils. We had discussed today’s activities at length and in the end chose to visit Bannockburn Battlefield Centre over Stirling Castle as time is short and we have quite a few miles to do today. We had enjoyed Culloden visitor centre which is also NTS run. Sadly Bannockburn was nothing like that. A serious amount of money had been spent

Over the Ochils to Castle Campbell

Over the Ochils to Castle Campbell

 It rained last night. It is October in Scotland. It is going to rain. Rain on Bertie’s roof is noisy. Bertie’s roof is only just above our heads in bed and thus the noise is easy to hear. We cheer ourselves up by remarking that lots of rain fills the burns and rivers and makes for very impressive scenery and especially the waterfalls. We also decide that on balance we prefer wet noisy nights and dry sunny days! we We

South to Killiecrankie and the Lin of Tummel

South to Killiecrankie and the Lin of Tummel

Bertie is off on his wanderings again. He has been parked up for too long. The plan is to spend all of October on the road including 11 days on the Isle of Man and then returning via Cumbria and South West Scotland. We cross on the ferry from Heysham on Thursday so we have four days to cover the 372miles from Forres to Heysham. We left Forres at about noon after a short visit to Lidl for iced buns

Bertie Goes North

Bertie Goes North

Today was the day that we left our house in Suffolk for the last time as residents and the next time we come her it will just be as visitors as we prepare to sell it. From now on our home will be in Forres, Moray and this journey was to move Bertie to his new home. We had taken the car north just a few days before and had flown straight back from Inverness to Luton by EasyJet for

Forres to Suffolk

Forres to Suffolk

This was a simple A to B drive with only two overnight stops. That is quite a quick drive for us with daily drives around 320Kms. We had a lazy start from Forres (via Lidl for pre journey top up!) and we were on the road about 11am. First stop was by the side of the old A9 near Newtonmore for a coffee stop. Easy drive over Drummochter but the traffic stopped just south of Pitlochry near Ballinluig so we

Banffshire Coast

Banffshire Coast

We had a few days available before the Peat Bog Faeries gig that we had booked to see at the Universal Hall in Findhorn and we have long wanted to explore the coast as far as Fraserburgh. We had been as far as Bannf on day trisp from Forres but not further. We had 5 days and could get all the way and take our time.We set out from Forres at 12:45 and our first stop was Lidl to stock

Five days north to Forres

Five days north to Forres

We left our house rather later than we had planned. Somehow we always leave too much to do at the last minute! It was just after noon as we headed off under a grey and gloomy sky but the atmosphere onboard was far from gloomy – it is always exciting to set off on another Bertie adventure . We followed the normal, well worn route or rather we intended to do so until we found our usual cut-through from Poringland

Starting south along the Great Glen

Starting south along the Great Glen

We left Forres a bit later than planned as it always take us longer to get going than planned! The forecast is disappointing alothough it was fine as we left and headed east on the A96 toward Inverness. That was after a last top up of the food cupboards at Lidl in Forres! At Inverness we topped up with diesel as we did not know when we would see cheap diesel again. The idea is to follow the Great Glen