Islay and Oban: Part 2 Oban

So, my 16.10 arrival at Oban was dramatic, with a sudden heavy downpour after a pleasant day's sailing. Luckily there was a Wetherspoons on the quay, The Corryvreckan, so I sheltered there for a while to check out the Pokemon situation. After it eased off, I found a cashpoint and wandered over to the Royal Hotel, one of those hotels popular with coach parties, and had seen better days. I was in Room 218 with a view out the back.



I went back out to the harbour and, tempted by a free hot mussel, ordered a £3.95 portion from the famous green shack, eating them in the rain, under an umbrella - not easy! Then it was back to Wetherspoons for another pint and, after watching the sun set, back to the hotel for a £5 tot of Oban.



On Sunday, after a breakfast of beans, fried egg and potato scones, with tea served quickly by unflustered staff, I made my way to the distillery, where I showed my classic malts passport and got a free tour. The distillery is much smaller than Laphroaig, with half the stills - I did learn that the yeast came from Hull. At the end of the tour we got to sample 13-year old whisky, then the 14-year old in the shop, where we got another free glass. I used my £5 off voucher to buy a bottle, for £40. There was no photography allowed on the distillery tour. They have a tasting bar open until 6.30 serving wee drams for a bargain £3 a shot.



I dropped off the bottle at the hotel, checked out the free wifi in the lounge bar, then walked to the harbour. There was a big queue at the Green Shack, so I tried the Fishhouse upstairs, where they were doing a two-course lunch deal for £13.99. I had smoked haddock chowder and roasted local coley on a bed of prawn and leek risotto, washed down with a local beer - Skelpt Lug dark ale!



I'd been debating whether or not to go on the boat to see the seals, but as the rain had stopped  I just had time to get there by 2pm, just as they were casting off. It was £10 and we headed for the steam ship monument, past the 1950s cathedral and finally to a rock full of seals. We also saw a pair of sea eagles and an M&S salmon farm.

 

After a pint at Wetherspoons (Sirius Dog Star) and a portion of chips with curry sauce, I wandered back to the hotel to find a keyboard and accordion duo playing for a coach party of Canadians. Then from nowhere, entered a very loud piper! marching up and down swinging his kilt!



Monday, it was an early start to get the 8.57 train to Glasgow, another scenic journey. I walked from Queen Street, past Robert Peel, to Central where I had a longish wait in the Virgin First Class Lounge! Yes my £46.20 ticket back to Brighton was first class! I had two cappuccinos (from a machine), loads of biscuits and popcorn and played Pokemon until it was time to board my delayed train (floods near Preston). On board I had free cans of beers (Wreckless), a dry tuna salad and lots of pretzels. The Gatwick Express at Victoria was late too, and when I got back to Brighton there was an hours wait for a Seaford train, so it was a taxi home!

 

More photos on Flickr.

< Part 1 Islay
< Edinburgh 2016

Islay and Oban: Part 1 Islay

While I'm up in Scotland, I always like to tag on a little extra journey: this year it was the whisky island of Islay and a town I've always wanted to visit - Oban. I discovered that twice a week there's a ferry from Islay to Oban (even though I couldn't find it on the inscrutable CalMac timetables). So Thursday morning 18 August I walked down to Haymarket station and bought a ticket to Glasgow Queen Street. After a pint at a convenient Wetherspooons, I set off to find Buchanan bus station (no trains go that way). What I didn't know was that the Citylink coach was going to Campbeltown! Anyway I found it and the journey was very scenic, past the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, Loch Long and Loch Fyne, where we had a comfort stop at Inveraray.



At Kennacraig I bought my two ferry tickets as a £15.80 HopScotch deal (bargain!) and boarded MV Finlaggan for the 2-hour journey, where I consumed a couple of bottles of Islay beer and a bowl of chips. At Port Ellen it was a short walk to the White Hart Hotel, where to my surprise the bar and restaurant were closed - but the key to room 3 was waiting for me at reception. The room was fine and I had a view of the sea. I walked to a rowdy pub, the only pub, the Ardview Arms, drank a pint of McEwans and checked my wifi in a quiet room to the right. After a wee dram of Laphroaig Quarter Cask (£5.80) i wandered back to the hotel to watch the olympics.



The White Hart lived up to its Fawlty Towers reputation at breakfast, where two extremely flustered women tried to keep a minibus full of Poles and a celebrated musician happy with poached eggs. Mine - beans, fried egg and potato scones - was fine however. I walked to the bus stop - I wasn't sure of the times as I'd found two different timetables on the internet, but one arrived heading towards Ardbeg so I jumped on and bought a £10 day ticket. It passed Laphroaig and Lagavulin distilleries (which were supposed to be just a short walk from Port Ellen) and turned round at Ardbeg. I decided to jump off at Lagavulin and try to get on a tour. No luck, they were full, but I got my passport stamped. So, after failing to get a lift, it was a trek through the drizzle along the cycle path back to Laphroaig.



Not a lot of people know this, but I own a plot of land on Islay, thanks to Laphroaig whisky and I was able to print out a map of its location. I also got 'rent' in the form of a wee bottle. The £6 tour was great - unusually they do their own malting - but I still had a two hour wait for the next bus, so I sat down in the comfy lounge, tasted a few more drams and played Pokemon Go with their free wifi!



The bus took me along long straight roads across the island to Port Askaig, via Laphroaig's peat bogs by the airport, where a raucous group of men up for a charity football match (one played for Arsenal!) were waiting, but the bus had to do a school run, so we went to the pub (Port Askaig Hotel) and I had a surprisingly nice pint of Tennents 60/- Light (more like dark mild). After a sing song on the bus, and them calling me Ronnie, they got off at Bowmore and I travelled back to Port Ellen in peace.

I gave the posh restaurant at the Islay Hotel a go for a cappuccino, and stayed to eat in the bar, where they had Islay Ales on draught. I had roasted scallops followed by chunky fish pie. Excellent!



Saturday 13 August, morning, the women at the White Hart were even more flustered, giving me bacon instead of tatty scones, but never mind. At check out, one of them told me the hotel was up for sale and the owners didn't want to lose his licence hence the bar downstairs being dark. I caught the 9.40 bus to Port Askaig and met two old girls who'd been on the bus the day before. I had an hour and a half to kill so jumped on the ferry to Jura (£1.30 return) with the women and back on my own, then a cup of tea and wifi in the Port Askaig Hotel.



The big ferry was MV Hebridean Isles and the four-hour cruise took us past many islands, with a stop at Colonsay, most were uninhabited - in fact we didn't see any houses until almost at Oban. I had minestrone soup and more Islay beer. The weather was glorious until we arrived at Oban, where it threw it dowm. Luckily there was a Wetherspoons nearby...



More photos on Flickr.

Part 2 Oban >
< Edinburgh 2016

A Highland adventure pt 2

Cairngorm mountain railway
Originally uploaded by fred pipes

On Thursday 20 August, after a hearty veggie brekky at the Rossmount Guest House, I got a lift to the station as it was raining (again). I was heading south to Aviemore in the the Cairngorms National Park. I had two objectives here: one to ride on the steam Strathspey Railway, the other to ride the Cairngorm Mountain Railway. I arrived in good time for the 12.30 train so popped into a cafe to update Facebook etc. The train to Broomhill and back was pulled by Hunslet 0-6-0ST no. 3777, running in pseudo-BR livery as 68030. Various anonymous tanks were scattered about the railway. At Broomhill, I didn't get a chance to see it change ends as the passing loop is beyond the station, but made a little Flip video back at Aviemore. Some Scottish station names read like Dr Who characters: The Boat of Garten on this railway; Muir of Ord on the Kyle of Lochalsh line!

I still had a good part of the afternoon left so I caught a bus to the Cairngorm base station, where the woman in the ticket office kindly let me leave my case (no left luggage at either Aviemore station). The ride to the top of Britain's sixth highest mountain took 8 minutes. At the top we were not allowed out (walkers who walk up are allowed to ride back down) - just onto a windy observation deck where we could see reindeer but not the railway! I also saw the sun for the first time in Scotland! I had a home-made cheese scone and cuppa tea at the UK's highest restaurant (1097m) and went back down again, this time getting a good view of the rollercoater-type drop. At the bottom I visited the camera obscura (called The Dark Room) and waited for the bus back down to Aviemore. The fast bus ride round the hairpin bends was probably the most scary bit of the day! And so to the Ravenscraig Guest House, which at £40 a night was much more than the Inverness B&B, but had an en-suite bathroom and had won a green tourism award. I popped down the road to the Winking Owl for a pint of Fringe Benefit and a pretty ordinary haddock, chips and peas.

Next morning, the breakfast was pretty amazing: porridge with nuts and fruit compote followed by a huge cooked veggie breakfast I couldn't even finish. I'd accomplished both my Aviemore targets, so headed to the station to get the first train south. I'd been told Aviemore was a bit tacky, but it just wasn't very olde-worlde, and exactly what you'd expect from a place catering for outdoor activities, with shops selling sports equipment and warm clothing. First train was to Glasgow, so I imagined maybe getting a train to Oban, even a ferry to Mull. We passed through Perth and Stirling - I could have visited either of them but knew nothing about either. At Glasgow, I couldn't see any interesting connecting trains, so after a cappuccino at Costa, travelled on towards Edinburgh. I thought about jumping out at Linlithgow and visiting the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway but Sam texted me to say I'd missed the last round trip. So, it was on to Auld Reekie, a pint of 80/- at the Malt Shovel, a slow walk to Tollcross and a pint of Darkmoor at the Cloisters (where it was throwing it down outside) and, when Sam arrived home from work, some not very good (but not really awful) free comedy at the Illicit Still.

A Highland adventure pt 1

Tea
Originally uploaded by fred pipes

I've been spending a week in August during the Edinburgh Festival for 12 or 13 years now, and every so often I try and do some travelling while I'm up there. The last time was many years ago, pre-blog, when I took the sleeper up to Fort William and rode the steam-powered Mallaig line. That was the furthest north I'd ever been (apart from a flight to Gothenburg in Sweden in the 70s). So this year I decided to buy a Freedom of Scotland Rover for £73.25 (with Senior rail card discount) and go exploring. I probably could have got away with the cheaper Highland Rover plus a single to Edinburgh at the end, but hey! who's counting? It would give me 4 days' travel out of 8, which I thought was a bit mean, but also 10% discount on the sleeper. The trouble is, you can only buy a rover a month before you travel, so makes juggling sleeper and B&B bookings etc for an itinerary rather precarious. So, with sleeper to Inverness booked, I headed up to Euston on Monday 17 August for the 21.15. Luckily I had a berth to myself (you sometimes have to bunk up with someone the same sex) and as there's not enough room to swing a small cat in there, spent some time in the spacious lounge drinking Deuchars IPA at £2.50 a can and playing iPod games.

After a night watching orange lights go past my window, and passing through Edinburgh at about 4am, we arrived at Inverness and I searched out left luggage. Unfortunately it didn't open until 9.10, after my train to Kyle of Lochalsh had departed. It's one thing having a rover, it's another having to lug cases about! So, it's onto the train for what Michael Palin described as one of the Great Railway Journeys of the World. It didn't disappoint - straight away we were by the sides of lochs and firths, with misty mountains in the background. We passed the point at which the Caledonian Canal enters the Beauly Firth, but then there was a problem! At Dingwall we had to de-train, as the smell of the loos had become unbearable to some passengers. This unsheduled stop allowed me to explore this lovely station in which 134,864 thirsty men were supplied with tea 1915-1919. Outside was a war memorial made from a thin twisted tree trunk brought from the battlefields of France. Unfortunately the Mallard Bar wasn't open yet, but we got a complimentary cup of tea from the trolly, before we had to lug our cases over the footbridge to the relief train. So, on the move south-west again, the scenery was getting more and more spectacular as we reached the west coast. At the end of the line I even got a certificate.

I had theoretically three hours in Kyle of Lochalsh and the plan was to pop over to the Isle of Skye on the bus. I'd just missed the 12.30 bus so grabbed a bag of chips and hung around for the 1.30, which gave me half an hour to grab a half at the King Haaken bar and a view of the Skye Bridge in Kyleakin. Then is was back to Inverness where Robert from the Rossmount Guest House was waiting to give me a lift. This B&B was booked from the internet for £25 a night, so I had no idea what it'd be like - it was rather lovely. Not en-suite (they supply bath robe to wander about in) and the tiny telly was perched high on top of the wardrobe, but everything you'd want in a B&B. I went for a quick recce of the town to see how long it'd take to get to the bus station (I was booked on the Orkney day trip, setting off at 7.30 the next day) and thence to the Castle Tavern (also found on the internet) for a pint of Three Sisters and a plate of Finnan haddie rarebit.