The Kelpies, Glencoe & the Viaduct - 10 May

Going to be a big day today for seeing things and driving. Our next destination is the Scottish Highlands (Fort William) which is about 2hrs 15mins from our current location. We are also 'meeting up' with Jenny - Sues 2nd cousin, who is joining us on our journey for the next 7 days 😀.

Easy start to the day as we head off to see The Kelpies - only a 20 min drive away. What are kelpies? Read on....... 

• a kelpie is a shape-changing aquatic spirit of Scottish legend
• its name may derive from the Scottish Gaelic words 'cailpeach' or 'colpach', meaning heifer or colt
• kelpies are said to haunt rivers and streams, usually in the shape of a horse.

Falkirk is home to The Kelpies, the largest equine sculpture in the world. Unveiled in Apr 2014, these 30m high horse-head sculptures are a monument to Scotland's horse-powered industrial heritage. There is also the Kelpies maquettes which are a 1:10 scale model of the 30m high Kelpies. Here they are:

Designed and created by Andy Scott, these scaled versions allowed him to convey his vision of the sculptures. They were hand crafted using thousands of steel segments and when completed, were scanned and analysed to begin the scale up of the full-sized Kelpies. Here's the '30m' version:

To help give perspective to the 30m height, in the below photo that's me to the left of the first kelpie!!!

They really are quite spectacular. After a short walk back to the car, we make a quick stop to grab some petrol and wraps for lunch, before heading off to Fort William, via Glencoe (which has some beautiful scenery as one drives along).

Side bar - my lunch wrap is duck with hoisin sauce - yum 🥪.

Glencoe is a scenic valley in the Highlands with towering mountains, lochs and historic sites. The mountains were formed over millenniums of shifting glaciers and volcanic eruptions. Notice the beautiful blue sky:

On one of our 'photo stops' this is me thinking I'm taking a photo of a lake and mountains, but instead getting myself!! The sun was so bright, I couldn't see what I was taking and clearly tapped the wrong button. Through the reflection in my sunnies (thanks again Linda), you can even see me holding my hand up to the sun in an attempt to block it out!!

This is my favourite 'Glencoe' shot of the day I was able to take as it was Sue's turn to drive👌:

We stopped in at the Glencoe Visitors centre for a toilet break, latte and hot chocolate and discovered they'd found ruins of how people used to live and recently recreated their hut from those times. It was very sturdy, had a thatched roof and made of mud diagonal bricks - also looked like it would be quite warm. Very impressive.

Also saw the woolly coos - what the Scots call them:

Headed off again to find our airbnb (reasonably easy) and reached out to Jenny to let her know we'd swing by and pick her up about 4pm to head off to the Glencoe viaduct - which is seen in a couple of the Harry Potter movies as the train goes over it to Hogwarts. We wanted to be there a bit before 5pm as the Jacobite steam train was due to pass around 5.40pm and our plan was to get a good position for the 'money shot' as it crossed.

Before we head off, I'm glad to see Chippy is alive and well and decided to pop by, chat to the bumble bee and say hi to us:

Arriving in the car park, we pay our fee and head off to what we thought was the viaduct track. After about 10 mins of a quite arduous trek up a steep, wettish, rocky track, we discovered it was a lookout for both the viaduct and the Glenfinnan Monument.

This monument was erected in 1815, 70 years after the 1746 battle of Culloden, the last military battle fought on British soil. It pays tribute to the Jacobite clansmen who fought and died for the cause of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (known as 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'). It was on this site on 19th Aug 1745, Charles raised his Royal standard after landing from France before marching South.

Given the increased heart rate, thought I may as well post the two best photos:

Monument

Viaduct from a distance

One good thing, the elevated view enabled me to see the 'actual' track we needed to follow. So we descended (slowly) and headed off in a totally different direction to follow a flat path to the viaduct. As we drew near the elevation increased, but having navigated the other trek, this was close to a 'walk in the park'.

We found a good spot to sit around 5pm. Sue sat on her rain jacket on the ground and I headed a bit further away to perch on a rock to wait out the train. People kept coming and going, and as we hit 5.40pm not even a whisper of the train. About 6.10pm Jenny pinged Sue (she waited down near the car park) to say it was due at 6.30pm. By this stage, the wet ground has reached Sue's backside, so she double folded her jacket!!! 

We continued to wait and people continued to come and go. After almost 2hrs we figured it wasn't coming and headed back down to meet Jenny. She then mentioned a lady at the lookout told her the train was only coming once today and it passed over the viaduct at 3pm!!! Bugger. All Sue's intel on the internet said it went twice a day. Oh well - it was very relaxing and a great view. Here's the best of the photos I took:

Another bonus of our 'sit and wait' time - I was able to practice taking selfies. So here you go Debbie, these are for you (jealous much of the scenery!!):

Time for dinner. We headed off to a pub and all had a lovely 2 course meal (starter & main) before dropping Jenny at her hotel and heading off to bed.

Tomorrow we catch the Jacobite Steam train for an all day trip!!

Whoo hoo 🎉🥳