Exploring Southwest Scotland
The two trusty steads of this road trip, parked up in front of mountains on the Isle of Arran. My Peugeot 205 GT and Aaron’s BMW E30 325i.
My trusty Peugeot 205 GT has served me well with all the trips I’ve done over the UK in the three years since I bought it. Having already been to Scotland, all the way around Wales and even down to Land Ends. However, I was yet to do a road trip with another classic and there was also a burning desire to explore a part of Scotland that often gets overlooked – the Southwest. Rather amusing when it’s much easier to get to than the Highlands. Enter the one-off special edition BMW E30 in the capable hands of Aaron Mckay. It was always going to be a good one.
The walk up to Conic Hill.
From up high you get good views of the Highland Boundary Fault.
I won’t lie, day one was pretty gruelling with an eight hour drive up to Scotland. No mean feat when I had only just recovered from Covid and the 205 is not exactly a motorway cruiser. A dip in the spa hotel pool certainly helped and after dinner is was off to bed for a well earned nights sleep. The first proper day saw us climbing up Conic Hill, a well-known and well-trodden vantage point that overlooks the Highland Boundary Fault. Well worth the climb for the view and it really isn’t too far from the car park either, the perfect way to ease into a week with lots of walking.
The Peugeot 205 on the Three Lochs Forest Drive.
The highland cattle enjoying getting their feet wet.
Carrying on as we made our way to our hotel in Oban, we stopped off for lunch at the Three Lochs Forest Drive where we found a good spot to sit by the shore. Getting to the water required us to drive along gravel track so we all jumped into the 205 as Aaron was paranoid about stone chips on the E30, and to be fair, the Peugeot doesn’t sit quite as low either. Just a shame that this was the first moment of the trip where my carburettor got clogged with dirt, however it didn’t prove to be anything fatal on the trip.
The ruins of Kilchurn Castle which dates back to the 15th century.
Oban is an attractive seaside town that has plenty of local shops to dip in and out of.
The final stop of the day was Kilchurn castle, an attractive ruin that sits on the edge of another loch inhabited by attractive highland cattle. Very Scottish. Oban is also an attractive town, and we did get a chance to wonder round a little bit before settling down in our hotel for the night. Woe betides anyone who left food unattended out the front, the seagulls don’t mess around. Unfortunately, the combination of recent Covid and hours of driving took its toll, and I was sick overnight from the exhaustion. Hardly ideal but at least we didn’t have far to travel the next day.
Visiting Easdale Island proved to be one of the best decisions of the trip. This rugged coastal gem is well worth visiting.
Aaron jumps into one of the flooded quarries. It was cold.
Looking out across to the vast Isle of Mull, one of Scotland’s most famous islands and somewhere I intend to visit in the future.
The good weather brought out sailing boats.
Alex looks out across one of the deepest flooded quarries. The clear waters reveal a large rock formation that looms from below the surface like a sea monster.
There were plenty of interesting photographic subjects along the island’s coastline.
Aaron tucks into his Langoustines. It was as amusing for us to watch him eat them as they were tasty.
On a lovely sunny day there isn’t really anything better that we could have done than visit Easdale Island and with its long since abandoned slate quarries flooded with sea water. Not big by any stretch of the imagination, but peaceful. A perfect place to relax and try your hand at a bit of saltwater swimming or mess around on paddle boards without worrying about tide. It only took us a few hours to wander around but one of my favourite memories from the trip is us sitting on the harbour wall and napping in the sun whilst we waited for the next boat. Blissful.
The car park to the steak house, The Old Inn, gave another opportunity to get a great shot of the E30. This time in front of Castle Stalker.
Waiting for the ferry to the Isle of Arran.
The next day we headed back on the road and down Argyll as we lined up for the ferry to the Isle of Arran, the main purpose of our trip. A significant moment as this was also the first time the Peugeot had been at sea. A windy but clear day allowed us to get good views of the island upon our approach as we sat on top deck. While many of Scotland’s larger islands are famed for their great drives clearly Arran is not one of them. What we hoped would be an exciting afternoon proved to be a slow and stressful slog as we creeped over some of the worst road surface I’ve ever driven on. Just imagine how Aaron was feeling! Another coastal walk certainly made for a good bit of respite, until the insects came. Nevertheless, once we completed our loop of the island and settled into Lochranza hostel we pitched our BBQ by the sea where we could finally crack out a cold one.
Clearly Andre wasn’t enjoying the sea breeze as much as the other two.
Approaching Arran.
The calm before the storm of the horrors the locals call roads.
My favourite photo from the trip. Arran had some of the most impressive sea caves I had ever seen.
The thoughts of the bad roads behind us, we tuck into a well earned BBQ and cold beers.
I snuck out at sunset to try and photograph the ruins of Lochranza Castle. Sadly the light I hoped for never materalised.
Now for the big challenge of the week - climbing the second highest mountain on Arran, Caisteal Abhail. Starting from North Glen Sannox car park we worked our way along the river before starting the ascent proper. Initially the weather was quite good but as we went up the clouds rolled in, and we found ourselves surrounded by poor visibility and then pouring rain. Not exactly the panoramic views we had been hoping for. Once we started to make our way down however, the clouds did start to clear a bit and we managed to get some really great views across the island and out back to the mainland. Typically, as we reached the bottom the sun was shining, and we could look back and see the top of the mountain. Why couldn’t we have had this three hours earlier? (Said every Scottish walker ever).
We started our journey up Caisteal Abhail from North Glen Sannox. Initially the weather was pretty good…
…but that soon changed as we climbed up towards the summit. The mist and fog makes for moody scenery.
As we started our descent the clouds began to clear and the peak of the mountain emerged.
The sun was shining again as we were back in North Glen Sannox. Typical.
Most of our trip was done now and the next day we worked our way around a few other scenic parts on the West coast of Arran before hitching the ferry back to the mainland. Our only night of camping for the week beckoned just inside the vast Galloway Forest Park. A designated international dark sky park, but what hope we had of seeing the stars was thwarted by the long summer evenings and a healthy amount of cloud cover. At least we managed to avoid the worst of the midges through a combination BBQ smoke and hiding in Aaron’s car.
The return ferry to the mainland.
Our night in Galloway was the only night we camped on the trip. As expected the midges were fierce.
Meeting up with Eddy on our journey through Galloway.
We stopped off for a coffee at Clatteringshaws Loch before continuing our journey.
Our final day in Scotland saw us meet up with our friend Eddy who drove down from Glasgow on his new motorbike to spend the morning with us before we headed back into England. We drove our way through the forest park to Clatteringshaws Loch to stop for a coffee before heading onto New Galloway and then stopping off at Kilnford Farm Shop for a spot of lunch. Bidding Eddy goodbye we continued south and did one last exciting drive as we scythed through the Yorkshire Dales and completed one of the most famous roads in the area – Buttertubs Pass. It was a great way to end our trip before we did all the motorway driving south the following day. I certainly look forward to exploring the Southwest Scotland more thoroughly in the future, especially the Galloway Forest Park. The Milky Way can only elude me for so long.
With beautiful clear skies and strong thermals the paragliders were out over the hills of the Yorkshire Dales.
Driving up Buttertubs Pass in the Dales proved to be a great way to end our roadtrip.
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