A Trip on the North Highland Line.

 Travelling on the North Highland Line has always been an experience I wanted, so off we set from  Queen Street Station  in Glasgow. Cameras almost immediately started clicking as we admired stunning scenes while  we sped along the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond- famed both in repute and song.  

Our destination was Mallaig - what I expected to be a small fishing village. I had also expected to see more coastline views as we travelled north but, alas, we were more inland that seaside. I had noted that hotel and B&B prices there were steep so decided we would opt for a day trip of around 5.5 hours each way. I did not regret ths though our posteriors were a wee bit numb by the end of the day! :o 

 

The village itself was pretty but too, too touristy - there were lots of visitors ambling round, with not too much to do apart from mooch around in the tourist-tat traps. I enthused on seeing bags of tablet for sale - a tooth-dissolving traditional sugary sweet that is sometimes nice as a wee treat. But when I saw the wee bag of nine or ten small  pieces had a  price-tag of 7.99 pounds, I resisted the temptation. We had to queue for a lunch table but our  helpings of large local scallops were generous and tasty. 

 

After lunch we strolled along the  beach, the fine weather affording us a good view of the nearby islands of the Inner Hebrides : Canna, Eigg, Muck and Rum. 

 

And where there are highlands and islands, there are great Callie MacBrayne  steamers too.

 

Soon it was time to take the return train and we got some good shots of impressive landmarks. Here is the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct we crossed, much to the delight of visitors standing below this 80 metre high construct, the longest concrete railway bridge in Scotland. It is well know for its appearances in no fewer  than four of the Harry Potter films and is also a feature of the 2007 issue 10 pound note of the Bank of Scotland.

 

This next shot shows a pretty anchorage with the backdrop of Ben Nevis, at 1,335 metres, the highest mountain in Britain. In this area there were many climbers to be seen. Many of them were attempting the challenge of climbing some, if not all, of thes 282 Munros in Scotland - that is any mountain that is over 3,000 feet - i.e. 914.4 metres. No easy feat!

 

Now I leave you with a shot of the bleak expanse that is the Rannoch Moor. For me it epitomises a classis Highland scene: the glorious purple heather in the foreground, the ubiquitous bracken fern, and the peat moor. Our father used to cut peat from the local moorland, dry it out for our winter fuel. And if you really look closely you can see a young deer, startled by the train, running off to join the nearby herd.