Glen Coe — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

On our way to this picturesque corner of the Highlands in western Scotland, we had a series of fortuitous events. If you remember from the last post, we had lunch with some furry friends in this beautiful valley -

… and then headed out…

… making a brief stop at this church because it was photogenic…

… and found ourselves at the trailhead to the Glenfinnan Viaduct. We decided to hike because the rain had let up, but as we left the car, we were instantly surrounded by swarms of midges - tiny biting insects - so immediately returned to the safety of the car and drove on. As I was putting our accommodation’s address into the GPS, I saw that the parking lot for the viaduct was just up ahead, so we pulled in and got a spot right away. We figured this was a sign that we should get out and see what there was to see. Plenty, as it turned out!

The Glenfinnan Viaduct was completed in 1898. It spans over 1000 ft and sits 100 ft above the valley. It played an important role in the Harry Potter movie “Chamber of Secrets” where Ron and Harry were in the flying car and the Hogwarts Express arrives just behind them.

So we wandered all over…

… getting some neat views, and avoiding the rain, mostly.

As we were about to leave, I saw a path leading up a hillside above the visitor’s center, and wanted to see what the view was like from up there.

Not bad, eh? Well, there were a bunch of people milling around in the rain, all facing the viaduct, and I asked what they were waiting for. As it turns out, we had happened upon the prime viewpoint for the Jacobite steam train crossing that happens a couple of times a day. Because of the rain, we only had our cellphones to capture the moment (to see the video, be sure to open the email in your browser, and have your sound on) -

Steve captured the entire crossing (so if you want to watch this, just send me an email and I’ll send it to you), but I wanted to get some stills, so that’s why I stopped when I did. :)

We felt lucky that we had just dropped into this, so we dropped our soggy bodies into the car and headed to our lodgings for the night. The skies cleared later and we enjoyed our surroundings -

The next day we drove to all the sites in the Glen Coe Valley that I had read about.

We sat out the rainy morning (and I got a little caught up on blogging), but as soon as I saw the clouds breaking, we headed out for a walk on the Glencoe Lochan Trail…