Road Trip to the Western Highlands

Took a rather long drive with Roy Dyckhoff and his wife Cecilia to Tomdoun on the River Garry between Loch Quoich and Loch Garry yesterday. Roy and Cecilia are building a house on some land they own along the River Garry and the trip was ostensibly to go and have a look at how the construction was coming -- it was a great chance for me to have a driving tour of the highlands.

We left St Andrews at about 8AM, drove to Tomdoun, walked their land for a bit more than an hour, spent another hour eating at the Hotel and got back to St Andrews by 7 PM. The weather was mostly overcast throughout most of the day though it did partly clear a bit in the afternoon giving us some great views as we headed back east out of Glencoe.

On our way up to Tomdoun we passed the Laggan Dam, here's a video I got with the new camera of the overflow spewing. Roy says he hasn't seen this kind of display for more than five years. It has been the wettest January on record in Scotland.





A bit further along, just north of Dalwhinnie, I made this short video on the road declared to be the most dangerous road in the UK. Not that I could tell, in fact I thought the one lane road I captured in a later video was far more exciting, as far as roads go.




To get the Dyckhoff property on the river Garry, you must drive on one of the notorious single lane roads that are common in the Highlands.


We did encounter one other vehicle on our way out, the other driver backed up a short bit to a pull off and we were on our way in no time. Of course you need to keep a close eye for cars that might be coming down the road in the opposite direction.

We inspected the house which is under construction and walked the Dyckhoff's land which is quite beautifully situated above the River Garry.




If Cecilia ever sees this, she may be angry with me for putting it up (and should feel free to ask me to take it down), but here's a portrait of her, sitting on a rock on her land.


The house itself is near Tomdoun -- a place name on a map with a hotel where we had a tasty lunch. There seems to be good fishing at Tomdoun, the hotel has the fishing rights for twenty four miles of river and Loch shore. A day ticket to fish is 25 pounds and it seems that the fishing may be rather technical -- just up my alley.

Here's a portrait I took of Roy in the bar at Tomdoun.


We returned to St Andrews via a different route through Glencoe which offers spectacular scenery though our view was hampered by the broken low clouds. The photo at the top of the post is of the peaks as we headed out of Glencoe headed east. By following the links to any of the photos you'll get to a small album with a few other photos from the trip.

Thanks to Cecilia and Roy.