The Armin Grewe Homepage
With my main destination for the first week being the far north west of Scotland I had to break up my journey: Leaving Swindon on Friday evening I drove to Kendal, where I stayed at the Travel Inn Killington Lake for the night. The next morning I continued north across the border. Unfortunately I was held up by roadworks and traffic congestion on the M74 near Hamilton and again near Cumbernauld. This meant I didn't pass Stirling until well after lunchtime

Having just passed Pitlochry I noticed a sign pointing out "Queens View". As the rain had eased I decided to leave the A9 and give it a try. The short drive to the eastern end of Loch Tummel is a nice drive, where I stopped at the Queens View Visitor Centre. A short walk to the viewpoint first gives a view over Loch Tummel:

Picture of Loch Tummel
Picture of Queens View over Loch Tummel While the view was made famous by Queen Victoria's visit in 1866 it was actually named after Isabella, the wife of King Robert the Bruce.

Even in the cloudy weather the view was impressive, after a while the cloud started to break open giving some nice sunny spots. Looking down the loch the Munro Schiehallion (3520ft) was clearly visible, looking closer the Glencoe Mountains including Buchaille Etive Mor were also visible in the distance. I stayed for quite a while, enjoying the view and hoping that the clouds might break up even further. Unfortunately that didn't happen, so I returned to the visitor centre and cafe to buy an ice cream.

Picture of Schiehallion and the Glencoe Mountains from Queens View
By now it was mid afternoon, time to decide where to stay for the night. I decided to stay in or near Aviemore and started to call various places listed in my Rough Guide to Scotland. All of them were booked so I decided to try Carrbridge just north of Aviemore. Initially not much luck here either until someone gave me the number for the Carrbridge Hotel. They had a room available which I booked.

After a stop in Aviemore for the some shopping (I decided to buy a map of the Cairngorms for the next day as well as some more t-shirts) I arrived in Carrbridge late in the afternoon. The room was small but had everything I needed and after dinner at the hotel I decided to take a quick look around Carrbridge. A view of the Old Packhorse Bridge from 1717 over the River Dulnain and a walk through the nearby woodlands completed the day.

Picture of the Carrbridge Hotel
Picture of the Old Packhorse Bridge in Carrbridge Picture of a path through woodland

Scotland Summer 2005 -> Low clouds in the Cairngorms