Our Scottish Holiday 2021 (part 1)
Welcome back to my blog after a summer break! It feels like forever since I’ve written a post but as those of you with children know trying to get any work done over the summer with kids at home is pretty impossible! Anyway I’m back, and what better way to start than to share all about our epic Scottish family holiday.
If you follow my Instagram then you may have seen my stories documenting our trip. So many of you asked for more details and it’s just been an absolute pleasure to go back over our trip, look through the pictures and write about it to share our experiences with you.
Alongside interiors and design I’d say travel is definitely one of my big loves. Before children I would either be on a trip or planning one! Of course once you become a parent however much you say your life won’t change it inevitably does and holidays are no exception.
With foreign travel still feeling so uncertain this year we decided to take the opportunity to explore Scotland, a place that we’d talked about visiting for many years. It seemed to have everything we were looking for that appealed to us as a family - beautiful scenery, tranquility, amazing wildlife to spot, cooler temperatures, my kids don’t handle heat well (although we weren’t quite prepared for the scorching temperatures we experienced the last week of our holiday!) Delicious seafood and of course my husband’s favourite thing, whisky!
The Ardnamurchan Penisular, Western Highlands
A holiday lounging around a pool or staying in one location is not for me, I love an adventure and regular change of scene so we planned our trip to travel to 4 different locations.
As it’s such a long distance from the midlands to the Scottish highlands we decided to break up the trip with a short stopover at the Lake District for a weekend. We’d then travel up to Scotland and spend 5 days on the Ardnamurchan peninsular, the most westerly part of the mainland British isles and one of the most unspoilt and remote parts of the Scottish highlands. Then travel by ferry over to the Isle of Mull in the inner Hebrides for 4 days before returning via Oban for another 4 days in the Trossachs, close to the shores of Loch Lomond.
Because we’re travel nerds and we love organising trips (also with the shortage of places to stay due to lots of us staycationing this year, every where got booked up very quickly) So we planned and booked our accommodation way back in March. We’re huge fans of a good Airbnb and don’t really like staying in hotels when we’re travelling as a family. I love the freedom you have with self catering accommodation and with fussy eaters like my kids it’s much easier to be more independent and have more space to spread out.
So each place we booked had a different vibe, all the better for a bit of excitement! We booked a wooden camping pod on a farm in the Lake District, a chalet style cottage on the banks of a Loch in the Ardnamurchan peninsular. A cool, modern house in the capital of Mull, Tobermory and a Scandi rustic tree house on the Lanrick estate in the Trossachs.
Lake District - Underbarrow and Bowness on Lake Windermere
First stop for a couple of nights was the ‘Pig Pen’ a wooden pod on a working farm in the small village of Underbarrow near Bowness on Lake Windermere. It’s an easy spot to get to in the southern eastern part of the Lakes so perfect for us for a quick 2 night stopover direct off the M6.
These modern pods are situated on High Gregg Hall farm in Underbarrow. You can book either through Airbnb or at a cheaper price avoiding Airbnb commission direct through Herdwick cottages.
We loved staying here, it was the location my kids were most excited about staying in (I think they’d convinced themselves we were sharing accommodation with actual pigs!) I think the cosy fitted bunks were also a big draw.
Now I wouldn’t want to stay here for more than a few nights due to the erm ‘compact’ nature of the space shall we say and lack of storage space meaning we couldn’t really unpack properly. However they had every comfort. Underfloor heating, full sized comfy beds, a fully equipt kitchen and bathroom with all mod cons. There was a lovely outdoor deck with gorgeous views, dining table, seating and a fire pit, with the added bonus of friendly cows visiting regularly much to the excitement of my children! Thoughtful extra touches were boxes of chocolates on our pillow and wine and beers in the fridge. I really do think when you get little added extras like these it makes all the difference to your stay.
Nearby in the village was a lovely family friendly pub The Black Labrador (just a 5 minute walk down a country lane) with great food where we ate out both evenings, what more could you ask for?!
Places to Visit
As we only had a day and a half here we didn’t stray far from nearby Windermere and Bowness. One place we loved though and was absolutely brilliant for those of you with kids (or just those of you that like to be big kids!) was Brockhole on the shores of lake Windermere.
There’s a huge range of things to do here, including archery, kayaking, mini golf, a huge playground, a Go Ape type adventure tree top course for both older and younger kids and a tree top net playground which we spent a fun but extremely tiring couple of hours leaping around in! There’s also an Arts and Crafts style country house with gardens, cafe and gift shop.
On our second day we spent some time around Bowness on Windermere. I’ll be honest I wasn’t a huge fan, it was packed and a very touristy. We had lots of fun though hiring a motorboat and tootling about Lake Windermere for a few hours. This actually worked out only a bit more expensive than tickets for the 4 of us to go on the big boat tours around the lake which to be honest looked pretty dull.
So Lake District done! I’ve been a few times previously and I’d love to go back and explore more but it was very busy. Time to hit the road and head off the the main destination and hopefully somewhere a little more peaceful.
Scotland - Strontian
From Windermere to Strontian in the Ardnamurchan peninsular was our longest leg of the journey. It took us about 8 hours but did involve having to cross a Loch on a ferry to avoid a long road route.
The Ardnamurchan peninsular is pretty remote but the payback is that it’s spectacularly unspoilt and beautiful AND there were hardly any people (a plus right?!) We stayed in the small village of Strontian situated next to the sea Loch Sunart (Strontian incidentally gave the name to the element Strontium due to the lead and other minerals mined here in the 18th century fact fans!)
Our wooden chalet style lodge had a stunning view over the Loch and it was in the most peaceful location. At night we were entertained by visits from a pine Martin (Mr Jibbles as named by my son) who had a penchant for peanuts and custard creams. It was such a privilege to see a pine Martin close up and was one of the highlights of our holiday. They are quite rare but can often be seen in and around this area. We also saw pippistrelle bats, seals and numerous sea birds on the sea Loch below.
The lodge was pretty well equipt with a washing machine and dishwasher and had plenty of space (3 beds) but the tired orange pine clad interior and 80’s decor did little for my interior tastes! Still, out of all the places we stayed in it had the best view and location in my books. It’s not going to win any design awards though and you will notice there are zero interior pics of it 😂
As I looked this morning this property is longer rented out but you can find similar places in the location of Strontian and nearby here.
Places to Visit
The Ardnamurchan peninsular’s diverse and unspoilt landscape is home to a rich abundance of wildlife and absolutely stunning scenery. One of our main reasons for visiting this part of Scotland. We drove all the way down single track roads (driving round here is not for the faint hearted) to the most westerly point of the British isles to the Ardnamurchan lighthouse, stopping off en route at gorgeous white sandy coves and beaches such as Sanna sands, and Camas Nan Geall. We usually had these all to ourselves and spent hours beach combing and paddling in the rock pools (Mr G even ventured in for a very brave swim one day!)
Other great places to stop along the peninsular are Salen, we spent a happy hour gazing at starfish and sea anemones in the crystal clear sea through a strange contraption a lovely fisherman lent us. There’s a handy little store there too selling coffee and delicious homemade cakes.
The Ariundle Oakwoods is a local ancient woodland which is sometimes referred to as Scotland’s rainforest. The ferns, the moss and lichen covered trees and forest floor are a fascinating reminder of some of the oldest vegetation in the world and a wonderful place for a walk (you can do a kid friendly easy circular route) and it’s a great place to spot birds and rare butterflies.
Castle Tioram a ruined castle situated on a tidal island of Eileen Tioram (be warned when the tide comes in you can get marooned, we had a shallow paddle back across a stream, so check the tide times) This is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon, the castle is situated amongst the most stunning scenery at the meeting point of Loch Moidart and the River Shiel. You can kayak all around these sea lochs and hopefully spot sea eagles and otters. Sadly we didn’t see either but saw plenty of seals and buzzards in the surrounding lush forests and coastal waters.
The Glenfinnan Viaduct and the Jacobite Steam Train. Anyone who’s a Harry Potter fan will recognise the famous Jacobite Steam train. We spent a memorable day travelling what is described as the ‘Greatest railway journey in the World’ A round trip of 84 miles takes you from Fort William to the coastal village of Mallaig and back with a stopover in Mallaig of 90 minutes (Mallaig is pretty uneventful and crammed when you get there so make sure you have supplies as we could’t get in anywhere for a drink or lunch)
The train journey itself though is spectacular! The most famous obviously being the Glenfinnan viaduct, a 21 arched construction built in the late 19th century overlooking Loch Shiel and the Jacobite monument. Other notable things to see on the route are the location of Dumbledoor’s grave on the island of Eilean na Moine on Loch Eilt. Also passing the deepest freshwater loch in Britain, Loch Morar and the shortest river in Britain the river Morar.
Most people on the train took picnics and drinks but there is trolley that comes round selling drinks and Harry Potter merchandise. I had the pleasure of sampling bogey and earthworm Every Flavoured Beans much to my children’s amusement for half of the journey! (A popular sweets for the students of Hogwarts Harry P fact fans!)
And so ended our stay on the Ardnamurchan peninsular, probably my favourite part of the trip (well apart from the orange pine cladding!) I’ve decided to split my blog on our Scottish trip into two blogs because there’s just too much to fit in! So hope you enjoyed it so far and come back next week to read about the rest of our Scottish travels.
Theresa x