Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour Glencoe And It's Beautiful Creatures

Onwards with our road trip! Still on day one! And what a road it was! Best place to have a road trip is at the highlands of Scotland!  Weather was starting to look up after we left the Commando Memorial.

If you've ever seen the famous lone house in the middle of nowhere in front of the mountains, you can see it in real life here in Scotland. In fact, many of these houses exist here. Imagine living here, with no neighbours for miles and miles. I guess it might get kinda scary. But if you enjoy living alone in the wild, oh man, what a lovely place to stay!

Mountains, lake, blue sky! It makes you feel very much alive, and thankful that you get to enjoy this moment! It just feels very freeing to be here, even though we were on a tour. At least it was a small group tour. 

I don't want to waste any nice photos I took. So you might see some repeated ones here and there, but always with a slight difference. I love photos of water in them with reflections. 

Or those with flowers that kinda add a touch of colours into the photo.

Or just this lone mountain top against the bright blue skies. This is so Teletubbies land!

Let us also not forget the cute creatures that can be found in this landscape. Most of them domesticated, but roam freely on the land. Above, just cotton balls of sheep grazing on the grass.

Up at the more rocky area, you could spot some dark brown coloured goats. 

Some of them could also be seen here resting by the road. I was trying to spot some baby goats cause I love baby goats. I think they are my spirit animal. The way they behave jumping around so hyper, that's the type of energy I am going for in life. Totally cute and ridiculous! But adult goats, they are just bah, boring. 

We also came by some horses! Our guide says they are wild horses, but they looked pretty tamed to me! We saw them on a windy road up a small hill. 

Put a horn on that white horse and you'll get the national animal of Scotland! The Unicorn! I love the colour of this photo. It has been enhanced abit by me, but it appear so fantasy-like now, doesn't it? 

On our way back down, we saw the horses again, and this time, our guide stopped the van so that the white horse would come nearer. I suspect she does this all the time. She has been feeding them! So they kinda already know to approach the van.

And what a coincidence, she has fruits in the van too! All ready to feed the horse. Our group people were thrilled! I wasn't much of an animal lover, so I was just meh. But it does make the tour kinda memorable. 

On the ride down the hill, I started to study the map. I roughly knew where I wanted to go on the Isle of Skye. So I must make sure I tell the guide! But what if the other people in the group didn't want to go???? 

Here are the places I really really wanted to go, anything with fairies in the name! So this is Fairie Glen, Valley of the fairies! This wasn't mentioned by anyone in the group, but I requested for it personally to the guide if we have time, to swing by this place :P

The other place was called Fairy Pool! Which most people wanted to go. The rest of the spot named was also famous places in the Isle of Skye, so I think I'll be able to see all that I wanted in this trip, except for Fairy Glen. I shall keep my fingers cross for that one and hope in good faith Jada will bring us there!

Wefie in the middle of somewhere  in Glencoe along our trip! We are on our way to the Isle of Skye!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour to Commando Memorial

 

The weather started to turn gloomy again as we made our stop at the Commando Memorial. But somehow, the sky make my photo even more dramatic though. So no complain there!

It was another short drive there, with views that mesmerised me. 

Again, it was hard to predict what weather we will get, cause it was all over the place. A different view at a different direction! It was something new for me. 

From the carpark, we had to walk a little to view the memorial statue. I hope lightnings are not a thing here! Look at the clouds behind us!

But as mentioned, the direction we were walking to was just white clouds and blue sky! And in the distance, the memorial appeared. 

Three soldiers standing side by side together.

Here is the sign for your to read more about them. I wasn't very familiar with the history of Scotland here. Apparently the commandos uses the terrain here for training too, because it was so harsh it provided them what they need to learn how to survive as commandos. 

If you have the time, I even took this photo of a more detailed description found on the memorial statue for you to read :)

Photo of my husband with the lovely view behind him.

Another one in portrait view.

The weather was still chilly, and I was surprised to see lovely yellow daffodils (?) growing around the area. They add a touch of warmth to the area. 

Here is a favourite shot of mine from this place, a mountain, a man, and a field of daffodils :)

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour to Fort Williams

The next town we pulled up in was Fort Williams, and it was just by the lake. If you're an Outlander fan, you would know about Fort Williams. I wasn't a fan when I went on this trip. But after the trip, I did eventually started watching the Outlander. The series hits different after you've visited the area that was mentioned in the series. Usually it's the other way around, I would read about a book or watched a show, and then I go visit the sights. Outlander was a total opposite for me, and to-date, I've completed season one, and half way through season two. Yes, I'm a slow watcher of series. and the Outlander has 8 seasons! The latest season 8 will actually be launched right after my 2nd trip to Scotland this year!

 

I think we got about one hour for our lunch break at Fort Williams. Again, it was kinda like a one street town, and unfortunately this was the only sight photo I got of it. 

As this was now the highlands, I did managed to get some photos of road signs. 

I thought the roadsigns were nice. And was hoping to catch some with Gaelic written on them. 

Here's the other side of the same road sign with a cute purple bus stop next to it. 

We couldn't find anything that wasn't a cafe-like place to for lunch. Eventually we found a fish and chip shop that fitted our budget. We went in, but it was actually run by an Indian family. I have been putting off eating Fish and Chips, but I guess I had no choice now. It was one of the cheapest thing to eat. Above is my husband's order, he selected grilled fish to be healthier. 

I'm more traditional, and I got the real deal Fish and Chips. And I don't regret it. It wasn't half bad! I quite enjoyed it if it weren't for the time crunch. I have having limited time to enjoy my meals!

After our brief lunch, while walking back to the bus, I saw this camel and took a photo of it. I thought it was hilarious. Plus, camels always reminds me of You Bastard from Discworld :P  This whole trip is like me exploring Discworld in real life! Lol. 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour to Three Sisters (2/2)

The previous post was about our drive towards The Three Sister of Glencoe. This post is about our stop to view these beautiful gigantic mountains right in front of us. 

 

There were parking stops to best view the mountains. And I'm so glad our tour stopped for us to get a better look outside. 

The viewing area above. There was also a sign there for more information of the sights.  I am totally in love with the dramatic view of the landscape in Scotland. It was so different from other countries that I've visited before. 

The official information. I love these signs as they helped me recall or informed me of the places I've visited. Cause after the trip, almost all the view might be jumbled up together and you forgot which is which. With these signs, it helps guide your memory and help you have a logical order of the places you've visited.

Here's a nice photo of the info sign with the mountains as the backdrop. 

And the wonderful thing about the landscape is, it made you believe that you could just walk right into it. And that was apparently what many people do! I keep reading about the West Highland Way, and would have really love to walk it if only Scotland wasn't so far away from where I live! For now, I would just like to see the country first. And if I have the time and money in future, and energy, I would love to walk these lovely place! Above in the photo, you could see 4 person walking on the track towards God-knows-where! The trail looks endless! 

Here is another photo of some guy walking into the mountains. There isn't a sign that says you can't walk in. And when you are there, it looks very inviting to just walk right in and get lost in the landscape. I know I would. Perhaps that was how fairies lure you into their realm? I would have been so easily walked into their trap. 

Here's another photo of three person walking in the woods with no visible track! We will see many many more of this as we go along our tour. It was just so amazing, and so freeing. So very European!

A wefie before we leave our very first official Highland attraction!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour to Three Sisters (1/2)

The drive through through the Highlands itself was truly something. It was just views and views of magnificent landscapes, with rolling hills and rolling clouds. The clouds were sometimes fluffy white, and sometimes dark stormy wool. Weather just changes as we drove past different areas. The road itself was also lovely, winding, turning and waving in and out the country side. There weren't a lot of towns or infrastructure along the way, so it was totally a very natural feel. 

Above is the view as we pulled out of Callender after our first toilet break. You could see the mist starting to gather near the woods, and the sky begin to turned a whitish grey. 

Yet strangely enough if you just turned your head to look at the opposite direction, the sky was filled with white clouds, and bright blue sky! You don't know which weather to believe at this point, and could only hope for the best! As long as it wasn't a pouring rain or a thunderstorm, I was good with it! I've done some sight seeing in rough weather before. So far, everything was still good here!

Lovely 'Window's Screensaver' view of green hills dotted with sheeps. 

Soon we also saw our first Loch (River/Lake in Gaelic). It wasn't anything spectacular, but I still captured a photo of it to mark that very first Loch. I was gonna see Nessie on this tour too. We'll be visiting Loch Ness on our last day.

Soon, the landscape got more and more magnificent as mountains started to appeared. 

We were approaching the Three Sisters of Glencoe. Most mountains in the Highlands have legends and stories behind them.  You can click the link to read more about this place. We were now driving through Glencoe. A Glen is the Gaelic word for Valley in English. I was slowly learning Gaelic! And I think it's such a lovely language, as is Irish :)

The mountain was so high that we could see snow caps on the peak of the mountain. 

And below it, we could see streams and rives from water melted at the top and flowing down to the land below. It made a beautiful sight of nature. 

A different view of the mountains. I was in awed and would just be happy just staring out the window as we passed by the lovely roads of Glencoe. This was the shooting scene from James Bond's Skyfall movie. Here's a clip to share. 

Our guide Jada was excellent in terms of driving the mood of the place. She played the soundtrack of Skyfall as we approached and driving through the glen, and it just made the trip 100x better! An immersive experience with soundtrack!

Mysterious mountain view. 

A small stream of water making their way down.... You could see the snowcapped on top too!

Bonus of the trip, we also saw what looked like the Glenfinnan Viaduct on our drive. That's the track of the Harry Porter Hogwarts Express travels on. I saw many tourist who are fans who wants to ride that train. It wasn't cheap either! Maybe that's why it has never interest me to give it a try. I'll be doing plenty of train rides in my next trip to Scotland, and I am more interested of the views than of the train :P  And just maybe, just maybe one of my train will go pass, or dare I hope, go by this viaduct too? Wish me luck!