Trossachs, Inveraray, and More

A view through the bus window, I think while in Trossachs National Park
A view through the bus window, I think while in Trossachs National Park

I got out of Glasgow again today, this time on a ten-hour, small-bus tour. The morning part of the tour took me to Trossachs National Park, Inveraray, and more. I’ll post another entry about the afternoon portion, hopefully soonish.

The driver/guide, Steve, spoke almost nonstop on a microphone while driving, except for just a few Scottish songs that he played during the brief breaks from his narration. He told us a lot about Glasgow and its architecture, what we passed, and what we’d see at each stop. And he spoke extensively about history.

Some of the history he provided was specific to the locales we visited, but a lot was broader Scottish history. I’m pretty sure he repeated some of the lessons I got on other tours on this trip, but I forgot everything I heard on those previous tours. To be sure I can enjoy any tours I take in the future if I come back to Scotland, I purposely forgot all of the history I heard today. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Because he was driving while talking, Steve, of course, couldn’t refer to notes. It astounds me that anyone can talk that long on a variety of, admittedly closely related, topics. Then again, it’s possible that he didn’t so much have a good memory as a talent for narrative creativity. As I worry about on all tours, he could have made it all up as he went along.

Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Castle

Before we got out of Glasgow, Steve talked a lot about the city. He drew a few comparisons between Glasgow and Edinburgh. For example, Edinburgh has a castle and Glasgow doesn’t. According to Steve, people from Edinburgh throw that in Glaswegians’ faces. But Glasgow is twice as big as Edinburgh and Glaswegians throw that in their faces.

Steve also said that Edinburgh is the sort of city you take your parents to, but Glasgow is the sort of city where you go to party. I’m 71. Regrettably, I haven’t had parents to take anywhere for some time now. And I’ve never particularly enjoyed partying. Maybe I should go to Paris. (Just kidding. I like Glasgow and, particularly, Edinburgh.)

Steve also gave us a bit of a lesson in Gaelic because many city, town, and place names incorporate a Scottish Gaelic word at their start. I remember most of that, mainly because I jotted down some notes.

So here’s your wee bit of a Gaelic lesson:

  • Dun” is Gaelic for “fort.” If a city or town starts with “Dun” or “Dum” it has or had a fort or castle, such as Dundee and Dumbarton.
  • I already knew this one from my time in Inverness, but “Inver” means “mouth of,” so if a place name starts with “Inver” it’s at the mouth of a river. In addition to Inverness, another example of a town that was at the mouth of a river is Inveraray, one of our stops this morning. (More on the use of the past tense later.)
  • Kirk” means church, so a place named starting with Kirk has or had a church as a prominent feature, like Kirkcaldy.
  • Ben” is “mountain,” so most Scottish mountains are Ben Something.
  • Glen” means “in the valley of,” so places starting with it are either a valley or in a valley. For example, Glencoe is a settlement in Glen Coe (the Coe Valley).
  • And, of course, “loch” is “lake.” There are a lot of Loch Somethings in Scotland.

According to Steve, Scots aren’t fussy about ben and glen. You can say mountain and valley instead and locals won’t mind. However, he claimed that, for some reason, they’re fussy about loch. Allegedly, if you say lake rather than loch locals will pin you down and not let you up until you say it right.

I imagine Steve was joking, but I don’t plan to test a local on that.

Trossachs National Park

A view of Loch Lomond from Target in Trossachs National Park

About 40 minutes out of Glasgow, we drove through the first sight on the published itinerary, Trossachs National Park.

In truth, Trossachs National Park is my abbreviation of its full name. Officially, the name is “Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.” But I featured Loch Lomond in yesterday’s post and I didn’t want the loch to get a swelled head by including it again in a subtitle here.

Trossachs National Park is the first of Scotland’s national parks. The most recently opened national park—I forgot the name of it—is Scotland’s second.

I don’t know the boundaries of Trossachs National Park, but I was definitely in the park yesterday.

I found an online PDF map of the park. The boundary line is hard to see on the map, but all of Loch Lomond is within it. Balloch, the town where I boarded the Loch Lomond cruise yesterday, is either in the park or just a touch outside of it. So even if Balloch isn’t in the park, the cruise was.

We mostly drove through the park, past beautiful, lush scenery, with lots of lochs and green hills.

We did stop once in Trossachs National Park in a village called Tarbet. It was supposed to be just a coffee and restroom stop. But it was just up from the shore of Loch Lomond. The loch was gorgeous and peaceful from that vantage point. Fortunately, Steve gave us enough time to achieve the advertised objectives, and also to gaze at the view for a while.

Don’t Rest or be Thankful

A portion of the main road that we were supposed to be on was closed due to a landslide. According to Steve, that happens often.

Fortunately, there’s an old military road that was built I forget when, but I think it was at least a couple of centuries ago. They’ve since paved it and now use it as a detour when necessary.

We rejoined the main road before what was supposed to be our next stop. Or maybe both roads pass it. I’m not sure.

But before we got there, Steve warned us that when they’re cleaning up after landslides they sometimes close the stop and use it as a construction staging area. We got there and that was the case. So we couldn’t stop.

It’s a historic lookout area called “Rest and be Thankful.” We couldn’t rest, but customers on the tour who are less grumpy than I am could be thankful for the views as we passed them.

Inveraray

Grounds of Inveraray Castle
Grounds of Inveraray Castle

The next stop on the tour was in Inveraray.

Based on the above Gaelic lesson, you would expect that Inveraray would be located at the mouth of the River Aray. It isn’t. The small town’s centre is probably a little more than a five-minute walk away from the mouth of the river, which flows into Loch Fyne. None of the small town’s buildings come much closer than that to the river or its mouth.

But the town used to be located at the mouth, hence the name.

River on the grounds of Inveraray Castle
River on the grounds of Inveraray Castle

Back in the 18th century, the then-Duke of Argyll built a new castle on the site of an old one. That site was behind the town when the town was in its original location. But the Duke decided he didn’t want commoners blocking his view of the mouth of the River Aray and Loch Fyne, so had the town demolished and moved to where it is now.

Inveraray is a cute little town. Its central buildings are white-washed, but with dark window and door frames. The town faces the lovely, some would say fine if they were going for a pun, Lock Fyne. (Scotland is lousy with lochs). The water in the Loch today was mirror-smooth and reflected the green hills around the loch. Beautiful.

Beyond the beauty of the town and loch, Inveraray is known for its above-mentioned castle. Steve said the tour company that runs his bus tour doesn’t schedule visits inside the Inveraray Castle on the published itinerary because it’s still in use by the Duke and Dutchess of Argyll and is, therefore, often closed. Plus, he said that the whole grounds are sometimes closed because it’s often used for filming. For example, it was used in Downton Abbey.

Loch Fyne as viewed from Inveraray
Loch Fyne as viewed from Inveraray

Besides, Steve said, to go in when it’s open, it’s expensive and you have to prebook and go on a tour that takes one hour, which was longer than we had. However, he said that, because of Scotland’s right-to-roam laws, you are free to wander onto the grounds and go up and look at the castle from the outside, which is what I did.

At the castle, there was a ticket booth with a list of prices. I could have bought a ticket to just go into the gardens or a combination ticket for the gardens and castle. The garden-only ticket was £9 for adults, but only £9 for seniors. Well, wasn’t that generous? A zero-pound discount for seniors. (But there was a seniors discount for the combo, £14.50 vs. £16.50.

Another view of Loch Fyne from Inveraray
Another view of Loch Fyne from Inveraray

I asked at the ticket office how long I should expect to spend in the garden. She suggested at least a half-hour. Because there was a 10- to 15-minute walk from there to the centre of Inverness, where the bus was parked, I didn’t think I’d have time to do that and take a gander at Inveraray. So, I didn’t.

Out of curiosity, I also asked about the need to go on a tour to go inside the castle. “Oh, no, you can either wander around free-flow or go on one of the tours.” Because of time limitations, I didn’t do either.

Instead, I walked around the castle grounds a bit, including crossing a short bridge over the scenic River Aray, and then I walked back to town and did some gandering.

Inveraray

Not Kilchurn Castle

Kichurn Castle
Kichurn Castle

The next advertised stop on the tour was at Kilchurn Castle. Before we got there, Steve told us that the land that we’d have to drive on to take us close to the castle is currently fragile because of all the rain they’ve had and the farmer that owns the road asked the tour companies to bypass the castle until the land can rehabilitate itself.

Instead, Steve got us close enough to see the castle from a distance. And he stopped for ten minutes for us to take some photos. Thank goodness he did.

The castle is pretty, but it’s set in glorious scenery. There’s a small loch in front of the castle and gorgeous, green. rolling hills behind it and to its flanks. What an awesome view. (Spoiler alert: “awesome” is foreshadowing.)

Saint Conan’s Kirk

Courtyard and cloisters of St. Conan's Kirk
Courtyard and cloisters of St. Conan’s Kirk

To make up for not going to Kichurn Castle, Steve added a stop that wasn’t on the published itinerary, Saint Conan’s Kirk.

It’s a small, charming old church with a lovely little courtyard and cloisters. And it’s built beside a loch. What is the name of that loch, you ask? Loch Awe, that’s what.

It might be going a bit overboard to call Loch Awe awesome, but it is peaceful and beautiful.

Interior of St. Conan's Kirk
Interior of St. Conan’s Kirk
Loch Awe as viewed from beside the kirk
Loch Awe as viewed from beside the kirk

After that, it was on to Oban, where we had an hour and a half to find somewhere to have what was by then a late lunch and take in the town. This post is getting quite long, so I’ll save that and the rest of the afternoon’s tour-sights for another post. Because I didn’t post this until after dinner, I’m hoping I can get that one out reasonably quickly so I can get to sleep at some point tonight. I wouldn’t want to disappoint my reader.


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