We had a leisurely early morning with Helen before leaving Pitlochry on the final proper day of our Scottish holiday. We made our way down to the Scottish Borders via Perth and Edinburgh. Just as we were approaching Edinburgh we got a message to say that another Helen (old school friend of Liz’s), who was supposed to be meeting us later in her motorhome, had a flat battery and did we have any jump leads? Of course we did so we made our way to Gorebridge, just south of Edinburgh where we eventually jump started her Moho in the rain. Hot cross buns and coffee were a welcome recompense.

We left Fortrose on Wednesday morning (April 16) to continue our way south. We took the scenic route to Loch Ness via Beauly Priory. The priory was built in the 13th century and partially destroyed during the Reformation. Beauly was a pretty little town half way between Fortrose and Loch Ness.

From our overnight stop at Glenmorangie House, we made our way to The Black Isle. It’s not actually an island but a peninsula and it’s not black but local folklore says the name comes from the fact that it has its own microclimate so when everywhere around is covered in snow it doesn’t settle on the peninsula.

It was a delightful day driving and cycling around the area including Clootie Well, a sacred healing natural spring where people now leave clothing in the hope of being cured. Frankly, it looked a bit scruffy!

After saying farewell to Jo’s cousin and family on Monday morning (April 14), we continued our way and rejoined the North Coast 500 (known as the NC500). It’s a circular tour of the highlands that’s just over 500 miles long. We had already done some of it on the west coast but time prevented us from going right to the top of Scotland so we were happy to rejoin the route on the east coast. Our first stop was Dunrobin Castle, home of the Duke of Sutherland. It was a pretty big stately home with manicured gardens but the piece de resistance was the falconry display. 30 mins of watching these magnificent a Gyr Falcon and a Harris Hawk go through their paces as well as learning how different their attacking styles were.

After that, onwards south via the lovely town of Dornoch with a great cathedral.

We awoke on Sunday morning to a wonderful view across the beach but sadly we needed to be on our way. So, after a lazy start, our first port of call was Gruinard Beach which was nice enough but not as spectacular as our overnight stop at Mellon Udrigle.

Then onto the Falls of Measach at Corrieshalloch Gorge, which was a lovely woodland walk to a suspension bridge over the gorge highlighting the falls.

We had a lazy morning yesterday as we wanted to visit the Talisker Distillery shop but that didn’t open until 10.00 so we were there as they opened the doors! On our way off the island, we stopped at Sligachan Old Bridge and picked up some scrummy seafood for lunch from a shack by the road.

We couldn’t quite understand why everyone was leaving our lovely stopover at Neist Point until two things happened. One, the sea fog rolled in so you couldn’t see in front of you and two, they closed the road down to the village!

Calmac Ferries had very kindly told us on Tuesday that they had cancelled our booking from Mallaig on the Scottish mainland to Armadale on Skye. When we looked to rebook, we found that there wasn’t a ferry running that actually took campervans! Very helpful. So, our plans needed to change as we would now be going over the road bridge to Skye. We still wanted to do the ‘Harry Potter’ things so we needed to go to the Glenfinnan Viaduct (steam train) and Loch Eilt (Dumbledore’s Grave). This meant we would now be doubling back on ourselves but we thought it was worth the effort and in some ways gave us more flexibility than adhering to ferry sailing times.

We knew we needed to get to the Glenfinnan Viaduct at least an hour before the train was due to cross over at 10.45 to get a parking spot such is the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise. However, there were several places we wanted to stop off at on the way from Loch Lomond so we were up and away by 06.45 on Wednesday morning. We had a glorious scenic drive along Loch Lomond and through Glencoe, scene of the famous MacLeod massacre by the Campbells.