A&E Abroad: Luss, Loch Lomond, Oban. May 22

Last night we hastily booked a highlands tour, we were planning on doing the Loch Ness tour today but it was full so we decided to do that one Monday and today go to Loch Lomond and the west of Scotland's highlands. It was a very good decision.

The bus left at 8am from the Royal Mile and went west, via Glasgow, to begin in the town of Luss. Today there was a lot of sitting on the bus and journeying through the highlands, but we didn't mind because the scenery was incredible. Also our bus driver/tour guide was very good, he was constantly sharing facts and information not just about the history of Scotland and the highlands, but also about things that we wouldn't normally have wondered or known about.

On the way to the first stop he told us about some Scottish history and also about the highlands landscape. The hills were once covered in native forest but all the trees were cut down to be used for wood, depleting their resources massively. By the 1920's , after the war, they needed to solve this problem so they could once again have supplies of wood, so the forestry commission actually planted non natives. Norwegian spruces and Siberian fir were planted as they grow in approximately half the time that the native conifers would have. They also planted the trees ridiculously close to one another, which lead to reduced sunlight reaching the forest floor and major biodiversity issues. But from our perspective the huge forests spanning the highlands of these trees looked impressive and if we hadn't have been told this, we would have had no idea this was what was actually occurring.

Our first stop Luss is a tiny town on Loch Lomond. It was incredibly beautiful and so very quaint and the lake was amazing. It was glistening in the sunlight and we took many snaps. There was also a lovely river running through the town and a cemetery with Viking graves.

Loch Lomond

Cats forver

We got back on the bus for the longest part of our trip through the highlands to Oban. Oban is this port town that was verrrrrryyy popular and full of the older generation as Queen Mary II was docked there, so everyone was out and about. We just had lunch there and had a quick look around, mostly watched seagulls having struggles flying in the wind.

Church we stopped at with Robert the Bruce relic

King of Sass being sass

Oban wind times

Later on we went to Inveraray and the Inveraray castle, which is actually occupied by the Duke of Argyll (he's a real person!). Part of the castle is open to the public and we got to got in and see the nice porcelain and weapon collections they have. Also, fun fact, some episodes of Downtown Abbey were filmed there. Rose's family lives in the castle in the show and this became evident when we went into the dining room and pictures of Maggie Smith dining there (in character) were on display (so subtle). Elise was v happy, Ash still hates downtown after they killed off Matthew Crawley (why would they do this?). Also fun fact #2, they had a whole room dedicated to the Dukes over the years in the media. Current Dukey was considered a very eligible bachelor. heh.