Wandering Walkers 7 - 8

DAY 7
A dreich Scottish day, but quite easy walking.

We spoiled ourselves with a wonderful lunch at the Bridge of Orchy Inn, not something we are able to do at home as most of our walks do not pass inns or towns at lunch time. It was packed with other WHW walkers seeking respite from the rain.

There is our home for the night, way down in the middle of nowhere. At Inveroran there is an Inn where we had soup for dinner, and a little weatherboard converted school house where we stayed in Maurice's spare room. That's it. There is nothing else. My 4xgreat-grandmother, Catherine Fletcher and her ancestors were from this area - Inveroran and Glen Orchy.

DAY 8
After a night of listening to rain battering our windows and wind roaring in the Caledonia pines, the morning dawned much calmer. However, we donned all our wet weather gear before heading out, grateful to be walking along an old road and not deep in the mud and peat bogs of Rannoch Moor on our way to Glen Coe.

The road took us through the northern edge of what was once the Earl of Breadalbane's Black Mount Deer Forest where my 4xgreat-grandfather, Donald Duff, worked as a forester from the early 1820s to 1855. The earl's Black Mount Lodge was hidden from the road by pine forest, obviously still very exclusive and private. We did see a land rover being driven out by a man who looked rather like Sean Connery, and the ruins of a stone cottage and what looked like a folly, a pretend ruin popular in grand Victorian gardens.

The showers were not frequent and the views were far more amazing than expected. The clouds were kind enough to allow us to see the Black Mountains on our left:

They disappeared a few times as showers blew through.

 To our right lay 130 square kms of Rannoch Moor:

It was raining when we arrived at Glen Coe Mountain Resort (which is not very resorty), in time for a warming baked potato for lunch.

Our accommodation for the night was called a Hobbit House. Fortunately, neither of us had to brave the elements during night to go up to toilets 50 metres away. It was snowing up on the mountain top where snow boarders and skiers are still enjoying themselves.

 Inside our Hobbit House, which is actually what they are called, we had a heater, power points, a jug and sleeping bags. It was very cosy and comfy, but an inside loo would have been nice.