Day 3: Adventures in Scotland
A Day of Detours
Day 3: Adventures in Scotland was one of those days when everything happened differently than we planned.
A friend had shared about a wonderful unexpected detour his family had enjoyed when they went to Glencoe. So we were somewhat prepared when we had our own Divine detour on the way to Glencoe.
I was warned that Google maps doesn’t always take you to your desired location. Because of all of the research for the Scotland Destination posts, I knew that the scenery didn’t look right. Thankfully I had internet the entire time in Scotland so I was able to look at Falls of Falloch on Destination: Stirling Council and see where we should be, because the West Highland Way detour was not it!
The information for the pictures taken on our West Highland Way Detour shows the location as: West Highland Way, Glen Falloch, River Falloch, Loch Lomond, Trossachs National Park, and A82. It shows everywhere BUT the Falls of Falloch! At least Google maps had us on the correct road, just parking about 10 minutes too soon.
We did enjoy our lovely detour. I’m not sure how to describe the scent of the air, the sound of the river, the birdsong, the breeze moving through the trees, and the feeling of deep peace. This truly was a Divine Detour!
Finally! The Actual Falls of Falloch
The Falls of Falloch was on our Must See list. It was every bit as wonderful as we expected it to be. There is something about the sound of the waterfall that is magical.
The fact is, the whole of day 3 was magical. As you will see, we were blessed with Divine Detours all day long!
The Green Welly Stop
The Green Welly Stop was another place on our Must See list. A friend told me that she and her daughter love shopping there. She also told me that she always stops at Clachaig Inn in Glencoe, so that’s where we planned to have dinner.
Being a horse girl I was hoping to find fabulous wellies. It’s so hard to find decent mud boots that I didn’t even care if they were budget friendly. It just so happens that The Green Welly Stop had the best mud boots that I have ever owned. I did get to use them a few times in Scotland, and I proudly wear them here in our lovely Pacific NW mud season.
All of the Scotland travel blogs warned about the tiny Scottish dragons that they call midges. For us in the US, think no-see-ums with BIG teeth. There is a midge repellent, only available in the UK, called Smidge. We were happy that we were able to get Smidge at The Green Welly Stop. When we were walking through midges we were exceptionally grateful that we had it and that it worked for both of us! Another thing that I learned on the Scotland travel blogs is that if there are midges, keep moving. That is exactly what we did when we walked through a huge cloud of midges. Neither of us got a single bite, thanks to that information and Smidge.
Not only does The Green Welly Stop have fun shopping, it’s a gas station. It was a bit of a shock that first time getting gas. I’m accustomed to paying with my credit card at the gas pump. However, in Scotland you go inside to pay after you gas up, whether you are paying with cash or card. The trust and honesty was refreshing.
When we left The Green Welly Stop we weren’t expecting that the Falls of Falloch detour was only the first time our day would go differently. Perhaps I should add that we were learning that God’s plan for our day is always much better than our plan! In this case, it was an answer to our prayers for safe traveling mercies.
The Road to Glencoe
We left our Callander AirBnb early enough for all of our planned stops on the way to Glencoe. Both of us were excited about the Glencoe Turf House Tour at the Glencoe Visitor Centre. Unfortunately we didn’t make it there in time for the 2pm tour. There had been a bad car accident close to the Wee White House and all of the traffic was stopped going into Glencoe. If we hadn’t had the West Highland Way detour, we would have been VERY CLOSE to that accident.
It was getting to be lunch time as we were sitting on the side of the road. Since we were stuck there, we had a road side picnic in the car!
We felt very blessed to be enjoying the incredible views while munching Isle of Mull cheese and Scottish biscuits. Even with the seemingly endless row of cars, it was like being in one of the George MacDonald or Michael Phillips books that we had read to prepare for our trip. I could imagine that one of the heroes of the Legend of the Celtic Stone books would come riding out of the hills!
Another Detour
A kind Rabbies tour guide told us it was going to be a 3-4 hours wait for the wreck to be cleared.
The map app gave a travel time of 1 hour 55 minutes to go around the back way. It took a bit longer with all of the road work along the way. We ended up driving through Argyll and Bute to get to Glencoe. There was gorgeous scenery that I never in my wildest dreams imagined seeing on this trip!
Another Google Maps Relocation
Glencoe actually has two Visitor Centres. (Center/US spelling v.s. centre/UK spelling) I put Glencoe Visitor Centre in my phone GPS, thinking that we were heading to the National Trust for Scotland Glencoe Visitor Centre. That visitor centre is the first place you come to when going into Glencoe our original route. Instead, Google Maps directed us to Ballachulish Visitor Centre, which is just as you come into Glencoe on our detour route. At this point we were desperate for toilets and ready for a break. Since we had already missed our Turf House Tour, we took the opportunity for a little shopping. We both found lovely Scottish wool gifts.
Another Change in Plans for Day 3
The original plan was to be in Glencoe much earlier. As you can see in Destination: Highland Council Part 4, I had places where we could park and walk to a lot of different views and shops. Our day had been upended, so we decided our next stop would be Crafts & Things. As is often the case in Scotland, parking was an issue. As we drove down the road looking for parking, we came across a fabulous local art gallery. Glencoe Studio Gallery has different mediums of art work by Caroline Cooke. It is a truly delightful studio that I completely missed in all of my Google searches of places to go and see in Glencoe.
Finally! NTS Glencoe Visitor Centre
Late in the afternoon we finally made it to the National Trust for Scotland Glencoe Visitor Centre. It only took all day and several detours, but we finally made it to what was supposed to have been our first stop in Glencoe.
Do I wish that we could have been there for the Turf House Tour? Yes. Would I trade the tour for our beautiful drive the other way around or discovering the fabulous art studio? No. At this point, we couldn’t imagine that our day could be any more perfect. We just didn’t realize that God wasn’t finished blessing us!
National Trust for Scotland Glencoe Visitor Centre 
Winding Down the Day…
After exploring the Glencoe Turf House and Visitor Centre, we were ready for the day to wind down. We started our day 3 adventure by leaving Callander just before 8am. About 11:30am we had our picnic lunch on the side of the road. By the time we left the NTS Glencoe Visitor Center, it was 4pm. This had already been a very full day and it was getting late to visit museums or shops. Most places close by 5pm, even though it is still light until 11pm in June.
We were getting hungry so we decided to have a early dinner. Plus after spending a good portion of the day in the car, we wanted to end our day with the walk to Loch Achtriochtan.
Clachaig Inn
This gorgeous view of Glencoe scenery was part of the charm of Clachaig Inn, along with the delicious meal. In Scotland I was able to enjoy all of the food! After this trip, I discovered that I’m only allergic to wheat grown in the US. It was also amazing that I didn’t have any sensitivity to dairy, sugar, or nuts in Scotland. Trust me, I ate my heart out!
We shared a Aberdeen Angus Beef Burger served in a pretzel bun topped with Lockerbie cheese and with a side of chips. There are no pictures because everything looked and smelled so amazing I didn’t even think to get photo evidence until it was too late! We followed up our incredible meal with Sticky Toffee Pudding. At Clachaig Inn there is the option of having it served with cream, ice cream or custard.
Of course I asked the expert who was taking our order which one she suggested. She said that her favorite is with custard. OH. MY. GOODNESS! Sticky Toffee Pudding is life-changing-awesome! We had really good sticky toffee pudding other places, but nothing quite lived up to this sticky toffee pudding. And our server was right. It is best with custard, or at least with their custard. After our hearty, and extremely delicious meal, we definitely needed the walk to Loch Achtriochtan.
Walk to the Loch
I’m just now realizing that with our evening walk to the loch, we saw the main things that I wanted to see on our drive to Glencoe: the famous Glencoe Wee White House and Coe River Waterfalls.
The End of the Day
We still had a bit of a drive to the AirBnB in Fort William. Day 4 was on the Isle of Skye, so I wanted to end the day part way in between.
With all of our stays I tried to get a central location. I was also thinking about where we were coming from and where we were going next. For the most part, the stays were all fairly budget friendly. My search criteria was free parking, WiFi, and cancelation. I searched all of the booking apps and Google. In the end, all of the stays were through AirBnB. Burntree House was a perfect location with an awesome host and so much more charm than I expected in a neighborhood!
Each of the first 3 days in Scotland were so different. Every night we asked ourselves the question, “How can tomorrow even come close to being as fabulous as today?” And every day as we traveled in Scotland we were newly awed by the amazing things that we saw and did. By day 3 our vocabulary dropped to, “Wow… Oh, WOW!” or, “Gorgeous! Absolutely GORGEOUS!” In fact, as a little bit of a teaser, if you think day 3 was spectacular, the next two days are on the Isle of Skye. For me, Skye was a bucket list destination. I’ve dreamed of visiting Scotland since I was a little girl and the Isle of Skye was my most longed for destination. I can’t wait to share my day 4 discoveries with you!
