Largs – the original name means “the slopes” in Scottish Gaelic – and was the site of the last Viking battle in Scotland, in 1263.  What was also interesting about that time, was that approximately 100 Viking war ships were moored on Loch Long, right in front of my holiday home (you can view pictures of the holiday home here – and just imagine how impressive and scary it must have been back then to have 100 Viking ships so close you could almost touch them…  http://luxuriousnomad.com/scotland)

Now, it is a lovely, peaceful area…

 

Just before lockdown started in Scotland (again), I went for a drive to Kilmartin.  I have been here before, but wanted to spend additional time looking at the Templar graves and ancient standing stones in the area.

Driving through the lovely village of Arrochar on Loch Long…

…to a diversion due to another landslide (just one of the parts of life when one lives in the mountains)…

…through Inverary (that the Duke of Argyll (it’s his castle you will see in a minute on the right) says is pronounced In-ver-reh-ra…  Who am I to argue?  🙂 )

…and eventually arriving in Kilmartin…

 

~ Bella

 

For weeks, this is what it has looked like in my lovely Scotland holiday home… as I pack up to leave on the next stage of my travels…

I managed to get in a final few hours in the hot tub, breathing in the scenery, thanking the tree for its lovely shelter all this time…

These were my amazing movers – if ever you need a moving company in Scotland, MintBox Removals were WONDERFUL!  Thank you all…

Final drive locally…

 

…and then I said a sad farewell as we headed to Glasgow to pick up my rental car and drive to Heathrow, via Shrewsbury to catch up with a girlfriend…

The girls at Sixt were awesome!!!

…and Jodie gave me the quote of the century…  I had a credit on my account, so she said she would see if I could get an upgrade… and then said:

“We cannot upgrade you because you already have the very best there is…”

That is now my new life quote!

…and I fell in love with the top of the line Range Rover Sport – I cannot possibly imagine a more perfect vehicle for me!  She was right – I had the very best possible!

I arrived at the hotel in Shrewsbury and before even going up to my room (that, being in an historic building, was up a windy, tiny set of stairs that I only wanted to navigate once), decided to ensconce myself in the bar before retiring…

~ Bella

 

If this castle looks familiar, it might be because you have seen one or more of these movies:

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Early morning it was a misty start to the day, but the weather quickly cleared to be most magnificent!  Perfect for our road trip!  My dear friend Douglas and I went in search of Eilean Donan Castle…

The magical, Eilean Donan Castle…  First inhabited around the 6th century, castellated around the 13th century, and significantly damaged during the Jacobite uprising in 1719, Eilean Donan lay in ruins for the best part of 200 years until Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap bought the island in 1911 and proceeded to restore the castle to its former glory. The castle was re-opened in 1932.

 

After a series of wild and woolly days, we had a magnificent day here so, although I only had about three hours or so until I had a commitment, a topless Baby Jaguar and I hit the road to blow out the wintery cobwebs…

These are the Falls of Dochart at Killin, taken from the one-lane bridge that crosses over them…

…and back to home sweet home…

~ Bella

Leaving the stone circle, I headed to the Kilmartin Church to see the extraordinarily fine sculptured stones, ranging in date from the 900s to the 1600s.

~ Bella

A lovely day for a drive so I went in search of prehistoric stone circles and cairns (ancient burial sites) around Kilmartin, Scotland, reported to be over 5,000 years old – five THOUSAND years!  My goodness…

…through beautiful Inverary…

~ Bella

Before we get into saving Edward, a rather eclectic family came to visit…  Two swans, a goose, and a duck!

OK, if you recall in my last post, I shared poor Edward’s sad and sorry state after almost twenty years of being out in the weather, and being attacked by woodworm and other assorted bugs…

After treating him with two different types of bug assassination goop, it was time to being the restoration……starting with building up all the areas that have been munched by bugs…  It will take me a few sessions of doing this to slowly build up his form, but at least he and I are getting there… slowly…

It’s cool – looks like he was caught in a snow-storm!

~ Bella