Monday 23rd June

After breakfast, we headed straight over the the ferry terminal and made our way to Mallaig, yet again across very calm water. We saw some dolphins in the distance, although it would have been nice to see them closer!!

Once at Mallaig, we made our way to Glenfinnan and it's monument on the edge of Loch Shiel.  It's 18 metres high (60 feet) and was built in 1815 to mark the place where Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard, at the beginning of the 1745 Jacobite Rising.  We went up the tower and did a woodland walk before buying sandwiches to eat for lunch later, especially as today was a bit of a road trip.  After we had stopped off to eat our lunch at an appropriate little picnic spot, we went onward to Castle Tioram which is currently a ruin and almost completely grown over inside.  This is Mathew's favourite castle which he fancies owning!  It sits on an island known as Eilean Tioram, and after several changes of ownership now belongs to an anonymous and wealthy owner who outbid the Clan Ranald by three times the amount of money they had raised to buy it, and wanted to turn it into a hotel.  Fortunately, Historic Scotland refused the planning proposal and as a result the building has become so overgrown.  It's unknown as to what's going to happen to it.

Onward we went until we arrived at our next stop, Lochaline.  We were staying right next to the loch and Hotel Lochaline looked like an old fashioned, traditional inn with a bar, and our room was bright and comfortable.  We had dinner in the bar downstairs which was basic pub grub - we both had fish and chips.