Scotland part 2

We arrived in Ardfern in the absolutely pouring rain around 5pm. It was a short 10 minute walk to our Air BNB from the bus stop, and we were absolutely drenched by the time we arrived. We meet the air BNB host, Bridgette, and spent a nice quiet afternoon and evening in the cosy air BNB.

The next day, on Bridgette’s recommendations, we went to the small village of Kilmartin which was about 30 minutes away by bus. Before getting the 1015am bus, we put our names down for dinner at the pop up restaurant at the marina. Once we arrived in Kilmartin, we had breakfast at a nice lookout through the valley, before having a coffee at the museum cafe. From here, we walked down the hill and through the ancient burial grounds and monuments scattered along the valley, finishing at the Templewood stone circle. These monuments were really interesting and were upto 5000 years old!

We walked back to Kilmartin and caught the 130pm bus back to Ardfern, stopping at the Catchacarrot vegan cafe, for cakes and tea before heading back to the air BNB. The afternoon was spent lazing about, before dinner on the marina at 6pm. We ate a delicious barley and vegetable casserole with an amazing chocolate fudge for dessert. We also met some friendly locals from both Ardfern and Tobermory here, who kindly shared their wine with us. We had a short stroll around town before heading to bed.

The following day, we left the Air BNB around 11am and had a big day of walking planned. The first stop was the end of peninsula, near Aird, which took a couple of hours to get to, and we stopped here for lunch and a tea. There were good views from here over the sea and of the surrounding islands, Jura and Scarba. It rained a little on the way back to town, and we headed inland towards, the peak of Barr Mor. We couldn’t find the path to the top of the hill/lookout here, but the views were still good. From here, we headed back into town to get some food for dinner and settling in at the air BNB for the evening.

We were heading back to Edinburgh the following day, and we were picked up at 930am by a local friendly driver, Spike, who took us to Lochgilphead to catch the 1015am bus to Glasgow. The bus trip back to Glasgow was beautiful, and it was a short walk from the bus station to the train station where we caught the train back to Edinburgh, arriving at 230pm. We were excited to explore the Fringe festival this afternoon and evening, and the first live music we saw was a local man outside our hostel, Edinburgh backpackers and he was great.

After checking in, we strolled the streets and soaked in the amazing atmosphere with a drink and watched more free live music from a young acoustic aussie guy and another young man who played some funky tunes on a bass. The next act we saw was a live female comedian, who was quiet funny, in a pub called the labyrinth. For dinner, we had a roasted spud before heading to another pub where more traditional Scottish music was played and we got amongst the fun and energetic line/barn dancing. The last show we saw of the evening was a mystery comedy show which was OK and we headed back to the hostel where we didn’t have such a great sleep due to inconsiderate guests again, or maybe we’re just too old for dorms.

We were up early the next morning, as we were woken by the other guests, and we also wanted to hike to Arthur’s seat. So we left the hostel around 9am and enjoyed the cool weather and great views over Edinburgh from Arthur’s seat. We got back to the hostel around 11am and cooked up a storm before doing some souvenir shopping and heading to the airport by bus around lunch. Our flight back to Amsterdam left at 430pm getting us there around 7pm.