Letters Home - Scotland
by Leslie Shalduha
November 29, 2025 Hiho, Hiho, Off to the Highlands We Go
When last I left you, we were about to embark on a vacation to an airbnb for a few days before our next sit. Let's just say it was not a vacation.
After pulling our suitcases for over twenty minutes, through the rain, uphill and on uneven surfaces, we arrived at our lodging from the train station. The hosts had said it was a ten minute walk or an uber could pick us up at the station. None of that was true. The lodging was in a big, beautiful old manor house that looked like a small castle. The grounds were lovely. That is where the vacation stopped. As I reached in the door lock box to get the key, I also grabbed a dirty band-aid. We entered the unit and discovered it only offered heat in the form of one space heater in the bedroom. That's it, no other heat. When we used the kitchen appliances, it blew the fuses and nothing worked in the kitchen. The maintenance guys were housed right above us and clomped around until after midnight and starting again at 5 am. When the maintenance guy went in our unit to fix the fuse, he left our door open and unlocked, which we discovered after returning home hours later from a mostly unsuccessful hunt for food in the small town. I will spare you further details on this unfortunate situation but I will say we left after only two nights and managed to get a partial refund.
Before we checked out, we took a train to Edinburgh to rent a car for our next sit which was in the Highlands and arranged to go back to Sue and Vee's house for a night's stay before coming to Inveraray for this stay. How wonderful that Sue and Vee welcomed us back in! When we arrived at their place in the evening, they had a roaring fire ready for us and were waiting for all the juicy details of our misadventure. It felt like coming home and was so sweet. The next morning Vee took us into Stirling for groceries then they fed us tasty butternut squash soup before seeing us off.
Yes, you read that right. I have been driving in this backwards country. We drive on the left side and even more concerning is that the steering wheel is on the right side of the car! For good or bad, the rental car guy decided to do me a "favor" and upgrade me to an suv that is way bigger than I wanted and not fabulous for driving the narrow, winding roads of the Highlands!
For the most part I think I have the hang of driving here but struggle a bit still with which side to pull out on at an intersection and more concerningly, which direction cars are coming at me from. It is sort of like math. Which is neither my strong suit, nor Emma's, so we may take a little longer than the average person here when making those turns. And the roundabouts here—holy moly, do they like 'em. In fact, they like them so much that in some cases they simply paint circles on the ground and we all pretend it is a real roundabout.
This last sit was for a two week period. We sat for two kitties, Lucy and Larry*, who did finally accept us but were very independent. Occasionally Lucy wanted my lap if I had a computer on it. Larry came over to make biscuits and purr beside me as I wrote these words. They have been very easy to care for and it has allowed us a lot of freedom to explore.
The home itself is a large mountain lodge type place with high ceilings and a loft at each end reached by wooden spiral stairs. They sure love their spiral stairs in this country. We are located right on Loch Awe, the longest freshwater loch in Scotland, which I was looking at as I wrote this. Very big windows look out to it and there are often sheep, with blue and red paint on them, grazing in the field between the house and loch. There are varying opinions on why the sheep are painted here but it is funny to see the colorful little buggers all over the countryside. We are surrounded by hundreds of oak trees, which are shorn of leaves, their spidery limbs covered in usnea, or old man's beard, and trunks with lush, green moss from which ferns sprout. We built many a fire in the cylindrical wood stove and cozied up with our ridiculous Australian cattle ranch soap opera in the evening. I enjoyed my reading and writing time at those great big windows looking out at the loch, watching sunrise come on and the fog dissipate.
The nearest town is Inveraray, about 10 miles away. There are about six or so houses in the little pocket where we stayed, and a big old historical hotel that shut down for good almost as soon as we arrived so we did not get to check it out, sadly. We met and made friends with a neighbor; once for tea, for that initial get to know you and one day she drove us to the nearest city, Oban, and another time I joined her and her magnificent giant dog for a long walk.
Upon our first visit into Inveraray, we found a farmer's market happening on the pier jutting out into Loch Fyne. It only happens once a month so how lucky were we! The town is a busy tourist spot in summer and no wonder—it is about as cute as it gets. Inveraray Castle, straight out of a fairy tale, is occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll and it is easy to see how this town looked back in the days of yore. The town's facade is high, white stone buildings that appear as a fortress with high arches to drive under to access parts of the town. We did not get to visit the castle, sadly, as they only offer access in summer so we could only drive by it and gaze longingly. We visited an historic bell tower in the center of town that is also closed for winter, though we were able to walk the grounds.
The very small town itself has shops, one cafe and three historic hotels with restaurants. We liked the George Hotel pub for atmosphere, with dry branches lining the ceiling and colored lights woven through them and rock walls lining the passageways. The one cafe called Brambles is pretty cute and we have gone in to do office hours or read several times. The glory of the town is the view of Loch Fyne and the hills (they say mountains)—absolutely spectacular.
We wanted to go into Oban, a nearby city where ferries take folk out to the islands. The neighbor said the road was pretty dicey and we might consider taking the train instead. We bought our train tickets but then she texted late that night and said she had to go in and would we like to ride in with her? This sounded like a good human quality time thing to do so we did! By the way, the road was totally fine and we drove it ourselves several times later. Funny how people have different perspectives on roads!
She dropped us in town while she ran her own errands and we explored a bit, looking of course for the ever elusive perfect cafe. We did find a nice spot for Emma to get her coffee, but not the kind of vibe to just hang out. Emma looked around on her map and found an interesting landmark called McCaig's Tower that was only a ten minute walk, so off we went. Well, it was not a ten minute walk. I would say twenty and when I say straight uphill, I mean straight uphill. It was a very heavy hill. However, we did survive and it was well worth it! What a view of the city below, with Oban Bay and islands surrounding the city.
After working up an appetite, we decided to grab a bite to eat and decided on Cuan Mor, a very nice restaurant with a great view of the bay and festive holiday decorations that reminded Emma of Yachats in Oregon. We sat next to four religious folks that looked like priests and nuns (I think those are not the correct titles) and tried our best to disguise our eavesdropping. It sounds as if they were "in town" to run errands and have medical appointments. Emma heard the nuns asking the priest about what was okay to order and they chose fish and chips. Fascinating to sit by them. We really wanted to converse with them and see what their story was, where did they come from. We suspect maybe from an island called Iona, where there is an operating Abbey and Convent still and the community is a practicing ecumenical Christian group. Next we wandered the streets for a bit, finding a very tempting bookstore where I purchased a road atlas of Scotland. Very excited to start marking our travels in that!! Then we went to the grocery store to stock up and met our neighbor for the drive home.
We did a big drive to explore; our goal was to reach the Glenfinnan Viaduct by way of a scenic drive through Glencoe. The Viaduct is a gorgeous train bridge, made famous in the Harry Potter movies, that Emma had on her list. It was a glorious scene, to be sure, and an engineering marvel. We arrived just before dark, in the rain, and there were still quite a few people there. I can only imagine what that is like in prime tourist season. Driving through the Highlands around Glencoe, we found snow-topped mountains and gorgeous scenery. We stopped at the Glencoe Visitor's Center and found the Wallowa County Nez Perce mentioned in the museum—how wild is that! We stopped in Fort William for a bite to eat in the fascinating old town. However, when leaving we discovered it to be quite larger than we thought and the traffic scared us off from buying our next home there.
Another day we pointed our nose toward the coastal town of Lochgilphead, just to see what lie in that direction. And we found paradise! Or shall I say we found the Oregon coast, familiarity and happiness. It was much warmer on the coast, very wet and rainy, with lush landscapes, historic towns and breathtaking views of the ocean. The town of Lochgilphead was not much to speak of, nor the other towns in the sense that they appeared sort of downtrodden. However, the historic buildings and houses were gorgeous. We found a cafe that was so cute, with a great view of the water that had a restaurant and bar at one end. Sadly, the owner was giving that area a deep cleaning and it felt as if we were sitting in a bottle of bleach, causing us to leave sooner than we wished. While there and studying the map (Emma via phone and me via atlas) Emma discovered a Duntrune Castle near the Standing Stones at Kilmartin Glen we were seeking. As we turned onto the correct road, a sign said "Weak bridge ahead, 4 miles." To which Emma freaked out, understandably. Like, can we have a little more information? Weak in what sense? Luckily, the castle was only 3.8 miles so we decided to take our chances. We followed a single lane track, bypassing the Standing Stones until our return trip. We never did find the weak bridge, only a sign saying Weak Road and decided we were safe. When we came to the castle road a sign said ‘Closed till April for visitors’ unless you were renting one of their holiday houses. Another castle fail though we could see it in the distance, a small castle on a rock jutting out into Loch Crinan.
On we carried, to see where the road would take us. A sign said a ferry crossing was ahead, so we followed the track which grew narrower and narrower until I was unsure if it were still a road. Eventually we found a pull-off area, parked and decided to walk the rest of the way. It was nice to stretch our legs, gawk at a few stone-built homes and breath in that fresh, coastal air for a bit. There was not much to see at the end of the road so turned back and started towards the stones. We found Moine Mhòr National Nature Reserve, though, and made a pit stop there to gawk at a peat bog landscape that began forming 5000 years ago. Magical. Next we finally arrived at the Stones, and wandered out into Kilmartin Glen to admire them. We had intended to touch them, to see if we could be sucked back into the 1740's, but a sign said it was bad luck to do so. We restrained ourselves, then, and just admired them along with the sheep in the field next door. Then we enjoyed our first car picnic in Scotland! Yahoo! Tuna on chips while the rain pattered on the car and we studied the map for where to go next. Rather than backtrack, we decided to follow the coast north towards Oban to see some more of the coastal route. Carnassarie Castle was along the way, but we decided against the mile uphill walk in the rain. Perhaps another time!
Kilchurn Castle was just around the corner from our sit, on the other side of Loch Awe. From the parking lot we walked out to it through Highland cow pastureland. It sits on a knoll, once completely surrounded by water, accessible during very low tide via a causeway. It is a shell of it's former glory with no roof, though still very majestic. We tramped through the boggy land around it, investigating every angle for possible entry, to no avail. The hills surrounding it remind me very much of Imnaha in Wallowa County, with sheep dotting the steep hillsides.
St. Conan's Kirk, in the village of Lochawe, is a magnificent church, built "recently" in the early 1900's. It was built by Walter Campbell who sadly did not even live long enough to see the finished church, but it has a fascinating story behind it and we really enjoyed walking through it. A fellow stopped us one day and shared lots of details with us. He was there preparing for their annual Christmas tree festival, which we sadly missed.
A few random things to share......
I am pretending that I have not injured my left shoulder/rotator cuff......which has not helped it get better, as you might imagine. For those of you that have experienced this, you may know that it only hurts when I try to lift my arm or move it behind me at all so as my Mama always said "Don't do that if it hurts."
I have big bacon problems here. They call ham bacon. They call normal (to us anyway) bacon Streaky Bacon. The times I have ordered bacon and received ham is disturbing. I have the hardest time remembering that. Streaky Bacon. What the heck.
Now we, gluttons for punishment, have arrived back to sit for Fred and Fancy again, the very first sit we did in Dunfermline. These are the dogs that were so strong (and perhaps the reason my rotator cuff is out of whack). We knew what we were coming into this time, so wish us luck!
I look forward to hearing back from you! We hope that you enjoyed some excellent family time over the holiday and are settling in for winter, nicely.