West Highlands & Hebrides, Scotland Day 3 - Glencoe & Onich
The morning of Day 3 was misty. Since we did a challenging up-hill walk a day before, we were going to enjoy some easy short walks around Glencoe. We started with Glencoe Lochan Trail. It was supposed to be a woodland trail around a small lake called Glencoe Lochan. Who could guess it requires a lot of up and down hill walks? Anyway, we had a lovely short walk and a chance to meet a cute pair of ducks.
Before hitting the next trail, we visited the site where Hagrid's hut was filmed. Here I am talking about Harry Potter in case. It took some time to find out the exact spot but we managed it! There was a tiny flat spot on a sharp slope covered with ferns, on which the hut must have been built. It's hard to imagine how the filming crews worked with all the equipment in such an isolated place.
We stopped by at a lodge nearby the site for a cuppa break and went to walk on Signal Rock and An Torr trail. It was another woodland trail with a up-hill walk. Well, Signal Rock was used by the people of the glen for ceremonial activities for thousands of years and as a beacon where the MacDonalds of Glencoe would gather in times of emergency. Therefore, it should be on a hill; we would climb up. Perhaps, there is no flat trail in Glencoe.
We saw a sign at Signal Rock that told us if you keep climbing, you can reach the top of the hill with a beautiful view, or something like that. We followed it and found the top surrounded with bushes and trees. No view at all. Probably the sign was made a long time ago before those plants were grown so much.
We found a better high spot on our return walk. Overall, it was a nice walk!
It was time for lunch! We made a reservation at a popular, high-end seafood restaurant, Lochleven Seafood Café in advance. It was located on the other shore of Loch Leven. The Michelin guide restaurant had a terrace serving with lake views but we chose a table inside. We both ordered scallops, a half Scottish lobster, and steamed greens. They looked nice, but honestly both taste and texture of the seafood didn't impress us.
We headed to another trail after lunch. It was in Onich, a village on the east shore of Loch Linnhe, located between Glencoe and Fort William. There were two trails: forest trail and waterfall trail. We started with forest trail. I wasn't surprised with the fact that the trail came with a lot of up-hill path. It has been the theme of the day. What really surprised me was there was no much forest left! The large field on the trail was bare. Why did someone cut all precious trees?! There was a quarry on the hill top. Maybe the deforestation is to expand the quarry? Whatever is going on, the scenery was sad.
There was a bright side. The good view out to Loch Linnhe on our way down and walking along with purple flowering heathers cheered us up.
As the car park was getting close, we saw Inchree Falls over there! They were far away but we could hear the sounds of waterfalls.
When we were back to the car park, we took a short path to the waterfalls. The extra walk was worth enough!
When we came back to the village of Glencoe, the clouds started breaking up. We drove up to Loch Achtriochtan viewpoint, located to the east of Glencoe village to admire the magnificent Glen one more time.
To be continued...
