The morning after we arrived at Mallaig the weather was stunning.
We took a quick stop at the Mallaig Cultural Center, then headed out to see what the road was going to show us today. With such beautiful blue skies, we had a lot to look at...
Looking west to the brilliantly named islands of Rum, Eigg, and Muck.
It was mountainous riding again, but with long climbs and descents, and vast views on huge old mountains. We climbed out of Mallaig, then descended to Loch nam Uamh, a significant loch in Scottish history.
This picture is loaded with good stuff. At the left, just above the rocks, you can see a cairn - more about at in a moment. In the distance, just on the loch, you see a railway viaduct. More about that, too.
Here's looking out straight from the shoreline. Beautiful. A wonderful day.
Bonny Prince Charlie's cairn marking the spot on Loch Nan Uamh where he both came to and left the Scottish mainland in 1746. This is the "traditional" landing spot, which means he landed really close to here, probably.
Here's another "Concrete Bob" viaduct. The pillar at the left-most of the picture has a particularly interesting story. It was long-rumored that a donkey and cart had fallen into the Glenfinnan viaduct while it was being built (remember Glenfinnan from a few weeks ago?). The posts were actually x-rayed, but came up empty. Then someone found a reference to the donkey tale, but related to this viaduct. So this one was x-rayed, and, sure enough, there IS a donkey (long-since deceased) and cart entombed within the column of the viaduct. Poor guy...
Remember also the steam train for a couple weeks ago? Well, this rail line runs from Fort William to Mallaig, which is the route of The Jacobite. We were listening for it all the while. And we JUST missed it at the Beasdale station. We were high above the track when we heard it coming down the line, but to turn around to the station was too risky because of traffic. Bummer! But we got to see it along the roadside and breath the coal smoke for a good half-mile or so, that was a treat.
Here's another great view of isle of Rum, with Eigg in the foreground.
Here's our lunch spot over Loch Shiel. We were at the other end of Loch Shiel when we were at Glenfinnan, looking at the railway viaduct.
Wait. What?
We finally made the turn into the B8007, the Ardnamurchan peninsula.
And it was GRUELING. It was roller-coaster up-and-down, racing at 20 mph one minute and grinding up a 15% grade the next minute. The road was sun-dappled, which was really pretty, and helped to distract us from the pain we were enduring from the aging road surface and terrain.
But, the scenery was, as usual, compelling.
We passed the Glenborrodale Castle, a privately held castle. The sign on the front gate says "Trespassers do so at your own risk." Not sure what that means, exactly, so we stayed outside the gate...
The outstandingly fine weather, couple with the breathtaking scenery, made it all worth it.
We found the Ardnamurchan distillery at Glenbeg. They are a new distillery, and are not yet selling aged whisky- the first bottle will be sold in 2022! We stopped in to check out their shop and watched a brief video about the distillery to take a break from the grueling riding. They explained that the design of their stills is based on the narrow and winding aspect of the road - no single component of the distillery is more then 3.3 meters wide!
We finally pooped out at 49.87miles, at this Beautiful campsite overlooking Ben Hiant and Mull.
September 17 - Mallaig to Ben Hiant Overlook on the Ardnamurchan via A830, A861 and B8007. Passed through Arisaig, Lochailort, Glenuig, Kinlochmoidart, Acharacle, Salen, Glenborrodale. Glorious weather. Very scenic! Total 49.87 very hilly miles.
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