Loch Ness, pizza, and the famous bridge
The next day we got back on the road to Invermoriston, where we stopped to actually feel the water of Loch Ness. It’s cold. Properly cold. We took our pictures, gave it a minute in case Nessie fancied an appearance (she did not, rude), and moved on.
We stopped in Fort William for lunch: wood oven pizzas and craft beer, exactly what you want after a morning of driving. Then back in the car, on to Glenfinnan.
Glenfinnan is one of those places that’s famous twice over. There’s the Glenfinnan Monument, put up in 1815 at the head of Loch Shiel to mark the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, raised his standard in 1745 and kicked off the last Jacobite Rising (I learned all this after trying to read Outlander, mind you). And then, a short walk away, there’s the viaduct: 21 curving arches, built around the turn of the last century, that most people now know as the Harry Potter bridge, thanks to a certain scarlet steam train crossing it in the films.
We hiked all the way up to see it. We did not wait around for the famous red train (the Hogwarts Express Jacobite, for anyone wanting the real name), but we did see a blue one go by, so I’m counting us lucky regardless. The views up there are ridiculous: a loch, mountains on every side, and green stretching out further than felt reasonable. We spotted deer in the wild, water running everywhere you looked, and wildflowers absolutely everywhere. (Wildflowers are actually in line for my next tattoo, maybe after a dragon or two, so this felt like a sign.) There was rain too, obviously. It’s Scotland. It’s part of the deal.
From there, back in the car, on to Oban, where we’d be staying for a couple of days.
The curfew no one told us about
In Oban we learned something funny. Not funny-haha, funny-inconvenient: there is an actual law in Scotland that cuts children off from pubs and restaurants serving alcohol after a certain hour. It used to be a strict, nationwide 8pm for everyone, no exceptions. It is under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. Children are not completely banned from pubs, but local licensing boards and individual venues set strict rules on where, when, and how children can enter1. These days each premises sets its own exact cutoff, so the hour can shift a bit from place to place, but the law is still there, quietly making sure kids get turned out at some point every single evening, no matter where you are. Did you know that? Because we didn’t, and it was a genuine blow to the gut.
We arrived after 9pm, starving, and it was still very much daylight out (it stays light until well past midnight up there, which makes the whole thing feel even more absurd), and got turned away. We regrouped, went to Tesco, and bought something for dinner at the flat instead.
A castle, a museum, and islands
The next day we walked around the city and up to Dunollie Castle, which was absolutely beautiful. We’ve seen plenty of castles, so it wasn’t the castle itself that floored me so much as its placing: a ruined medieval tower, dating back to the early 1400s and the ancestral seat of Clan MacDougall for over 800 years, perched right above Oban Bay with the Inner Hebrides scattered across the water in front of it. Kerrera, Mull, Lismore, all sitting there like they were arranged for the view.
We also wandered through the museum on the grounds, the 1745 House, going from the Jacobite period all the way through to more recent Highland history. It was really pretty, and worth the wander.
We then sat down for lunch. Mussels for me, delicious. That evening, Keoshi and I went to try dinner just the two of us, since the kids weren’t allowed in wherever we’d chosen and stayed back with the grandparents instead. We had a proper meal, and caught a sunset that made the whole curfew debacle a little less ridiculous.
More to come.
1 – Scottish Government, Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 section 142: guidance for Licensing Boards, Chapter 12, published 13 January 2023, linked to the gov.scot page.
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