A couple of nights in Stirling

This week we travelled to Lochinver on the north west coast of Scotland. It is a nine hour journey by car from our home in Yorkshire so we broke the distance by staying for a couple of nights in Stirling.
We travelled to The King Robert Hotel on the Thursday, but as there were six of us we had booked into Bruce’s Cottage which is in the grounds of the hotel. The cottage was set out well for six adults and very clean and comfortable. We ate in the restaurant at the hotel. The food was excellent and exceptionally good value.

On the Friday, after a good nights sleep, we had breakfast before setting off to the Falkirk Wheel a short drive away. The wheel is the world’s only rotating boat lift, created to assist the swift passage of canal boats, rather than taking over five hours to travel up a flight of eleven locks. The gondola takes about five minutes to rotate, lifting the boats thirty five metres to connect with the canal above.
It’s a pretty impressive sight from the ground and the mechanism and engineering behind it blew my mind. On the boat however it is very difficult to tell that you are even moving. Before you know where you are, you are high up on the canal overlooking the vast Scottish landscape.

After leaving the boat, the rain began pouring down, so we decided to head of towards the Helix Visitors Centre where we had a lovely lunch after which the rain had stopped a little. We then went outside to walk around the amazing Kelpies. They are a pair of thirty metre sculptures of steel horse heads, rising out of the ground in spectacular fashion. The sculptures are a fabulous sight and well worth a visit.
As it stayed fine we walked further up the road and around the lake before heading back to the car before the rain came again.

We went back to the hotel for our evening meal and had another good night’s sleep before getting up to start the remainder of our journey to Lochinver. After picking up our shopping from the local Tesco, we went for breakfast at the nearby River House Restaurant. The food was absolutely gorgeous and the surroundings equally so!

Travelling towards Lochinver, we took another very slight detour to the scenic area of Aviemore. We visited the ski centre for a coffee break and a leg stretch. The ski centre was impressive, with lots of activities to do outside of the ski season.
We then continued our journey north, towards Lochinver, another 3 hours away. The drive takes you through some stunning countryside and panoramic views. Seeing deer in the wild as you are travelling through is an added bonus.
We finally arrived at our home for the week, Waterloo Lodge, high upon the hillside overlooking the harbour of Lochinver with a stunning view of Suilven.