Scotland West Coast

Here is the B&B that we stayed in at Connel, Greenacre

Straight across the road was the beautiful Loch Etvie.



We went to Kilmartin. A town with a lot of Celtic history, Saxon, Pics, Vikings all were here at some point. We visited Kilmartin House Museum. Here the kids ground wheat into flour, played ancient musical instruments, and lots of press button interactive activities. There are many ancient sites in the Kilmartin valley and in the Museum there is a map that will show you where different things are, such as types of buildings or types of burial grounds. You press buttons and lights come on across the valley where these sites are located. There is also a lovely cafe looking out over the valley at one of the burial mounds. We had a snack before going for a walk around the area.

We went to the Kilmartin Graveyard, where we saw pirate graves headstones, kids were impressed. There was also a group of medieval headstones from 11th Century to the 17th Century, propped up in an old stone room with no roof. The details were amazing. Next we walked around the corner to an open park, the kids found a football and kicked it around for a while. Then the local senior soccer team started to turn up, so we headed for the look out over the Kilmartin Valley. We drove to Oban for a late lunch of fish and chips on the front. We watched the boats go in and out to the islands, the car ferry turned up as well and then we fed the remains of our meal to the seagulls.

Views of Oban Harbour


We headed back to Connel for a rest. MLR and I decided to go for drive and check out the playground situation. We were not very successful. We crossed the single lane Connel cantilever bridge across the Falls of Lora. It was built in 1903 for the railway, and is now only for cars.



On the other side of the loch, there is the rest of Connel, it is much more isolated on this side. We found magnificent views across Loch Etvie. We passed someone I had seen at McTavish's the other night. Eventually we found a castle to visit.
Dunstaffnage castle is built on a rock in the 13th century. As it was late MLR and I had to run from place to place. MLR renamed it Bunny Castle as there were thousands of rabbits in the grounds.



Once we got back to the B&B we decided to have tea at the Oyster Inn, just down the road. We ordered our drinks at the table looking out across Loch Etvie. Then J had to collect the drinks from the bar. J and MLR ordered half a dozen oysters each, normally they order a dozen and share, but at the Oyster Inn they offered only a half dozen. When they arrived we knew why, they were the size of small steaks. As J tucked into his second one (au naturelle of course), MLR was tucking into her fifth one. No one can say she is afraid to try!!! If you want to try it too here is a link Oyster Inn, Connel.