Cottage Diary - Aspenwood self catering luxury Holiday Cottage overlooking Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland.

Making the most of a beautiful Sunday we packed a picnic and set off for the day. Drove through Fort Augustus and headed down to Invergarry. Here we turned off onto the road towards Skye passing some breath-taking scenery and parked up at Loch Cluanie. The reflection of the snow capped mountains in the loch was almost unbelievable with no breeze at all to disturb the calm water. Continued driving along The Road to the Isles with some enormous snow topped mountains looming up on both sides making us suddenly feel very small. Passed several Munros including The Five Sisters and The Saddle,all well over 1000metres. Empty cars parked along the road meant that the occupants were out Munro-bagging and good luck to them. Drove alongside Loch Duich and stopped to go round Eilean Donan Castle. The name means Island of Donan and was named after the 6th century Bishop Donan who came to Scotland from Ireland in AD 580. Apparantly there has been a castle here since medieval times but the layout has changed several times and then systematically blown up in 1719. The remains of the castle lay neglected for nearly 200 years until it was painstakingly restored by its new owners between 1912 -1932. The causeway bridge connecting the castle to the mainland was only built in 1932 so originally it really was an isolated castle surrounded by water.
All very interesting but lunch beckoned. Continued on our way towards the Isle of Skye and parked within the sight of the famous Skye Bridge for a most enoyable picnic before crossing over onto the island. A good day out was had by all.