Day 3 - Around Glencoe
I went for a run but then it rained heavily for a couple of hours. We went to the visitor centre and were told of 3 good, not too strenuous walks in the area. When it stopped raining we did one of these which started close to Glencoe village and went around Lochan. This was very scenic and took us through some lovely woodland as well as around the lake.
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We then went for a short walk in Glencoe village where we saw some Red Deer in a field behind houses.
After lunch we went to the Highland Titles Nature Reserve. This is where Paul bought me a plot of land as a wedding present which gives me the title of Lady Dalby of Glencoe. We had arranged a tour of the estate and this was beyond interesting. We were taken around the estate by electric buggy which was great as it is very hilly.
They are gradually removing the non native trees that were planted in the 1940s and replacing with native trees, including the Scots Pine which is near to extinction. They have some highland cattle and pigs which eat a lot of the troublesome plants, like bracken. They have a hedgehog hospital and care home. Recently they built a huge insect hotel which is recognised as the biggest in the world and is in the Guinness Book of Records. They run many educational tours for local schools and have several bee hives, all brightly painted by the schoolchildren.
We then did a walk along the river to a waterfall, still within the estate grounds.
Finally we watched birds on the feeders. There were mainly blue tits, great tits, coal tits, chaffinches and siskins.
One of the most interesting things that our guide told us was about the bluebells. This years display is the most spectacular they have ever seen. Bluebells are appearing in small clumps in places they have never grown before. They are not sure why this is. It cant be birds as the bulbs need to be quite deep. She also told us of a field of bluebells with a very intense colour between the main road and Loch Linnhe. Paul and I went to see them afterwards and they are a very deep blue and completely cover much of this field with a few more on the roadside verge.
We went to eat early tonight intending to have fish and chips but the shop was closed. Plan B was a Pizza takeaway not too far away but this was also closed, as was a burger takeaway. We ended up going back to Fort William.
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