Scotland and Northeast England

NC500 to Oban

Hi again people and pooches. If you have read my recent blog about our North Coast 500 road trip, you may be wondering what happened when we left the route to head home. Well, it took a few days to get back to reality. We crossed Scotland and visited the North East of England. We had a ball on the way back. Not an actual ball, the type that my human throws, and I chase after, but you know what I mean. If you would like to find out more, please read on!

The weather deteriorated as we drove. It poured with rain, and new waterfalls were forming on the mountain slopes. Roads were partially blocked by huge puddles. I just slept and let soft lad deal with the obstacles.

Our first stop was at Eilean Donan Castle, at Dornie on the Kyle of Lochalsh. It dates back to the 6th century but wasn’t a fortified castle until the 13th century. My human wanted to see the outside of this iconic building, so when we discovered that it is definitely dog unfriendly, we weren’t too bothered. The large car park was almost full and lots and lots of tourists were milling around. The weather was wet and miserable, so my dad took a few photographs, and we moved on. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic place to visit. Its beauty and history are awesome. They just don’t want dogs there, and I am a dog, so I am a bit biased. They offered for my dad to leave me unattended at the entrance, in the rain, while he went inside. I think not. I wasn’t allowed in the cafe or gift shop either. It’s fine. We wanted to see the exterior in its magnificent setting, and that was enough for us.

My hudad, or human dad, was singing ‘Why Does it Always Rain on Me?’ by Travis. Just to make things worse. It doesn’t always rain, and when it does, it’s not only on him. Get it right, big feller, you are not the only one here!

Oban Holiday Park was to be our home for the night. We booked in advance on AirBnB because of the horrible weather. We were so glad that we did because the pod was lovely. A little bit of luxury, where pods are concerned anyway. My human had driven 130 miles in pouring rain, and even I felt sorry for him. I had had a lovely warm and comfy sleep on my bed in the back of the car. It had taken us about 4 hours to drive from Lochcarron. We would have visited places on our way, but the weather had been so bad that he just wanted to get to Oban and then decide on our plans for the next few days.

We settled into our pod and relaxed for a short time while the big feller drank a couple of cups of coffee, and I had another snooze. It’s hard work being driven around Scotland. Honestly! After he was rested, we went for a walk around the site to check out the facilities. It was very quiet with hardly anyone on site.  http://highlandholidays.com is where you can find Oban Holiday Park, and we would definitely recommend it as being dog friendly.

We had heating, microwave, fridge, a hob, a kettle, plenty of storage space, and comfy beds. The rain was still heavy, and we were dry. Perfick! A trip back into Oban was next on the agenda. He donned his waterproof jacket, and I wore my waterproof fleece before we jumped into the car. The campsite is approximately three miles out of Oban on a narrow coastal road. It was a wee bit of a culture shock as we entered Oban. It was a larger and busier town than we had been in for the previous week on our NC500 trip. After spending a few minutes scouring the town for a convenient and central car park, we found a good spot. It wasn’t really the best weather for a lot of sightseeing so we concentrated on the harbour area. We found a few large gift shops that were dog friendly, and I suppose that we spent more time in them than we normally would as we hid from the rain. I know that I am rattling on about the rain a lot, but believe me, it was horrendous. I looked like a big drowned rat, according to laughing boy!

He had a craving for fish and chips. He spotted a neon sign for a chippy called Nories. You can’t miss the sign, it’s huge. I stood outside, in the pouring rain, while he ordered his food. They were cooking it fresh, so it took some time to arrive. Eventually, they said that it was ok for me to wait inside. By then, I was drenched. I really am treated quite inhumanely by my human. I need to sit him down and have words! He paid £16 for his fish and chips to takeaway. Expensive, he thought, but the fish was the size of a blue whale. There was no way that he would eat it all. I was in for a treat. We ran through the downpour back to the car and drove to the campsite with the irresistable odour of the food that we would be sharing, filling the air in the car.

We arrived back at the campsite a lot quicker than we had driven into Oban. He was on a mission! He piled his plate high with his grub and proceeded to fill his face. I sat by his feet, like the good boy that I am, drooling a little and awaiting my share. Scraps! Scraps, that’s all I got. He devoured the lot. I was horrified. Disgraceful behaviour. That is no way to treat a loyal and patient pooch!

Nighttime was rapidly approaching, and the rain had stopped. We went for a walk along the narrow coastal road. The wind had died down until the air was almost still. It was a little bit eerie as we had been in strong winds for over a week. I wasn’t complaining. It was a relief to not get a soaking. Every time I got a little bit wet on this trip, I would be man-handled by my human with a big towel. He almost rubbed my fur off on a few occasions. He is so heavy-handed. He seems to forget what a delicate little flower I am. That’s another item for my list of complaints when I contact the RSPCA.

We spent the next few hours chilling in the pod while he watched a TV series about a serial killer. It didn’t sound like a comedy. He downed a few drams while I snored my swede off, allegedly! Then it was lights out and some serious sleeping on my cosy bed and sleeping bag.

Oban to Falkirk

The next morning was overcast but dry with a strong breeze. The big feller had bought himself some provisions the previous evening to cook a Full Scottish Breakfast, or his version of one anyway. As you can see from the photograph, he had link sausages, lorne sausages, black pudding, haggis, potato scones, baked beans, eggs, toast, and a mug of coffee. I don’t think that it was a Weight Watchers recipe!

Singing isn’t my dad’s forte, but he insists on doing it. ‘Toast’ by Streetband was his choice to annoy me with that day. It’s more like talking to music than singing, and he knew one line only. Over and over and over again, he repeated ‘toast, a little piece of toast’. I need to be adopted!

The first hour or so of our drive saw us retrace some of our route from the previous day, albeit in better conditions, At least we could see some mountains and lochs as we travelled. The previous day was a wash out, really. We passed a few places that we recognised from our West Highland Way Walkies. My dad kept waking me up to ask if I remembered where we were. I’m a dog! He seems to forget that sometimes. Now, if we had stopped, I could have had a sniff around and probably recognised a pee stop!

We did stop eventually. The Falls of Falloch is a place where we passed by on our West Highland Way trip. We were on the opposite side of the river back then, passing the devastation caused by the heavy rain in October 2019 when I was a tiny pooch. It was raining that day in 2019, and it was still raining 4 years later. I was wondering if it had stopped at all between those dates. Sadly, a couple of days after this visit, the area was yet again devastated by torrential rain and severe flooding.

As you can see from the above photograph, I was forced against my will to pose for a picture on a slippery precarious rock in the rain with the falls as a backdrop. RSPCA methinks! I could have died. My dad thought that it was a lovely experience to visit the falls. He didn’t needlesly have to risk his life, unlike poor old me!

We called into Beinglas Campsite in Inverarnan, a few miles from the falls, where we had stopped when we hiked there. He had booked us onto the site in advance for that night. We had changed our plans and it was too early in the day to stay in that area. He had paid in advance so he asked the site manager if, rather than request a refund, if he could donate our pitch to the next hiker on the West Highland Way who had a pooch with them. The manager was delighted to grant his request and gave him a bottle of dog beer for me. My human can be nice sometimes! The beer was called Bottom Sniffer. How rude!

The site was completely flooded a couple of days later when the River Falloch burst its banks. We felt so sad for the inhabitants of the area and for the hikers on the West Highland Way.

The main reason for my dad booking Beinglas Campsite was that just over a small bridge from the site is the famous spooky pub, The Drovers Inn. When we were last at Beinglas, the bridge had been washed away due to heavy rain causing flooding in the vicinity. It was a three mile round trip hike from the site, and we were too tired to tag more miles onto the days hike. So, this was our opportunity to visit the pub. Initially, we wanted to spend an evening in the pub while there was live music being played, but a lunchtime visit was the best alternative. The pub is one of the oldest in Scotland and amongst a few that claim to be the oldest. It was built in 1705 and is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in the country. It sure is quirky with its stuffed animals, old Scottish weaponry, and creepy paintings. The staff were all really friendly and I was given treats by three of them. My dad said that his sandwich was really good, too. I don’t know if I would stay overnight in one of the spooky rooms, though. http://droversinn.co.uk is definitely dog friendly. Well, at least the pub part is, I can’t confirm whether the hotel section is as we did’t stay.

Approximately halfway down the western side of Loch Lomond is a picnic area with plenty of parking spaces, with lovely views across the loch. Well, reputedly lovely views. All that we could see was low-lying clouds and drizzle. I stretched my legs and went for a paddle, but we didn’t linger for long. It was a bit disappointing.

We considered a short walk around Stirling, but the weather was against us. It was hammering down again. We drove on towards Falkirk, which is now famous for the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies. If you haven’t heard of or seen either of these, then you really are missing out. We visited the Kelpies first because he wanted to see them in the daylight and then to return later to witness them in the dark. The Kelpies are two huge horse head sculptures situated in Helix Park, just outside of Falkirk. They represent mythical water horses. Each stands 30 metres tall and weighs approximately 300 tonnes. They are an awesome sight and are free to view. A tour can be taken inside of the sculptures, but pooches aren’t allowed. My human was not disappointed and not surprisingly it was a ‘WOW’ moment.

My human scoured the internet for a B&B in the Falkirk area. He found a small hotel in Bathgate, which is a 25-minute drive from Falkirk. The rate for the night seemed to be quite reasonable. But, when we arrived, he discovered that he had to pay £20 extra for me. There was no mention of this in the description. It stated that dogs were welcome. He paid it because he didn’t want to waste time looking for somewhere else, and the booking stated that the cost of the room was non-refundable. The room was small, which wasn’t a problem, but the shower was poor, the bath plug didn’t fit, and the tv was the size of a postage stamp. We thought it was pretty poor overall, but it was for one night, and we had stuff to do.

After we had rested up for a short while, we headed back out in search of somewhere dog friendly to eat. As we drove into the Falkirk area, we hit the rush hour traffic, took a wrong turn, and my human changed our plans. KFC and a bucket chicken for one while sitting in a car park. He likes to live a rock and roll lifestyle.

The next stop on our agenda was to be The Falkirk Wheel, the worlds’ only rotating boat lift. Sounds a bit boring, I hear you say. Far from it! Sadly, it was not in operation and the centre was closed until the next morning. We still managed to drive through the barrier to the complex and parked up next to the lift. It was dusk, and so the lift was illuminated. My human was chuffed, and I got to run around the area because the place was deserted. My dad was worried that the barrier wouldn’t lift to let us out when we were leaving, so we didn’t stay too long. He saw what he wanted except for the lift in operation. We will visit again sometime.

The wheel transfers canal boats from the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal35 metres below. It replaces a flight of 11 locks and reduces the transfer time from hours to 5 minutes. It is a stunning piece of engineering, and if you can’t visit it to see it operating, watch a YouTube video of it.

Just a 15-minute drive from the Falkirk Wheel is Helix Park, the home of the Kelpies. That was where we went to next to see them illuminated. Seeing them at night produced a proper ‘WOW! that is stunning’ moment from my dad. They change through a range of colours and look even more impressive at night.

We spent an hour or so at the Kelpies before returning to the hotel. My human fancied a drink in the bar before we went to the room, but it was completely empty, so we headed to the room. My dad watched some TV before we both went to sleep. We had another big day ahead of us.

Falkirk to Ashington

We got up at 8am to go to the dining room for breakfast. When my dad asked where should we sit, bearing in mind there was only one other person having breakfast in a large dining room, he was told that they would have to set a table for us in the bar. This was because of yours truly! Dog friendly? I think not. Why advertise it if you are obviously not dog friendly other than to take money off unsuspecting dog owners. My dad was none too happy. He ate the breakfast, which he said was OK, and we packed our gear up and left. People travelling with their pooches don’t be fooled by the Fairview Hotel in Bathgate.

The road to our next destination didn’t have too many distractions for us. Maybe if we had gone off the beaten track a wee bit, but we were heading for Lindisfarne or Holy Island. After crossing the border into England as we travelled southwards along the A1, we headed to the causeway to the island. My dad had checked the tidal times the previous day. It was safe to cross at 1030am on that morning. We arrived at 1010am so we were a little early. Just as we arrived, expecting to have to sit in a queue and wait for the receeding tide, we were waved across. My human loved driving along the road, which was, a few minutes ago, covered by the North Sea. He said that it is something special to be driving to a place that is shut off from the world twice a day.

Song of the day! ‘Fog on the Tyne’ by, you guessed it, Lindisfarne! He is so predictable.

We parked in the large visitors car park a short walk from the village before the hordes of tourists arrived. We headed straight to the castle so that we had it to ourselves. The castle was built in the 16th century on top of the rocky outcrop and became a private home in 1901. Owned now by the National Trust and is a very popular attraction. We wanted to see the outside of the iconic building, so we were pleased that we had arrived early before it opened up to the public. I had a great time running around the building and on the path to the sea.

We followed the path to the coast until it headed inland to a walled garden. The Gertrude Jekyll Garden was built in 1911 for Edwin Lutyens while he was converting the castle into a home. As soon as I walked through the gate, the smell of the herbs attacked my sensitive nostrils. It is a sniffing pooches paradise! As we rejoined the road that joined the village to the castle, the number of people and pooches was rapidly growing. We headed to the small harbour for a mooch around.

After a very blustery short visit to the harbour, we entered the small coastal village of Lindisfarne. It is a quaint and historical centre for the Christian religion. St. Aiden settled here in the 7th century, introducing Christianity to the north of England. St. Cuthbert lived on the island in the late 7th century. The village is home to a Benedictine Priory, and its remains can be toured. The parish church stands alongside the priory with some of its structure being a thousand years old. There is so much to see in a small area. I will leave my dads photographs to give you an idea of what is on offer. http://lindisfarne.org.uk is a great site to visit before you embark on a trip to the island.

My favourite part of the island is The Heugh, a small coastal hill next to the village. There are a few paths leading to its summit where the view is awesome. Bamburgh Castle can be seen down the Northumbrian coast, our next port of call. The Lookout Tower provided shelter from the weather while we admired the view over the priory, the harbour, the village, and the castle.

We spent a few hours in and around the village before my human said that his belly was rumbling. Before we left the area, my dad wanted to try some local crab. He only wanted a crab sandwich, which the pubs seemed to be charging £16 for. We spotted an outdoor cafe in the centre of the village that was charging £6 for the same thing. It was dog friendly too so he ordered a coffee and a butty. He was so impressed with his food. A generous portion of fresh white mouth-watering crab meat between lovely fresh brown bread. It was exactly what he was craving. The ladies who run The Island Shack (no website) were really friendly, too. We were happy to sit outside as the sun was shining and had a nice little rest before we were to leave the island. The village was really starting to fill up with visitors, so it was time for us to move on. We will definitely return one day.

A half-hour drive away is the impressive Bamburgh Castle that the big feller was excited to be visiting. We only wanted to see the outside of the castle even though some of the areas within the castle walls are dog friendly. They even offer a dog sitting service. We parked in Bamburgh’s main car park under the shadow of the castle and walked up the hill to the massive fortress. It has stood on this site for 1400 years and repelled various attacks from across the North Sea. The castle features in the Last Kingdom TV series as Bebbanburgh Castle. We walked to the sea side of the castle wall and dropped down the sand dunes to the huge expanse of Bamburgh Beach.

This was my time to burn off some energy. I had a fantastic time zooming in and out of the huge puddles of salt water. I decided that a quick dip in the sea would be a good idea. I could hear my human faintly shouting something about ‘Joe, you dare!’ or some other words of encouragement. I realised that he was calling me out of the sea so I dutifully ran back to him. I stopped to roll in the sand to dry off a little bit. For some reason, unknown to me, my human didn’t seem to be best pleased. OK, I was a bit wet and sandy, but he wasn’t impressed. I can’t work him out sometimes. Grumpy!

We left the beach and walked into Bamburgh village so that my human could get his caffeine fix. For some reason, only known to him, he decided not to go into one of the lovely cafes. I think that he must be ashamed of me. Well, he didn’t look so good himself with his shorts on in October. So, we decided to move on to another destination. We weren’t sure where we would stop next other than we would be driving along the coastal route rather than on the main roads.

As we were driving down the narrow coastal roads, my human spotted a signpost pointing towards Craster. The small fishing village is famous for its Kippers, and with him being obsessed with keeping his belly full, Craster it was. The kippers produced by Robsons are reputed to be the best in Britain. He couldn’t wait. After parking in the village car park we walked around the pretty village before we reached the harbour. The harbour is where the herrings are brought ashore to be smoked a few yards away in the Robsons smoke curing sheds.

The smoking sheds were in full production during our visit. It set my nose twitching. My dad bought some kippers and smoked mackerel to take home. He had brought our portable 12v fridge with us on the trip, so they were kept nice and fresh for him.

Next to the car park is a small shack that sells freshly cooked kippers and other hot food and drinks. My human had read about Pipers Pitch before we visited Craster, so he was excited to try their Kippers. He ordered a Craster Kipper ‘n Bun with an americano. They also have free kipper skins for pooches! ‘WOW!’ We both loved our treat. It was fantastic value and so so tasty. http://piperspitch.com deffo dog friendly!!

Our day would end shortly with an overnight stop in Ashington, the birthplace of Jack and my childhood hero, Sir Bobby Charlton, who sadlypassedawaya few days after our visit. We stayed in an Airbnb where we had a lovely, comfortable stay. Caroline was a fantastic host in her home, and the value for money was excellent. It is truly dog friendly, and I was fussed over and given treats. The terraced house is on a main road and might not suit everyone but we were really happy with the accommodation.

After a really comfortable night, all that was left to do was for my chauffeur to deliver me home. And so, after 220 miles of mainly motorway driving, we were home from our Scottish and North East England road trip. 1800 miles of driving and 120 miles of hiking. What a trip! I definitely recommend being chauffeured around while you sleep in between stops. So relaxing. Till next time!