We had to get up at, as Simon calls it, stupid-oclock to get to the airport in time to catch out flights from Keflavik airport. It was sad to say goodbye to Simon and Jatta but at least we know we will see them again in a couple of weeks in Helsinki.
The sun was just up when we were being bussed out to our plane for our flight to Glasgow and the flight was a good one, nice and quick. We queued for a while at immigration but finally collected our bags and our car for this part of the trip, a Dacia Duster
Th weather was NOt very welcoming! We left the airport in a downpour and headed north to Loch Lomond in miserable weather, but at least everything here is lovely and green. On Loch Lomond we stopped at the little village of Luss, a pretty little town with cute cottages lining the streets. Many of the cottages were paid for by the local laird to house the workers in his slate mines and they are beautifully preserved and well maintained today.
From Luss we drove up over the “Rest and Be Thankful Pass” ( great name!) and then down past Inverary Castle, which is a pretty grand edifice.
Not a great shot, viewed from the car…
It’s still occupied and looked in much better nick than our next destination, the ruined Kilchurn castle on Loch Awe. This brooding wreck was very atmospheric in the misty rain but were glad that the rain stopped and held off long enough for us to explore it.
After that it was only a short drive to the little town of Dalmally where Neil’s Great Grandfather had lived before emigrating to Australia. Neil had done some reserach on his family and so we visited the church to search for family gravestones and found the house where his Great grandparents had lived.
After that we checked into our B & B, “Craigvilla” , run by a young English couple with a really quirky and interesting tastes for decor. They were very welcoming and interested to hear about our plans for the evening ( more to come…) We decided to explore a bit more of Dalmally and drove up to the Duncan Ban Macintire monument high on the hill over Dalmally honoring a local poet.
The guest lounge at Craigvilla
We couldnt linger long however as we had a dinner engagement. Neil had been researching his family connections in Dalmally and in particlular his great-grandfather Enerson Anderson’s visit to the town as a young man. Neil had come across the contact details for the Dalmally Historical Society and as a punt he contacted them and little did he know what a cause he would stir! It turned out that about 4 years ago the society’s historian, Jess, had come across a photo in their records of a young “colonial” soldier who had visited family connections in the town during WW1. With the world looking back 100 years to the war she was inspired to do some research about the yound soldier, and speculated about his connections in Dalmally.They learned about his war service but were never able to find out what happened to him after the war… until one day she received an email from an Australian chap looking for information about his Great garndfather…that self-same yooung “colonial” soldier!
They were so excited to hear from Neil and to learn what had happened to young Emerson Anderson after the war. They had original photos of Emerson that they were keen to pass on to Neil so , very kindly, invited us to dinner on our night in Dalmally.However, we were gobsmacked when we arrived to find that she had also invited most of the members of the historical society as well as an elderly gentleman who had worked in the butcher shop run by Neils Great Uncle! The society’s IT guru had prepared a video presentation about Emerson which they showed to us and they took several photos because apparently the Oban Times is interested in running a story about it all! We felt like the star event!
They were charming people and made us most welcome. We were regaled by a succession of amusing yarns and stories about life in the town in times gone by as well as tips and advice for our upcoming tour of Scotland.We spent most of the night yarning and laughing, it was wonderful!