Blair Atholl to Mull

After leaving the Stirling area we travelled north to the Cairngorm National Park and Blair Atholl, where we stayed on the estate of Blair Castle. The campsite was big but had nice walks, free entry to the castle grounds and discounted entry to the castle.

An interesting fact about this castle - it has its own private army - the only one in Europe - the Atholl Highlanders.

Lots of wild flowers that I haven't seen before

Some pics from inside the castle.

Amazing weapons collection!

This dress is over 270 years old! So around 1753!
Is hand painted Chinese silk with gold thread 

I quite like a fan!

We even learned about the language of the fan!

We left Blair Atholl for the Island of Mull and had a lovely drive along a small road where we stopped for a walk and a cuppa.

However, before we reached Oban we had a text telling us that the dock at Craignure (on Mull) was faulty so vehicles could not be accepted. One option was a 3 hour detour to another ferry or do something different - we decided on the latter.

After a night in a small layby along a narrow road we decided to carry along that road over the old Clachen Bridge and on to a place called Ellenabeich. The Clachen sound is connected to the Atlantic at both ends so the bridge is known as 'The Bridge over the Atlantic'. For two weeks a year it is covered in purple flowers which have been decorating the bridge since it was built in 1792. When it was renovated, the flowers were removed and local people planted them in their gardens before they were replanted in the bridge.

Fairy Foxgloves on the side of the bridge

When we arrived we realised that we had found a little gem in a tiny little village with a tiny island you could get to in a beautiful bay overlooked by cliffs. We immediately decided to stay for at least two nights, as the village also had a motorhome park up area. This morphed into 4 nights! Mull could wait.

This is where we stayed (below), more in the next post.