The brighter parts of Scotland

Crinan Harbour

My parents planned a little drive up to Argyll and Bute this weekend. It was not meant to be anything big, but rather just an opportunity to take a small break in their otherwise city-bound lives. The weather was not on our side; rather, it rained misery upon the entire country for the whole weekend. Regardless of that we decided that we should take the small window of sunshine forecasted on Saturday afternoon. Packing a couple of water bottles and some sensible clothing, we started heading Northwest.

It turned out to be a very good choice.

Inveraray Maritime Museum

Our first stop along this tour was to Inveraray. My parents and I took TLW (I will refer to friends by initials) up to the castle around this time last year. The weather was not as pretty this time round, but at least there was no rain. We decided to stay in the town and spend the little bit of time at the Pier, where there were quite a few fishermen hanging about.

The next stop was Crinan, a very small village tucked away between two hills by the seaside. It housed the end of the Crinan canal that let sailing boats into the Sounds of Jura - one of many straits dotting this part of Scotland. The town is delightfully small, with not much more than a Hotel, a Coffee Shop, a few houses and, most importantly for seafarers, a small lighthouse.

It is also (unsurprisingly) gifted with the brilliance that is Scottish seawater

By this time it was mid-afternoon. Although the weather was supposed to get worse in about an hour's time, around here it seemed to get brighter and brigher. I must admit though that I did not have my circular polarising filter with me (silly forgetfulness) and so the blue-ish skies are A) enhanced using Lightroom saturating/hue tool and B) not as dark as I'd like it to be.

Nevertheless, pressing on! Crinan has a smaller harbor about a mile and a half away from the actual village. It too is tucked away, edged between a small island and a cove. There was not too much to see, except for that stunning picture at the head of this post, and maybe below:

What the pictures did not catch was a family doing a little bit of crab-fishing just off the pier at the Harbor. It was pretty amusing to watch and listen. The dogs they had were pretty ravenous, eating all the bait and causing some hilarity to ensue.

About this time it was 4.00pm in the afternoon, coming to the end of the golden hours that we had for sunshine. We decided to head home at this stage, but not before stopping at one more lock. In this instance, some of the best pictures were saved for last!

So the conclusion to this piece is that if you want somewhere to have a good, cheap holiday where you can already speak the language (kinda), come to Scotland! There'll be plenty to do here.