vampyresheep

in terms of success, possibly the opposite to day 14!

Had breakfast in the hostel – a bargain, serve yourself affair for £2 – and heard on the news about a nasty fatal accident on the A9 just north of Pitlochry, closing off the road, so we decided against our plan to visit Blair Atholl, instead, spending the morning in Pitlochry itself. We strolled around the village

our hostel from the outside

and down to the Fish Ladder – not what i was expecting at all; a massive dam and a series of elevated pools running up the side, through which the salmon swim through tunnels to reach their higher spawning grounds. Not exactly aesthetic but rather interesting.
the pretty (man made) loch above the Dam

the fish ladder

Pitlochry Dam and Hydro-electric power station

walk down the stream back to town

Eventually left Pitlochry around 11am and briefly popped up to the Edradour distillery. No time to do the tour but bought a couple of minatures from the shop

and as it was our last day of the mountains (and sunny!), we took a detour via Loch Tummel and Loch Tay.

Pulled in at the Queens View, Loch Tummel, saw the £2 parking charge and decided on a cheaper, if not as regal, view of the loch further down the road!

It was a very pretty route along Lochs Tummel and Tay, ranging from twee rolling hills to something a bit more rugged on occasions.

Our lunch stop was at Killin, for the Falls of Dochart – more a set of rapids than a water fall but stunningly beautiful, working its way round a wide sweeping curve of rocks and under a stone arch bridge at the edge of the village. Due to the recent dry weather, the falls weren't in full flow, which was a shame, however it did leave lots of rocks to clamber over and picnic on! An absolutely perfect spot for lunch, we stayed there quite a while, tarting round for lots of photos too – just how many pics does one need of a waterfall exactly? ;-)

Our next destination was Doune Castle, via a few little stops:

our last loch - Loch Lubnaig

and meeting Hamish the Highland Cow!

who has his own facebook page! :-) (yes, I have added Hamish as a friend!)

Fortunately got to Doune castle in time to visit before it closed. Most known for featuring largely in Monty Python's the Holy Grail. *grin*

We were given a set of coconuts to make horse noises around the courtyard and an audio tour narrated by Terry Jones. Not usually one for audio guides, this one was rivetting; mainly about the castle itself but then with lots of optional extras about the film and the locations used, with lots of clips from the film included.

this room was used for several scenes

"what's the airspeed velocity of an unlaiden swallow?" ;-)

Camelot. It is a Silly Place

the Mary Queen of Scott rooms. not sure what it was but I couldn't get out of this room fast enough, just wasn't comfortable here for some unexplained reason!

don't think it helped that i thought I saw someone in the top window of the staircase :-/

back out in the sunny courtyard

We were the last people to leave, literally as they were closing the gates and i think it might have been one of Rob's highlights of the holiday!

Just a short distance to Pitlochry and we found our B&B, located close to the monumental Wallace Memorial, which towers over the area like Sauron's Castle.

our B&B and the view

Decided to go for dinner in Stirling, which was a bad move, as it was mainly full of chavvy party bars. Ended up in a Belhaven pub in the City Walls, great location but slightly bland and trendy as a pub – hen-do central! Nevertheless had a nice enough and cheap meal, then we decided to head out of town to find a better pub. Back to Bridge of Allen, a village just beyond our B&B and somewhat more affluent in feel than Stirling. However even here we could only find one pub and it was very much a "local's" place. Had a quick drink and headed back to our B&B to watch telly instead.

view of Memorial from Stirling

Wasn't sure how I'd be able to cope with London in a couple of days when even a small, historic, city like Stirling is too busy for me!