We set off from Pensby with lovely blue skies and white cumulus and it was like that for much of the day. We stopped for coffee in Penrith where we came across a pride of Silver Ghost Rolls Royces taking part in the Centennial Scottish tour.

My apologies to all Lowland Scots but I always feel that when one reaches Loch Lomond one has really arrived in Scotland and we stopped at Luss for a bowl of soup at a most pleasant cafe, complete with kilted waiter.

A loo stop at the Welly Stop at Tyndrum was also used as an excuse for an ice cream and I photographed a Swallow settled on a wire.

One of my favourite places in the whole of Great Britain is Rannoch Moor - an area of peat and bog for the most part, laid on granite, of some 50 square miles at a height of over a 1000 feet. It is the Watershed of Central Scotland where rivers start their journeys towards the Atlantic in the west and to the North Sea in the east. Over this area are scattered thousands of enormous rocks which have been torn from the sides of the hills and corries by a giant glacier moving eastwards 20,000 years ago. It has been said that the mood of the Scottish landscape depends upon the weather more than anywhere else on earth and Rannoch moor is a classic example of that. On a sunny day like today it is a gem of gleaming lochans. Rannoch Moor is notable for its wildlife, and was frequently visited by Horace Donisthorpe, who collected many unusual species of ants on the moor and surrounding hilly ground. Peat deposits pose major difficulties to builders of roads and railways. When the West Highland Line was built across Rannoch Moor, its builders had to float the tracks on a mattress of tree roots, brushwood and thousands of tons of earth and ashes.

Black Mount (Stob a' Choire Odhair & Stob Ghabhar) to the West of the A82 over Rannoch Moor still had plenty of snow on the tops We dropped down Glencoe and around to Fort William where we decided to push on to Skye before resting for the night.

On the edge of Loch Duich we stopped to photograph Eilan Donan - my favourite Scottish castle, originally built in 1220. In 1539 a feud between the MacKenzies and the McLeods of Dunvegan, over the disputed claims of Donald Gorm MacDonald to the title of Lord of the Isles, came to head when he attacked the Castle with 50 galleys. He was famously shot and killed by Duncan MacRae with a single arrow. In 1719 the castle was destroyed by the government and it was not until 1932 that the castle was restored and the bridge built.

We crossed the bridge to Skye and after a bit of hunting the Sconser Lodge kindly provided us with beds for the night and an excellent evening meal (in my case of langoustines and steak).

Prior to dinner we wandered the shore outside and admired the glorious sunset and a friendly Rock Pipit.