It's Day 4 of our tour of Bonnie Scotland and for the first time we expect no rain, in fact the day dawns bright and sunny. This opens the door for our most ambitious day trip yet and one that I hope will be most memorable. We need an early start and leave just after 9 am.
We head east towards Callander then north on the A84, west on the A85 then north on the A82, These high roads take in gorgeous scenery culminating in the high mountain pass that leads to Glencoe of outstanding beauty, everywhere offering a place to park and enjoy the views. At the base of Glencoe is a visitor centre, well worth a look. We just use it as a comfort break. From here we head down to Fort William.
Although I have a checklist for today, everything depends on timing. In Fort William we take a packed lunch and I head for the station there. One of the objectives for today is to see the Jacobite Steam Train, but we manage to miss the 12.50 departure after an error of judgement. The delay in Fort William has a knock-on effect as that also cancels out seeing that train at the spectacular, world-famous viaduct over which the train passes at Glenfinnan. That leaves only one realistic option to see a train. We head to the viaduct and wait for a return train. At the visitor centre there is chance to catch up with some Scottish history as it was here at Glenfinnan that the flag was raised signalling the start of the Jacobite Rebellion, a power struggle between Catholic Scots and the Crown of England. However it's the train I've come for as I position myself on a hill above the visitor centre. This offers an amazing view of the viaduct, but I soon realise, but too late that there are better options. I will have a good view of the Jacobite Train but only in the distance. It's a close-up I really need. I'm somewhat disappointed as to how things have gone despite having the timing to hand. There could easily have been a travel extension to Mallaig at the end of the line. Even now there could be a late recovery, but we are two and a half hours from base. Should I have waited another hour or so? It would still have brought us back in daylight but as it is, we are back as Tigh Mor around 6.30 pm. As a footnote, my wife did the driving giving me the chance to capture a great video passing back through Glencoe.
In terms of what else there is to do in the remaining days here I have factored in more bad weather, but the is only one major trip planned. It was obviously the right thing to do to take advantage of some lovely weather today.

Source: Visit