Killin

The picturesque village of Killin, was not a place that I came across during my months of arduous planning my dad and I's road trip around Scotland. We ended up here after a series of unfortunate events - or fortunate, depends on how you look at it.

It was Day 1 of our road trip. We already had to cut two things off of our morning itinerary, due to hours long delays in picking up our rental car. Our first stop ended up being Drummond Castle.

From there, we headed to The Drovers Inn. This was the only stop that I did not plan myself. So, maybe that's why things got messed up?? This was my dad's stop. It was out of the way. He had been here years earlier, while walking the West Highland Way, and wanted to revisit it. We didn't eat or drink anything. We just popped in, looked around, and took a few photos. It was named one of Scotland's most haunted hotels. It's definitely weird inside. It's been an Inn since 1705.

Our next stop was to be Kilchurn Castle. That's what I put in my phone's map navigation. When we left, we unknowingly went the wrong way. But before we knew that, we came across The Butter Bridge. I spotted it from the road and told my dad to pull over if he could. Luckily, there was a pullout area along the side of the road.

The Butter Bridge

It's an old military bridge built in the 1700's. It looks like a bridge out of a Tolkien story. I was so happy to have spotted it. After Klichurn castle, we were going to try and find the Fairy Bridge of Glen Creran. I researched it to death and knew that we might have to skip it, if there was no place to park. The easiest route to access it only has room for about 3 cars to park. So, I was happy to have found an alternative fairy-esq bridge, that took less work to get to. It would do.

From here, things took a turn. The road got very, very narrow. This was our first day driving on the other side of the road and sitting on the other side of the car. We were told that peripheral vision would be off, and it was. We had been hitting curbs all day from the moment we got out of the parking garage with the rental car. And when I say we - I mean my dad. I did not drive. I did not want to drive. I have too much anxiety as it is. My dad's now famous words were, "How hard could it be?"

We continued on, until I saw Inveraray Castle. Wow! It was impressive looking. But, I would have remembered this! This castle had never come across my research as a stop along our route - because it wasn't on our route. Somewhere around here, the navigation system started showing we were driving in the wrong direction.

Inveraray Castle

You can see on the map, that there is a road between Inveraray and Kilchurn Castle. However, we never saw it, and our navigation system never pointed it out, or told us to turn. We turned around once we passed the castle and still didn't see it! So, is it a private road or what? Why did my map app lead us this way??

My anxiety started to spiral because the road was very stressful; we kept hitting the curb; I hate being lost; I was in charge of navigating; I am a perfectionist; I'm smart and I still couldn't figure out what went wrong; and, I have failure stress. 

The road was scarily narrow. I don't know how we weren't hit by an oncoming bus coming around the corner. A few moments later we hit a boulder instead of the curb and popped a tire. There was no place to pull over as there was no shoulder - hence, all the curb hitting. We were slowing down the traffic behind us and cars were still coming at us. It was a nightmare!

We pulled over at the very first opportunity, and it just so happened to be The Drovers Inn! Back where we started. We went inside to look for help. I couldn't figure out how to dial the + sign to make the international call. A waiter helped me. My hands were trembling with nerves.

I went back outside and called the rental car company. He asked for the cars registration. What? Why would I have that? Why would they even keep that in a rental car? Note: In the UK, registration means license plate number! 

He said he would send a tow truck. It should arrive in a few hours. It would tow us to our hotel in Glencoe. Then in the morning, we would get towed to an auto shop to fix the tire. Good god! The nightmare continues.

My dad went inside to get a beer. While I was waiting outside, the tow truck driver called me. He had me on speaker phone and was driving with his windows down, I could barely hear or understand him.

He asked me, if he had a tire would I want to buy it from him? Yes!!

He asked me to tell him what size tire I had. So, I had to run across the street to the car and just started rambling off all the numbers I could see. He said that he would check to see if he had one in stock, and that he'd see us in about 45 minutes. Oh! Much quicker than what we had been told.

When he arrived, I thought he would just put a new tire on then and there. Nope. What a strange process. But, thank goodness he didn't! Instead, he loaded the car and us into his tow truck and drove to his "shop" in Killin, about a half hours drive.

Wow. 

First, I spotted a Highland Cow! I was so excited. The driver looked at me kind of nuts, but that was a bucket list item for the trip.

Then my jaw dropped when I saw the Falls of Dochart. Stunning! A beautiful natural water feature in the middle of the village. We drove over the bridge and then he made a call to alert someone that we'd be there in a minute. We arrived at his shop, which was a shipping container, in a sheep pasture. Another car pulled in right after us. They were the tire guys. Then another car pulled up with a lady that had a credit card machine. It was a whole town effort! 

Our tow truck driver dropped us off. He said it will be a few minutes, so go on and have a wee nosey. Sure! Don't mind if I do! What a crazy trip! I thanked him and he said, "no bother." Really?! Then he took off. His part was done.

Killin Pasture

When the boys in the shop were done fixing our rim, better than before, and put our new tire on, we headed back towards the Falls of Dochart. There was a restaurant right across the street, The Falls of Dochart Inn.

What a day. What a view. My pictures do this place no justice. It's a dream. We had burgers outside on the picnic tables before heading to our hotel for the night in Glencoe.

If our trip was destined to be derailed, I'm glad we ended up here. I'll always remember Killin fondly and be grateful to everyone in town for helping us!

Who knows, maybe I'll be back some day!

Falls of Dochart

We arrived at our hotel, The Clachaig Inn, in Gelncoe, sometime after 10:00pm, about 4 hours later than planned. I've never been so happy to be alive, have shelter, and lay my head down. What a harrowing long day.

It was dark when we arrived, so we were quite surprised to see our surroundings in the Scottish Highlands when we opened our door in the morning. It was pretty stunning.                                                                

    On to Glencoe>>

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