Well we had a lovely week.The house was lovely and we got away lightly considering it was a little wet for most of the week . The first two days were lovely and then the rain steadily got worse but luck must of been on our side for most of the week because much of it came at night or whilst we were driving.

We did lot's of walking and undefeated I climbed & struggled breathless up plenty of hills and rocks . Our favourite day was one we spent in Glen Nevis (found it in my "scotland the best" book) . Parked up right at the end of the glen and scrambled through a spectacular Gorge to Steal falls. Worth every minute .

Another unexpectidly good day we drove up as far as we felt we could manage towards loch ness /inverness before the boredom of driving set in . We parked up at fort Augustus , had a cup of tea and cake and just headed upwards into the forest from the town centre and along part of the great glen way . The views once we were up there were just stunning .

Our only disappointment during the week was a lack of decent eating places . we are used to cosy pub lunches with log fires but this part of scotland didnt seem to have many of those . The house owner said there was a lot of Rubbish around locally and the only decent recommendation he had was the holly tree hotel in Kentallen .http://www.hollytreehotel.co.uk/captains.html It really was the best we found all week and served food all day so we stuck with that on several occasions as the view was fab and the food good. But much of what was available locally for eating seemed to be dodgy looking 70's hotels or restaurants that were part of holiday complexes.. Dont know if it was just the area we were staying but not really what we were expecting . We thought it was very expensive too . We seemed to eat rather a lot of haddock & chips from uninspiring menus and even this sort of thing averaged £9/£10 per person . For the 4 of us to have a basic lunch like that and a couple of drinks we were paying around £60 .

I am now completely knackered and my jeans are at bursting point . I have spent much of the last 2 days horizontal on the sofa recovering from all that rock climbling .

Oh forgot to say we had our first haddock & chips at the real food cafe on the way up , A couple of pints at the clachaig inn and my first and last try at haggis at the green welly stop on the way home

lyn

Welcome home Lyn! Sounds like you packed a lot in.
I'm sure you must have walked off all those Haddock and chips

You would think so Lesley but that's not what my jeans are telling me .

Sounds like you had a fantastic time Lyn.

The weather was a bit scary here, it'd actually getting wetter

Hello Lynn, glad to hear that you enjoyed your holiday and loved the scenary but sorry to hear that the food on offer was disappointing. Last summer was a poor season for so many involved in the tourist industry and I wonder whether this has had an effect on both prices and the quality of the menus on offer. £60 for lunch for a basic pub lunch for 4 is expensive compared to what's available at my local. On the other hand, in eating so much haddock you've definitely done your bit to help the local fishing industry

SM

Maybe these were just the prices for that particular area Sma. Seemed to be the same across the board whether you ate in a hotel or fish/chip/kebab style cafe place. I ate every meal in full though after all our walking so I did still enjoy .

To be fair after a big breakfast before we went out each day we wernt really ready to eat until around 3pm most days and by that time a lot of places had naturally closed for food at 2.30 or were offering a smaller menu.

We would certainly like to return to Scotland & maybe move on up a bit and stay nearer inverness .

I highly recommend venturing to the west coast and having a look at Kintyre, lovely area, nice people.

we stayed at http://www.westerlix.net a couple of years ago and it was FABUlous, the kids and dog loved it,,,,infact i have the owner on my facebook as she was so nice!!!

I thought I would hijack this topic to ask for some help with our holiday to Scotland/Cumbria next month. We're staying in Edinburgh for 3 nights first, then we have 4 nights near Fort William followed by 3 nights in Cumbria. I've already asked some questions about Edinburgh in the relevant topic so this post is really just about Fort William. We will only have 3 full days there, and one is already being taken up with visiting the Highland Wildlife Centre in Kingussie, so I'm after suggestions for the other 2 days - for both bad and good weather. I think we'll probably self cater most nights, but if anyone does have any recommendations of good restaurants in or near Fort William then I'm all ears. Have already made a note of other people's suggestions regarding Green Welly Stop, Scotland the Best and Holly Tree hotel earlier in this topic.

then we have 4 nights near Fort William followed

Where are you staying?

If past The Fort on the Mallaig side you could take a look at going to the Salen Hotel, excellent food http://www.salenhotel.co.uk/ perhaps combine it with a trip to the most Westerly point of the British mainland at Ardnamurchan http://www.ardnamurchanlighthouse.com/ you can do this as a circular tour via the Corran Ferry http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/corran/corranferry/index.html

Another day trip is up to Mallaig, passing the Silver Sands of Morar http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/morar/silversands/index.html and take the ferry over to Skye and come back down over the bridge through the Great Glen past Fort Augustus back to The Fort.

The small village of Plockton is a lovely little village that you could stop for a bite to eat, not too far from the bridge when you come over from Skye, I can recommend the Plockton Inn http://plockton.com/

Just outside The Fort is the Caledonian Canal (near the small village of Corpach) worth visiting to see Neptune's Staircase which is a ladder of 8 locks.

Again just outside Fort William is another great place for food, the Ben Nevis Inn http://www.ben-nevis-inn.co.uk

Also take a look at the Visit Scotland website for more info on the area http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/ click on the Highlands.

Remember midge repellent including Avon Skin So Soft which you can buy in outdoor shops such as the Mountain Warehouse in Fort William.

Graham

A trip up Aonach Mor on the gondola would be a good day, the gondola takes you 650m up the mountain where you have fantastic mountain trails to walk. There is also a high wire adventure course here and lots of forest walks. Aonach Mor is 7 miles north of Fort William ,see http://www.nevisrange.co.uk You also have the steam train which goes from Fort William to Mallaig called the Jacobite, it is a 84 mile round trip and crosses the famous Glenfinnan viaduct, the scenery is amazing. If you fancy the train ride then it would be better to prebook at http://www.westcoastrailways.co.uk I hope that what ever you do you have a great holiday.

You also have the steam train which goes from Fort William to Mallaig called the Jacobite

Well done Londongirl, I forgot about the famous Harry Potter 'Hogwarts Express' if you do go on it try to sit on the left side of the carriage facing the engine on the journey to Mallaig for the best views.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, I particularly like the sound of the gondola (I love cable cars) and the Ben Nevis Inn. The Jacobite train also sounds good but I think we'd have to take the risk and wait until we're actually there before booking it as we'd prefer to do stuff outdoors in the weather is ok. We're staying in a cottage on the A830, just a few miles out of Fort William (http://www.hoseasons.co.uk/cottages/S4614) - should hopefully have lovely views from our balcony!

Bit disappointed to hear that the midges will still be a problem in Sept - does Jungle Formula work on them as well as Avon SSS (which I find a bit greasy)?

Jungle formula works for some people and is definitely better than nothing, make sure you use a DEET-based repellent for the best effect.

As you are on the A830 you are actually passing through the village of Corpach as I mentioned above

From your cottage you are only about 10-12 minutes from the centre of the Fort and heading back you have a small Co-operative supermarket in Corpach for your daily needs, just a few minutes further on there is a bigger Co-op in Caol (pronounced cool) on your right just a wee bit before you turn back on to the A82 and there is a Morrison's supermarket (with fuel) just back in to Fort William on your right hand side, there is also a Tesco Metro in the town centre.

You are in a great location to do any of the suggestions above

Having a read through the cottage description I see it mentions a lot of what we have suggested
Graham