Travel marvel train tour begins.......The Isle of Mull and Duart Castle

Hello again, back with the next part of our OS trip.....this time will involve a bit of train travel...we left Edinburgh sniff sniff...and along with our tour friends headed to Glasgow...Woody excited about the trains ☺

One of the trains.....as we changed at Glasgow for a train to take us to Fort William 

Fort William is a town in the western Scottish Highlands, on the shores of Loch Linnhe. It’s known as a gateway to Ben Nevis, the U.K.’s highest peak 

And then bused to our next accomodation here in Ballachulish

The village of Ballachulish in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, is centred on former slate quarries. The name Ballachulish was more correctly applied to the area now called North Ballachulish

The said bus 

along the corridor from our room

and yes stairs lol   

Lake nearby and had a walk the next morning

Very pretty with the reflections 

and again 

and this was the view from our room earlier with drizzle 

So next day as you can see off we went via bus to Oban where we then catch a ferry 

We drove through plenty of rain........ 

Woody listening to the tour guide Steve

We then travelled on the ferry across to Isle of Mull

Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute

The main lounge area

leaving Oban 

Another ferry coming back as we head on 

It was brisk and a little wet but fun 

We then were bused to Duart Castle

The castle dates back to the 13th century and is the seat of Clan MacLean

as you can see it is having plenty of renovation work

duartcastle.com/maclean-clan/history-of-the-clan plenty of interesting reading here 

Don't you love all the stone work 

Well this is a faint pic.....

good old kitchen 

Rooms setup as it was and actually family still live in other parts of the castle 

not a fun place to be 

Now walking around the main area 

a little model of the castle 

other side as it was.....

Just check out all this silverware 

and oh yes scary twisty stairs 

bathroom of course, although they sure would not of had a toilet like in this pic way back.....

as you can see the ruin pics do show how much work has been done to restore it back 

The stairs were built in 1360 to enable one man wielding a sword in his right hand to defend the entrance to the upper floors of the keep

steep and narrow, oh what fun I had going back down.......

This small cemetery contains the graves of some of the soldiers, wives and children who lived in the castle....

canon of course 

wonderful views here 

a row of canons on the other side of castle 

We then bused back to ferry then back on the bus to Ballachulish and was this castle along the way

also plenty of mist was rolling in....

Will be back again of course with day 4 and onwards......

xoxoxo