Jude and I were heading to Lochcarron in Wester Ross, Scotland for a week in Kate and Geoff’s Waterside apartment before heading even further north to Sutherland for 3 nights. The journey up from the Lake District was quite long and we were not due in Lochcarron until the Saturday, so we stopped off in a place called Luss for lunch and spent the night in a B&B near Arrochar.  Both are near loch Lomond.

Apart from having a beautiful loch side location, Luss is a charming ‘conservation village’ with neat rows of renovated cottages.  It was used as the main location for the Scottish TV drama series Take the High Road. Perhaps fittingly, we had one of those famous people spotting moments, when John Sergeant walked by.  (For non-UK residents, he’s a well known BBC journalist, who also took part in Strictly Come Dancing).
Here I have to apologise, as I left my camera in the car, so I have no photos of the village, nor of Mr Sergeant, not that I would have taken his picture anyway!

By stark contrast, Arrochar was quite a dull place, though it does also have the advantage of sitting right at the water’s edge – at the head of Loch Long.  We were very lucky to catch it on a very calm day, as the surface of the (n.b. sea) loch was like a mirror.  Many walkers  travel through Arrochar on their way to climb a very interesting mountain called Ben Arthur (@884m or 2,900ft), or the Cobbler as it’s more affectionately known due to its very unusual shape.