Happiness in the Highlands, Orkney and the east coast

Scotland in October is straightforward enough. You can reasonably expect fewer tourists, shorter days, and plenty of damp weather.  I suppose it’s fair to say you should almost always prepare for damp weather whatever time of year you visit Scotland.  What I do get every time I head that way – is happiness in the highlands.

My last blog post on here was after we had spent a day in Liverpool and visited the Western Approaches museum (check it out at this link).

About the road trip blog posts

This trip covered several thousand miles over a couple of weeks, and we based ourselves in four locations.

The road trip is mainly covered in a three part post, although there will be a fourth part that features drone pictures taken at a few of the locations.

The blog posts tale the format of a ‘photo journal’.

Rather than repeat information that is readily available on the web, I provide easy links to more information so the reader can choose what additional information they might find useful.

Fort William for five days – happiness in the Highlands

The visit to Liverpool had been a day out: this was a 14 day road trip. It was a trip we had booked some time ago and one where we planned to take in some familiar places as well as plenty of new ones.

For this two-week trip, we spent the first five nights based at The Moorings just a little over a mile or so outside Fort William.

What gear did I use?

Most images are shot with a Canon EOS 90D or a Canon G7 Mark III. Some images such as the composite for this section and the map above were generated with AI (Gemini)

Drone images are taken with a DJI Mini Pro 4, there are some images taken with a mobile phone because sometimes it was just easier (Google Pixel 8). Lenses used were Sigma 100/400, Tamron 70/200 and Canon 18-135.

 

Picture set 1

Click any image to open the picture set to click or scroll through – a few pictures from our accommodation at The Moorings.

Overlooking Loch Linne

Our accommodation was just off the main road overlooking Loch Linnhe, a major tidal sea loch. The loch stretches 31 miles from Fort William down to the Firth of Lorne, and we had some magnificent views on to the loch from the huge panoramic windows in our accommodation.

I’ve been to Fort William or through Fort William many times on my bike trips and quite a few times with my wife on driving holidays.  I think I would say that it’s  more of a functional sort of place that out and out postcard pretty. Having said that, Fort William works well as a base with a reasonable selection of shops, bars and places to eat

The main pedestrianised High Street covers all the basics with plenty of outdoor gear shops, cafes, and pubs, while the A82 bypass runs traffic along the waterfront. The town sits at the foot of Ben Nevis at the head of Loch Linnhe, so making it pretty handy whether heading out along the coast, into the glens, or up the Great Glen.

Happiness in the Highlands – the road to the Isles

From Fort William we drove out to Mallaig a busy working fishing port and ferry terminal at the end of the A830. The drive out there is just magnificent and is easily one of my favourite UK roads – and I think that was maybe the fifth or sixth time I have done that road in 2026.

As part to the trip to Mallaig we headed firstly for Acharacle and Loch Shiel. After coffee and biscuits that were way too big in Acharacle and caused a temporary dent to our happiness in the highlands (you know that feeling when you really have ate too much. After we had recovered from the biscuits we headed for Mallaig and then the silver sands of Morar and the small village of Arisaig.

Something about harbours and boats

I have never had any aspirations to own a boat, although at times I can see the attraction but there is really always something about harbours and boats that draw me too them – and I always find myself reaching for a camera.

Plenty of information if you’re looking for happiness in the highlands

There’s plenty of information online about any and all of these places and you will see that rather than repeat information here I have include various links throughout this post if you want to find out more. But if you are thinking about a road trip to Scotland, you should find the picture sets provide plenty of food for thought.

Picture set 2

Click any image to open the picture set to click or scroll through to see pictures at Loch Shiel (including those giant biscuits) as well as Mallaig, Morar and Arisaig

Picture set 3 – Back at Fort William and Loch Linne

Click any image to open the picture set back at Loch Linne

Heading for Pitlochry and more happiness in the highlands

We also made a run over to Pitlochry to look at the hydro-electric dam and the fascinating story of the salmon fish ladder. After that it was into the town of Pitlochry then a stop at the House of Braur for a bit of a wander and retail therapy.

Picture set 4 – Pitlochry

Open the picture set to scroll or click through the images from our trip to Pitlochry and the fish ladder – click here to find out more about the 5,000 salmon that use it each year!

A damp day in Oban and a wander round the town

A separate day trip took us down to a pretty damp Oban for a look around the harbour and a slow wander around the shops

Open picture set 5 for street images from Oban

Last day in Fort William and  the old shipwreck at Corpach 

We pretty much wrapped up our stay with a walk along the Caledonian canal and the magnificent Neptune’s staircase and then a steady walk down to Corpach to see the old shipwreck sitting against the backdrop of Ben Nevis. We checked out the Gem and Rock Treasures of the Earth museum near Banavie, which we thought somewhat underwhelming, although if minerals and gems are your thing then I could see the value of a visit there.

Fort William had proved to be a decent base for this trip and it hadn’t been difficult to find happiness in the highlands

Picture Set 6 – happiness in the highlands features some of my favourite images from the trip

Don’t miss the West Highland Museum

On the other hand, the West Highland Museum back in Fort William turned out to be brilliant, with a great collection of local history and Jacobite artefacts – and a museum I would visit again if in the area.

Come back for Part 2 it’s coming soon: Thurso and Orkney