Social Scene Report 315
Hi Fellow Followers. Frank De’ath kindly organised a trip to Scotland for us and his notes are as follows.-
For our adventure this year we decided to tour Scotland using the North Coast 500 route, although we only drove about three quarters of the normal route because we wanted to see other scenic areas. On 7th May four couples set off in three TR6s and a Jaguar XJS (my TR6 developed an electrical fault, so I had to take the Jag).
Over the next nine days we travelled approximately 1600 miles through the Yorkshire Dales, from the east to the west coast of Scotland and round the Cairngorms National Park to the start of the NC500 at Inverness. Travelling anticlockwise, we went up the east coast, along the north coast and back down the west coast before leaving the NC500 route just south of Ullapool and headed back to Inverness.
From Inverness we drove along the banks of Loch Ness ( no we didn’t see Nessie ) to Fort William and Oban Then we drove through the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park on to our last night’s stay in Lockerbie before heading home the next day.
Some of the places we visited en route included – Wensleydale cheese factory, Gretna Green, Dewars Distillery, Pitlochry Salmon Ladder, Glen Ord Distillery, La Mirage Restaurant ( fabulous Fish and Chips as recommended by Clarissa Dixon Wright of the “Two Fat Ladies” Helmsdale Harbour, Aviemore, John O’grouts, Castle of Mev, Dunnets Head, Balnakiel Beach, Castle Stalker, Castle Dunollie, Mc Craigs Tower, and the New Lanark World Heritage Site.
Our cars behaved well with the exception of a water pump failure on Alan Burwoods car which conviently failed at The Wensleydale Cheese factory giving the Ladies time to sample Wallace and Grometts many cheeses whilst the guys fitted Georges spare pump. Later Alans Speedo stopped working and Phil’s overdrive died.
We all agreed this was an amazing trip, the scenery was stunning especially coming down the west coast of Scotland. We were blessed with blue skies and sunshine for most of the time, the locals were very friendly (they loved our cars ) and the hotels and food were terrific. I suspect that we will return someday to drive the part of the NC500 that we missed this time.
Trevor Sherwood sends us monthly updates of Camb Followers events, you can E mail him at thsher@btinternet.com to request your updates, or ring Trevor on 07754290223. You can contact Dave Burton at davidburton14@btinternet.com or Tel 07768 792879. Also see our website http://www.tr-register.co.uk/group/camb-followers for our FUTURE EVENTS. See you at the White Hart, 35 High Street, Warboys, PE28 2TA on the third Monday of each month and The Millstone at Barnack PE9 3ET on the first Wednesday of each month.