The Scots like nothing more then beating England at any sport, and Saturday found us in Ullapool, on our latest recce, sitting down in a friendly bar with a pint of Red Cuillin (great real ale from Skye), to watch the Calcutta Cup- Scotland vs England at rugby for those who don’t know. The bar was split with a group of around a dozen watching the big screen, while another group, mostly locals were by the bar, seemingly in ther own conversations. Rugby is after all really a minority sport here, especially in the Highlands. However with 10 minutes to go, and a Scottish victory close, suddenly the whole bar became more animated and the chorus of Flower of Scotland arose.

It was a great result and well deserved - although I am Irish, I am still pleased to see Scotland’s rugby team returning to the passionate and effective rugby of times past. Just hope that we can win in Dublin in 2 weeks time!

Our weekend recce was successful in finding 2 more hotels for our programme - in Ullapool a small and characterful hotel which doubles as an arts centre. Perfectly lcoated for those touring the Northwest Highlands as well as for the ferry to/from Lewis. The other was a 5 star small hotel in Ross shire - on the east coast - with a strong whisky presence. After a few drams and wonderful dinner on Friday, Saturday morning found us on the sandy beach just 5 minutes walk from the hotel- although it was bitterly cold! Another beach for my collection!

As usual on a recce we saw several other places which will not be featuring in our holidays, despite their presence in guidebooks and other recommendations. Nothing beats personal experience.

After one of the mildest and quietest winters for several years ( on the weather front) looks like plenty of snow will arrive by midweek. As we are planning another trip to the west coast this comong weekend will have to keep an eye on this! Hopefully the sun will come out by Friday and we can get the camera out for some more wintry pics for the website.

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