This Year's Autumn Drive Through Glen Lyon

As you now know, Glen Lyon is one of our favorite spots in all of Scotland. It is one of the reasons we ended up settling in Perthshire. It is remote, wild, and the entire glen is only accessible via single track roads. Obviously, this is not a place for retired folks to live unless they've been there all their lives. So we settled in a Perthshire village within an easy drive of Glen Lyon and we make a few visits there every year, some to take guests and some just on our own. Because the colours can be gorgeous this time of year, we always try to fit in an autumn visit.

This year, what with our travel schedule and then the weather turning cloudy and windy this weekend, we almost gave it a miss, but we steeled ourselves, stoked up on a good hearty breakfast, and took off. We are so glad we did. As you can see from the photos, it was somewhat subdued in terms of brightness and colour but still gorgeous. [If you click on any photo, it should enlarge for you. Just hit the "Back" button to get back into the blog.] Being in the midst of all that beauty always feeds our souls. We hope you will get a little taste of what we mean.

Instead of taking the Ben Lawers road over to Bridge of Balgie, which we usually do, we decided to go into the glen by way of Fearnon, near the village of Fortingall. For one thing, we felt it was too windy to brave the Ben Lawers road into the glen which traverses the mountains. For another, we know the views are generally more spectacular traveling through the glen from east to west.

Our plan had been to stop at the Bridge of Balgie Post Office for lunch, a little over halfway through the glen, but unfortunately, they were closed today so we just kept on going. We drove all the way to the far western end of the glen and then went back to Killin via Glen Lochy, another lovely glen but much smaller. The round trip (with many stops for photos) took us about 3 and a half hours, a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. (The last of the photos is from Glen Lochy.)

Last night we went to Comrie's WRI hall (Women's Rural Institute) to see a folk concert featuring Comrie's own Annie Grace with two outstanding members of one of our favorite folk groups, the Old Blind Dogs. Annie has a lovely and powerful voice but also plays pipes and whistles. It was a terrific concert. We loved every minute of it. We also enjoyed walking there and back with most of the other concert-goers.

Earlier in the evening, the annual Guy Fawkes Night fireworks display and bonfire had gone on at the Laggan Park, near the Comrie Golf Course just on the outskirts of Comrie. Guy Fawkes Night is actually today, the 5th of November, but I suppose it was deemed better to do it on a non-school night since it is a family affair. We were eating supper when the fireworks began going off. As we walked to the concert, we passed many families walking home from the event.