After a lovely walk in the extensive gardens at Blair Castle we had lunch at the Atholl Arms Hotel before continuing on our way westward.

We stopped briefly at Laggan Dam,  and  reached the  ruins  of  Inverlochy  Castle  as  the  rain  began  to  fall. Inverlochy  is a well-preserved 13th century castle of the Comyn Family.  It is comprised of a square courtyard, with round towers at the corners.  It is one of Scotland’s earliest stone castles. During our travels in Scotland we criss-crossed the country a few times.  There are some pretty short distances from one side to the other due to all the deep inlets.  Mainland Scotland has 9,910 km (6,160 miles) of coastline.  This doesn’t include the shores of the many islands which would increase the distance by about 7,000 km (4,000 miles).  The west coast particularly, is indented with long promontories separated by fjord-like sea lochs.Our destination for the end of this, our 19th day touring around, was Fort William, situated at the end of one of these sea lochs,  Loch Linnhe.  We had tickets for the next day’s trip of the Jacobite Steam Train from Ft. William to Mallaig and back.  This is the bright red steam engine used in the Harry Potter movies and the route takes you over the long, curving viaduct that you see in the films.  I was really stoked about this excursion as I am a huge Harry Potter fan.  I have read all the books several times and watched all the movies almost as often.