As you can see from the photograph, our Pauline likes Castles. This one was Dunstaffnage Castle And Chapel near to Connel and Pauline is striking a typical Blonde pose letting you know where the castle is. Well we had to get in at least one castle with so many fortifications throughout Scotland. This was quite a nice imposing Castle, but a tad too much building work going on for my liking. Plus Pauline thought that the wooden staircase was a bit scary and declined the ascent. After enjoying chocolate on the ramparts, we headed towards Spean Bridge, with a stop off at Fort William.Distant Hills Guest House at Spean Bridge in Inverness-shire came in as a recommendation, and a good one at that! The accommodation and the owners were lovely. We were greeted with fresh coffee, tea and biscuits in the lounge. A tad up market from the last place we stayed at, as at that guest house guests did not appear to be welcome in the lounge. Strange I know, but sometimes people are unable to separate business from other activities. I have stayed in several lovely guest houses in and around Carmarthen and Kidwelly and what sets them up above the rest is that the guest feels as if he is integrated into the family. Distant Hills made the grade and Pauline and I were very pleased. Address: Spean Bridge, Inverness-shire. SatNav Postcode: PH34 4EU. Telephone: 01397 712452. Please mention the Blog if you make that call. Recommendation: It could be worth booking in advance on Laterooms.com as Distant Hills appears to be extremely popular.
But probably not as popular as Russell’s Bistro, a delightful truly up-market restaurant located just a few hundred yards along the road back towards the village. Wow, we were bowled over by the Service, cuisine and price point. This meal was astonishingly good value at only £75 for three superb courses, half a bottle of decent wine and the tip. A memorable experience enjoyed by one and all, more so as the maître d' likened me to Tom Jones. Well done matey, if only I could sing and then see the Rhondda one more time. Not one of Tom’s songs, but nevertheless a favourite Welsh ballad of yours truly. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I couldn’t sing for toffee, but I really did appreciate the compliment. Unfortunately for the other restaurants along our ‘Pauline isn’t cooking this week journey’, Russell’s was simply too good, too up-market and too cheap. Russell’s is probably my number one dining experience of all time. And you don’t get to be this size without dining out a lot. Address: Spean Bridge, Inverness-shire. SatNav Postcode: PH34 4EU. Telephone: 01397 712335. As with Distant Hills, please mention the Blog if you make that call. Recommendation: Definitely book in advance. Website: http://www.russellsrestaurant.co.uk/
I like military history almost as much as I like food and Spean Bridge was not to disappoint in that regard either. The local Hotel has quite a few images etc relating to the Commando units that trained in the area and we managed to visit the Commando Monument the very next day after popping into the Clan Cameron Museum. With one member of the Clan becoming a VC winner, visiting the Museum was also a must to do. A nice military, scenery, food, chilled out experience that was Spean Bridge. We now headed further north towards the real Highlands and probably in terms of scenery the highlights of the trip.
