Category: Scotland

M74 Road trip pitstop: Wanlockhead Museum of Lead Mining and café (plus Scotland’s highest pub!)

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On the homeward leg of the British Lawnmower Museum Scotland England road trip, we took a detour for a pee break, visit to the Lead mining museum and lunch to the highest village in Scotland – Wanlockhead.

Getting there…

Is easy…just turn first left of the M74 after the giant phallic forest!

The road

Cutting off from the M74, take the B797. The drive alone is worth the trip and I found out while writing the road is known as The Menock Pass . Enjoy rolling hills covered in purple heather, curly horned sheep and pretty valleys but its a narrow winding road and not one I could formula one it in my wee green car. By the time I got to Leadhills, my teeth were floating!! 

Photo credit: Scotland Starts Here

We passed the signs for The Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway which I remember riding on about 30 years ago (am I really that old?). It’s run by volunteers and open at weekends – a good stop for wee ones!

The tiny village of Wanlockhead is a cluster of old miners’ cottages nestled in a valley and reminds me of opening credits of Emmerdale or Postman Pat. So pretty and peaceful.

Museum visitor centre and cafe in the foreground

Museum shop and Café

I dived out of the car and stumbled into the loo. Much relieved and before heading underground, we had lunch at the museum café. Not all museums come with genuinely good cake. This one does. Take notes, rest of Scotland! The home baking here is excellent – the lemon drizzle was fresh and zesty and my best pal had the home-made lentil soup. This is as far from a motorway service station pitstop as you can be!

18th-Century Lead Mine underground tour

Davy our guide led us through the village to an innocuous shed, handed us hard hats and opened the heavy metal door to the mine entrance. With a hard hat snugly in place I followed our guide into a dark, narrow tunnel carved into the hillside.

This isn’t a theme-park replica. It’s a real mine, first opened in the 1700s, dank, claustrophobic, quiet as a tomb. When Davy switched off his torch we were in total and complete pitch black.

For hundreds of years miners scooped and blasted out seams of galena (lead sulphide) and also silver and gold. Part of the Scottish crown jewels were made with silver and gold from the Leadhills-Wanlockhead mines.

Up the Hill to Lowther Hill Radar Station

If you fancy stretching your legs after your underground adventure (or working off that lemon drizzle cake), head up to Lowther Hill, which towers above the village.

If in any doubt as to which hill I mean – it’s the one with the weird golf-ball at the summit. It’s actually part of the UK’s radar network, monitoring UK airspace. You can’t go inside, but you can walk right up to to the fence.

Scotland’s highest pub : The Wanlockhead Inn

Far from “just a quick pee stop,” cake, mines tour, radar domes, and the promise of Scotland’s highest pint…what more could you ask for? Next time, I’m coming back to visit the pub and plan to stay in one of their glamping pods so I can ditch the car and have a few pints and enjoy some live music in the Wanlockhead Inn. 🙂

  • Wanlockhead / Leadhills
  • Museum of Lead Mining
  • Things to do in Dumfries and Galloway
  • Underground mine tour Scotland
  • Lowther Hill radar station
  • Wanlockhead Inn highest pub in Scotland
  • Industrial history Scotland
  • Unusual museums in Scotland
  • Day trips from Moffat or Sanquhar

Scotland long weekends – Stirling – Barra – Oban without a car

Posted in Scotland, travel, Travel advice, UKTagged , , , , 2 Comments

Starting in Stirling, a car-free long weekend in the west of Scotland that includes the only commercial flight in the world that lands on a beach, a ferry ride to Oban, the seafood capital of Scotland and a wee train home.


Day 1 – Stirling to Barra

🚌 6.57am Megabus service M8  Stirling to Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station – arrives approx 7.45am (approx £7pp advance booking essential)

Megabus – Stirling to Glasgow


🚌 8am Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station – service 500 to Glasgow airport usually leaves from stance 46, takes around 20 mins. £11pp – booking not usually required but option to pre-book.


✈️ 10.15 Loganair flight LM451 to Barra (check the timetable as flights are dependent on tides! )

The plane is a wee tiny twin otter propeller plane, there are no cabin crew and standing up is impossible. The pilot did the safety demonstration whilst stooped over at the front of the plane and then hopped into the front seat to start the engines. I loved the whole experience – landing on the beach and tumbling out on to the white sand.

Prices start from £90 for a basic ‘Fly’ fare one way which includes 15kg hold luggage and 6kg hand luggage plus a personal item. We paid £175pp and booked around a month before.

On arrival at Barra airport, the wee local minibus waits outside the terminal. We paid £2.20 pp for single tickets to Castlebay note – this bus is cash only. Journey took around 20 mins.


Barra Overnight – Craigard hotel – Castlebay

View from the beer garden

A great wee hotel, really good service and very friendly helpful staff. We arrived early and enjoyed a few beers in the beer garden overlooking the bay until our room was ready. Because we booked this relatively last minute we could only get one night as the hotel was otherwise fully booked. We paid £170 for a double room – room 4 which had a seaview, comfy bed and was quiet.

There are only 3 restaurants in Castlebay so make sure you book dinner in advance. Thankfully the helpful guy at Craigard Hotel  managed to squeeze us in for dinner despite the restaurant being fully booked.

The public bar is a great spot in the evening for live folk music and chatting to the friendly locals.

Day 2 Barra to Oban


🚢 6.55am Cal-Mac ferry Castlebay to Oban arrives 11.40am.

We were asvised to check the ferry times because of breakdowns and tides and, according to the manager at the Craigard, they sometimes change at the last minute, marooning people on Barra for an extra day. There is only one sailing per day to Oban. The ferry is a 5 min walk downhill from the Craigard hotel. Foot passenger tickets were £19.05pp.

Although we sadly missed breakfast in the hotel, the legendary Cal-Mac all day breakfast made up for it.

Keep your eyes peeled on the boat and you might just spot some sealife…  on our crossing we saw a dorsal fin which may have been a dolphin, shark or porpoise….??

Another reason to carry cash – on our crossing, Starlink had an outage meaning the card payment machines were off line and the restaurant was cash-only.

We spent 2 nights in Oban, great for seafood, water sports and boat trips and a good live music scene at the weekends.

The dogstone
Dunollie lighthouse
McCaig’s tower

Oh and if seafood isn’t your thing, Taste of China is a great wee restaurant, the waitress was a good laugh, we had a scrummy peking duck, lemon chicken and bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. They do dine-in until 10pm.

P.s. no hotel recommendation here as the hotel we stayed in in Oban left a LOT to be desired unless brick hard beds, foost and peeling wallpaper is your thing!

Day 4 Oban – Glasgow – Stirling


🚂 12.11 Scotrail service to Glasgow. I cannot stress this enough – pre-book your tickets online and make sure you book a seat reservation! Thank god we did – we showed up at Oban train station about 30 mins before the train was due to depart and there was a huge queue of people standing in the pishing rain waiting to be let on to the platform. We did the very British thing of joining a queue with no idea what it was for but it turned out that seat reservation passengers could board straight away.

The train was a tiny 2 carriages rammed with lots of people standing until the train arrived in Glasgow Queen Street station at 15.26. Oh and pack snacks and drinks because this train has no on board catering.

Standing room only


🚂 The final leg was an easy hop catching the 15.45 train back to Stirling arriving in at 16.26.

Exploring Floatation Therapy: The Reset Float Centre Falkirk

Posted in Central Scotland, lifestyle, Quirky things to do, Scotland, UKTagged , , , , 1 Comment

****UPDATE 2025: Reset Float Centre has just sent me a discount code for first-time floaters for 10% off – just enter ch-906586 when booking on their website. ****

The entire population of Scotland was recovering from what felt like a win from the Euro 2020 game vs England. (It was a 0-0 draw but for those of us in Scotland, it felt like a huge victory against our old football rivals) I was lying in my bed feeling like a big toxic bag of sludge munching my way through way too many items from the Domino’s menu.

My 7 hour Netflix binge interspersed with long periods of mindless scrolling on my phone led me down an internet rabbit hole that started at different countries travel restrictions via the Dead Sea and culminated in Googling for sensory deprivation tanks.

Somehow the idea of pickling myself in epsom brine with complete silence and darkness really appealed to me and would get me away from my damn phone for 90 minutes.

To my surprise, the Reset Float Centre popped up on my search results, just a few miles from my house. This isn’t normal for someone who lives in “the sticks”. I’m used to seeing these kinds of things confined to the big cities, it’s great support small businesses closer to home.

Being the impulsive person I am, an appointment the following evening for a one-hour float session was just too much to resist. (£47.00 for a 90 minute session including time for showering etc* edit this is now £50 – as of 2025)

Reset Float Centre is located just off the M9 motorway – easy to find. At first I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the industrial estate location. However, on entering, concerns disappeared. A look around reassured me that the place was spotlessly clean and very professional.

The woman at the desk knew even with my facemask on, “first time floater?” she smiled.

She talked me through what to expect from my floaty session as she showed me the clean white room where the giant sensory deprivation tank/pod sat filled with Epsom salty water.

She explained that “the floater” (me) was to lock the door, shower, strip naked, stick in ear plugs (brine and ear canals don’t mix well apparently) and jump in (carefully) to the pod, close the lid and then it was up to me.

For first-time floaters she recommended 10-minutes of relaxing music followed by 50 minutes of silence.

The floater controls the lights inside the pod via a big rubber button and there was an alarm bell in case of an emergency(?!)

The pod. Apologies for the lack of photos, I was embracing my time away from my phone!

On inspection, the pod was hot tub-sized with a big domed lid. Slipping inside it felt roomy and nothing like the claustrophobic watery coffin I’d imagined.

I quickly showered and hopped in pulling the lid behind me, it felt like hiding in one of those beds where the mattress lifts to reveal under bed storage.

At first there certainly wasn’t much sensory deprivation, the strong epsom salts made my skin burn (I have eczema), one of the ear plugs floated off to the feet end of the tank and I couldn’t get my head and neck to relax. Every time I forced my neck to relax, relaxed I could hear my blood pulsing around my head and was sure I was going to drown myself.

Eventually the burning calmed down, I put my hands behind my head and and felt very bored. Had I really paid to be bored in the dark for an hour?

After about 15-minutes, I found myself in what I can only describe as some sort of meditative state. I vaguely remember thinking about pretty mundane things, a bit like a waking dream. I was very relaxed, comfortable and secure in my salty womb/coffin/hot tub.

When the hour was up soft tinkly music started up in the tank and I “came to” feeling really well rested with a very pleasant brain fuzz.

Après float

I loved my float session, it was a great way to spend a Sunday evening and I slept extremely well that evening.

And I got a wee floaty loyalty card.

My eczema was definitely less inflamed for the week after the float.

My earplug-less ear was itchy and crispy for a few days.

My poor hair which had just had its first real hair cut and colour since January 2020. The epsom brine had stripped the toner from my hair leaving it strawy-yellow

*originally written in 2020 (Has it really been 5 years since the pandemic? The crazy queueing systems? the travel restrictions! )

The Worlds Largest Hedge, Meikleour, Scotland

Posted in Central Scotland, Random places, Scotland, travel, UK, Weird MuseumsTagged , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

This post is dedicated to those who have to make small talk at corporate dinners.

I was sat at a yet another “networking” dinner last week and spent the latter part if the evening persuading the dinner guests that, in a world of hyper-awsome-viral-trending -must-see, seeking out ‘the underwhelming’ is the perfect antidote.

Scotland’s synonymous with scenery but it’s possible that you didn’t know its also home to the World’s largest hedge. Yes, Scotland’s Meikleour beech hedge holds the Guinness World Record for both longest and tallest hedge on planet earth.

My first trip to the hedge was a bit of a risk. I’d recently met a new suitor and decided to take him on a “fun mystery date” . The hedge is over an hours drive from my home near Stirling and I felt that perhaps I needed to add more to the days itinerary to make it really really fun – more about that later.

“we’re here!”

“where?” He looked at the muddy  layby, bewildered.

I broke into a grin

“The world’s largest hedge! Tadah!!”

Then there was a moment of stunned silence. And then he started to laugh.

Essentially in winter – The Meiklour Beech Hedge exposes itself as a cleverly coiffed row of trees..

World’s largest hedge in November

Now I had prepared for him to be a little underwhelmed so had some other sights up my sleeve including:

The village of Dull (twinned with Boring, Oregon, USA)

Dull village

And the Fortingall yew tree – much debate about the age of this tree. Some report it as being the oldest tree in Europe but this is contested.   Legend tells of Pontius Pilate being half Scottish (yes he of bible fame) dancing beneath this tree as a child.

The Fortingall Yew tree

The day’s excitement didn’t send him running for the hills.

In fact we returned for a second look at the hedge in summer – I bribed him with a pub lunch at the Meiklour Arms this time.

Meiklour Arms Beer Garden
And in summer…

Back to the corporate networking dinner. By the end of the evening, my dinner companion was enthusiastically researching underwhelming things in London to visit with his girlfriend…who knew Britain’s oldest door was hiding in plain sight just yards away from our dinner?

To be continued…

Random Places to visit #1… The Blue Pool – Tor Wood, Scotland

Posted in Random places, Scotland, UKTagged , , , , , , 6 Comments

Thanks to Atlas Obscura, I discovered that less than 5 miles from my home the mysterious Blue Pool is located in Torwood Forest – a man-made brick pool filled with weird teal-blue water. 

The pool 20-feet across and around 12 feet deep and it’s purpose and builder remain a local mystery.

*UPDATE 2021*

  • Last time I visited the pool is getting more murky and full of debris
  • There has been a lot of forestry activity since I first visited, some of the paths are very rutted and muddy
  • There is a car park just off Glen road, you could park here (see map) follow the (roman) road towards Torwood Castle and head down towards the Blue Pool from there.
map – where to park and where to walk

When I first visited, I parked my car in a muddy layby near the village of Denny and set of in search of the Blue Pool. It’s a pleasant walk through fields and woods and a pretty nice view – you can see the distinctive red diamonds of the Forth Rail bridge (although my phone camera barely picks it up!) and a good view of the Forth Valley.

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View to the 3 bridges over the Firth of Forth – the Queensferry Crossing, iconic Forth Rail Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge

Hopping over a stream, I met a cheery couple walking their collie dog and asked them if they knew where the pool was. – Not far – look for the line of pylons and it’s on your left (on the right if heading down from the castle) through a gap in the stone wall beside the path.

Well their directions were spot on and 10 mins later I found the pool. Looking through the gap in the stone wall, there were two beardy, studenty guys standing in the forest, staring at something on the forest floor. Aha! The Blue Pool of Torwood!

It’s exactly as described – brick lined pool of very still eerie blue water. At the bottom there looks like some kind of small tunnel heading off underground but it’s hard to see as the walls have crumbled and the bottom of the pool is full of rubble and sticks.

dav
The blue pool in 2021

The beardy students reckon that the pool was the base for a hydraulic crane (they were engineering students) but there aren’t any other industrial structures nearby. I’m none the wiser having stared at the pool for a bit. Other theories include a water storage pool in case of fires at Torwood castle, settling pools for mine workings, a folly? Whatever it is, nowadays it’s NOT for swimming in nor drinking from!

On the path, I met the couple with the collie again. They asked me if I was going to head on towards the Tappoch broch (a broch is a Scottish prehistoric circular stone tower).

So I did.

Then I found the ruins of Torwood Castle… which it turns out sit on an old roman road!

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The Ruins of Torwood Castle

About a mile on from the Blue Pool I found markers for the broch

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Signpost mark the way to Tappoch Broch across recently felled woodland

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Tappoch Broch

I found the broch and to my surprise, I wasn’t alone here either. A young couple were standing on the remains of the broch wall. They told me they were getting married next year and were considering the broch as their wedding venue….very romantic in a kooky kinda way!

By now the sun was setting and there was a definite October chill in the air so I retraced my steps towards the car.

As I headed back, I met two self-styled urban explorers who stopped me to ask if I knew where the Blue Pool was. It’s good to know that I’m not the only intrepid explorers seeking out the weird core and the world’s oddities 🙂

All Aboard the Caledonian Sleeper! (Updated 2024)

Posted in Scotland, travel, Travel adviceTagged , , 3 Comments

(*This was originally published in 2016, updated for 2024)

For years I used to look wistfully at the Caledonian Sleeper – a long shiny dinosaur on platform 11 in Glasgow Central. Being a romantic at heart I was full of fantasies about Strangers on a Train, Murders on Far Eastern Expresses and Amorous Greetings from Russia. Eventually I persuaded my long-suffering mum to go on an exciting adventure to London on the Sleeper train. And, whilst I was disappointed not to bump in to a tall dark handsome stranger, I did decide that it was a most pleasing way to make the trip to the Big Smoke.

Several years later, I’ve now got a big grown up job which requires trips to ‘the London Office’. I’m NOT a morning person – the red-eye to London dashes any romantic fantasies about jetting off to the City. These days the BA Cityflyer is more “primark” than “premium”.

“The Caledonian Sleeper” is in fact different trains starting at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness. I believe they merge at Crewe when things go bump in the night, don’t panic, it’s just the highland and lowland sleepers clunking together. The first time you experience this it can be quite disconcerting, especially if you’re like me and pick the top bunk (I’m convinced the top bunk is a cat’s whisker wider than the bottom bunk and the top mattress endures less bottoms/suitcases so tends to be slightly more plump).

In theory, living in Stirling, I can catch the “highland” sleeper as it heads down from Inverness, calling at Stirling at midnight, allowing me to shower at home and head straight to my on-board-bed. Useful!

Victim of its own success?

Less useful for me – the Caledonian Sleeper is much discussed on Scotland travel forums and is now more often than not sold out weeks in advance these days – less handy for last minute business trips.

Cost of the Caledonian Sleeper 2024

I laughed when I looked back and wrote in 2016 that you could sometimes pick up a 1st class single for around £120. (Back then a 1st class gave you your own room so no sharing with snorey strangers, a nice breakfast delivered to your room and access to 1st class lounges in the station including access to a shower, and free food, drinks, newspapers, charging points for your phones.

I didn’t intend for this post to go in this direction but it got me thinking…Today a one way ticket in the basic “standard” room costs around £240 (no ensuite…although it does include a sink which I suspect many people take a sneaky pee in during their evening). Is the sleeper more “planet saver” than “pound saver”??

Well there you have it. Yes it may be cheaper to fly even once onward travel is accounted for but for me, I still feel drawn to the romance of a night train as new sleeper train services spring up across Europe.

Are you swayed to slumber on the sleeper?

  1. As with anything cash buys comfort £425 one way for the double bed en-suite – around double the cost of a night in a 3 star London hotel room!
  2. Bathrooms – the “public” toilets on the train aren’t as bad as you might think if you are traveling sans-en-suite.
  3. Flip flops/sliders are handy for the romantic middle of the night toilet trips.
  4. Earplugs and or noise cancelling headphones are a must – I never travel without them – to dull the hum of the engines and minimise thumps and bangs of 4am train alterations because even the posher rooms don’t block out the rail noises.
  5. The “air con” is patchy – I’ve been allocated some rooms like an oven and some like a fridge – layers are your friend. If you get cold you can always nab the spare duvet from the other bunk.
  6. Travel with snacks! I’ve heard stories of catering not being available from time to time!
  7. The costs I’ve quoted are per room not per person so a travel buddy that doesn’t fart or snore and will split the cost makes it way more economical!
  8. Don’t forget to A. open your blinds at Peterborough and pull silly faces at the grim-faced commuters on the platform from your bed and B. don’t forget to close the blinds when changing!

Bon Voyage!