The pipes are calling's

Scotland called is anew company which aims to give tourists an alternative view of Scotland in total luxury. Dominic Roskrow spent three days exploring Scotland's west coast.

It’s an overwhelming experience standing at the top of Bealach Na Ba – Gaelic for cattle pass and a road which can lay claim to being both Britain’s highest road and one its most dramatic.

Even on wet and misty days like today the view is truly spectacular and a little disconcerting. Indeed the mists that shroud the furthest lochs add to the eeriness, and the light – or lack of it – hardly helps. It’s like nature started lighting the day then decided about lunchtime it couldn’t be bothered. So we’re in some sort of twilight zone waiting for night to come back in.

Looking down the 2000 feet plus to sea and loch level it’s easy to feel lost and isolated, even a little bit scared.

No matter that just metres away is a fully-equipped and modern luxury people carrier and that my companion Chris Gordan has stood in this spot countless times and knows the roads intimately.

“It’s at moments like this that I feel like getting the bagpipes out,” he says unexpectedly and incongruously. A quick glance suggests he’s deadly serious. And indeed, it transpires that he is.

“I call it my ‘get out of jail’ card,” he explains later. “If I’ve been with a group of holiday-makers all day and the weather’s not been kind and we’ve had to cancel a few of the day’s activities then I’ll get the pipes out.

“If we’re somewhere like Bealach Na Ba or at the Wallace monument then it makes an impression. People love it and it helps turn even the more depressing days around.”

Such moments turn great holi.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Scottish Journeys

Page number : 28