Once again, it was the Caledonian Sleeper, departing at 9.15pm from London Euston, that got me out of England. It's great that this service is still going and that it has a guaranteed future. It's unique and has a real romance to it. But, most importantly, it means you can wake up to views like this:
This is one of the longer steam train journeys available in the UK, taking an hour or so and passing through the stunning Glenfinnan.
You may already be familiar with Glenfinnan through the Harry Potter films:
That was to come later. First, though, I had a few hours to kill at Fort William before catching the afternoon steam train. All I really wanted to do after the sleeper journey was have a coffee and read a paper. To my surprise, Fort William Station, although small, is well equipped. It even has showers. So their spacious cafe was perfect, and before I knew it it was time to make my way to the platform, where the other train was waiting for the afternoon trip:
The ride was gloriously scenic and very busy with excited tourists, although one sulky teenager was less impressed as he turned to his parents and asked: "Do we have to take this thing back as well?"
Clearly he hadn't experienced the alternative- the Scotrail service train- which is a self-explanatory example of why the Harry Potter film-makers went with steam.
Along the way we stopped at Glenfinnan, for photos, and for the engine crew to get coffees personally delivered:
We arrived in Mallaig a while later, and settled in at The Moorings B&B before heading out for a very pleasant evening walk in the warm sunshine:
We found dinner at the excellent Cornerstone Restaurant, which is upstairs in a building overlooking the harbour and has great seafood. The Stornoway Black Pudding starter was just beautiful, and the service was friendly. All in unassuming surroundings. Afterwards we strolled around the harbour and even managed to see a seal, right in with the boats.
The next morning it was off to Eigg. We fought off the early midges and boarded the Loch Nevis, one Calmac's relatively recent additions to the fleet. It's compact but efficient, with a cafe and plenty of observation space on board.
Lots of people got off at Eigg as well- the first sign that it wasn't, as I'd previously thought, an extremely small island with about 20 minutes-worth of walking to do. There were some great views to take in, including sandy beaches and fantastic, sweeping hills:
The island also has a small arts and crafts shop, with a cafe, by the pier. A small church can be found up the road from the beach, and there are other small surprises along the way including the old post office building- now a sort of museum. We stayed at the brilliant Kildonan House where we were catered for in real style. Even if the weather had been poor (which it wasn't), it would have been so relaxing just to hang about in the beautiful house and gaze out at the view.
The next morning it was back to Mallaig. We stopped at Seafari, who have just recently started a service from there, to spend an hour on the boat looking for wildlife. The whales eluded us, but there were plenty of guillemots and seals to be seen:
There were times when it felt like we could have been out on some Southern European coast. I'd never seen so much sun cream being used in Scotland.
We spent lunch at the Tea Garden, watching the world pass by, and then boarded the Scotrail train back to Edinburgh (changing at Glasgow). I will not go into much detail about this other than to say that it was a) a very, very long journey; b) had no catering; c) did have a jobsworth guard who was happy to lie to passengers in order to get them to sit in particular seats when no moving was necessary.
I can't recommend Eigg enough, and Mallaig has plenty to offer as a base of operations. Now it's back to city life, but surely it won't be long before a return visit it made.
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