Do you want to be more environmentally friendly, lessen your carbon footprint, AND enjoy the scenery?
We are all keen to do more to reduce our carbon emissions and increase sustainability. One way of doing this is to use public transport more often. This blog post has some ideas of how you can do that to come on holiday to Dornie Croft or days out when you are here. You’ll find links to timetables within the blog and also places to visit by public transport.
Getting to Dornie Croft by public transport
Heading through Glencoe towards Fort William
Buachaille Etive Mòr from the bus
You might chose to come to Dornie by public transport and there are two ways to do this – bus or train. Citylink is the bus operator and runs a direct Glasgow/Dornie service and an Inverness/Dornie route. The Glasgow/Dornie route goes through incredible scenery – you get fantastic views of Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Ben Nevis and Glen Shiel from the bus plus the driver does all the work for you. If you choose this route, it takes about 5 hours. We can pick you up from the bus stop which is beside Eilean Donan Castle, we often say it’s the bus stop with the best view in the world!
Best bus stop in the world
There’s also a direct bus route from Inverness, Capital of the Highlands, to Dornie and this takes under two hours. The scenery is great – Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, Glen Shiel and then the iconic Eilean Donan Castle. Again, we can pick you up from the bus stop.
The other route people use is the Inverness/Kyle of Lochalsh railway line. There’s lot of information about it in this Wikipedia entry – Kyle of Lochalsh line – Wikipedia. The line was built in the 1890s and has featured on various programmes such as Michael Palin’s Great Railway Journeys of the World and Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys. You’ll find the timetable and how to book tickets on the Scotrail website here or on thetrainline. Once you arrive in Kyle, you can hire a car for the duration of your stay, get a taxi or we can arrange to pick you up.
Outings using public transport
Train to Plockton or Attadale Gardens or on to Inverness
These are a few suggestions of trips that you can make using the bus or train. We’d highly recommend taking the train from Kyle of Lochalsh to Plockton, or staying on to visit the lovely Attadale Gardens (request stop) or even having a day out in Inverness by train. The scenery between Kyle round the coast is spectacular and the views are much better than from the road.
The station in Kyle of Lochalsh is on the railway pier and there is a plaque commemorating one of the worst tragedies to affect the west coast of Scotland, and which had a huge impact on the Western Isles just after the end of World War I. The boat, HMY Iolaire left Kyle on 31 December 1918 carrying men back to Lewis and Harris after the end of the war, and as it was heading into Stornoway Harbour on New Year’s Day 1919, it hit rocks and sank. Only 82 men out of 283 survived.
Plockton on a winter’s day from the Inverness/Kyle train
Memorial to HMY Iolaire at Kyle of Lochalsh Railway Pier
Visit Portree, Isle of Skye
The bus services from Glasgow and Inverness go to Portree, the main village on the Isle of Skye and you can spend a few hours there before catching the bus back. There’s lots of cafes, shops and a wee harbour so plenty of ways to spend your time.
Harry Potter Viaduct
Another option is to drive down to Armadale in South Skye, leave your car there and take the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry across to Mallaig as a foot passenger. That in itself is a lovely trip but you can also take the train from Mallaig to Fort William and cross over the famous viaduct.
You might prefer to get off the train in Glenfinnan and visit the Bonnie Prince Charlie Monument as well as take photos of the viaduct (the steam train only operates in the summer) and then catch the next train back to Mallaig. The caveat with this trip is to only do it on calm days – you don’t want to have gone over the sea from Skye and then not get back!
Take a trip on a boat
Maybe not everyone would class travelling on a Calmac ferry as public transport but for those people who live on the islands, ferries are their means of commuting. As well as the Armadale/Mallaig ferry, you can also visit the Island of Raasay by ferry. Either leave your car in Sconser and travel as a foot passenger or take the car and explore the island. There’s plenty to see if you go as a foot passenger, including the Isle of Raasay Distillery with its tastings and restaurant.
EV Charging
Not quite the same as the options above, but don’t forget that we have EV chargers in both houses which are for your exclusive use. More information about these is include in the page Your Stay. So if you have an EV, you don’t need to worry about when and where you can charge your car. You can do it overnight while you sleep!