We booked our ferry last night and unfortunately couldn’t get the 10:40am one we had planned so we got on the 1230pm. The bonus for this is we didn’t really have any time concerns getting to Oban so we kind of just got up and around and had breakfast and packed up leisurely and got on the road to Armadale to catch the ferry to Mallaig and the main British island. We got to town in time to round out our tour of the main castles of Skye with Armadale Castle which was the MacDonald clan castle from the 1500s or so until the mid 1900s. Their former stronghold we saw the other day in northern Skye. This one was pretty limited in new information and similarly to their older castle lays mostly in ruins as it fell into disrepair in the 1950s and later they got permission to selectively demolish it to make kind of a structural garden. The visitor center would be of great interest to a member of clan MacDonald but otherwise was not a ton of new or interesting information or exhibits. The grounds themselves were pretty spectacular with hundreds of huge trees it was almost prehistoric feeling in places being dwarfed by these enormous trees. After making the loop through we headed over to the ferry terminal and we were a little early and caught the tail end of the 11:45pm ferry so we waited a bit and visited a couple of shops waiting for that one to leave. Once it left we got into line with the cars and waited to load up and sail off. We went up to the top deck to sit and watch the scenery go by as we made the crossing and I took lots of pictures. About an hour later we were unloading in Mallaig and heading to our next stop in Glenfinnan. Through a series of seemingly logical choices rash step we hadn’t eaten yet and this would continue to happen for a bit until we were both on the verge of hanger but more on that later. Glenfinnan is arguably the real beginning of the Jacobite Campaign called “The 45” which we have seen a lot about on our trip including the final defeat at Culloden and the Princes daring escape from the Isle of Skye. We stopped at the visitor center and first headed back to get a closer look at the Glenfinnan Viaduct railway bridge which is probably more popularly known today as “The Harry Potter Bridge” for its appearance with the Hogwarts express in the movies. We got right up to it and took some pictures then headed back to the Visitors center. Like the last castle this exhibit wasn’t much new information though they did have a cool miniature model setup of the initial meeting of the clan chiefs with Bonnie Prince Charlie and his unfurling of his colors to begin his campaign to retake the crown. Across the street is a huge column topped by a statue of the Bonnie Prince himself and a stunning backdrop of a lake and mountains. By this time with the walking we were definitely ready to eat so we headed to their cafe onsite. When we got there they were sold out of basically everything so we decided to continue and hope to find something along the route. One thing we have noticed on the route we have been on at least is that there are not nearly the roadside services (gas, food, rest stops, etc) that we are used to in the US or even in my experience other parts of Europe. As we were crossing through Fort William and still striking out we looked on Google maps again and saw a KFC listed on our route and figured why not? Overall not much to specifically call out with Scotland KFC other than they had gravy and no mashed potatoes and also they had baked beans. Otherwise it could have just been any in the US. It definitely hit the spot though and we managed to hold in the hanger 😂. We headed on to Oban and the only other specific highlight was in Port Appin we briefly saw a square castle on an island and I immediately knew I knew it then shouted “That was the Holy Grail castle!”. Sure enough it was Castle Stalker which appeared as Castle Aaaarrrrrgggghhh in Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. The scenery on this drive like all of Scotland but in a totally different style was just stunningly beautiful though all the way into Oban. Once we found our hotel (google had us confused and it took 2 tries) and got settled we headed into Oban town center and grabbed fish and chips for dinner. We then walked around the port and just kind of relaxed and looked around at the scenery and ships in the port. Tomorrow is a full day tour of Iona and Mull and then a sprint over to Stirling for one night (our last in Scotland).