2017 Trip to Scotland – Day 13 – Glencoe to Fort William, and on to Mallaig

On Thursday, May 18th, Alan and Pat served us a wonderful Scottish breakfast.  Then we were picked up by a taxi to take us from Ardno House in Glencoe to the train station in Fort William, so we could pick up the West Highland Line (the Jacobite, or “Harry Potter” train), which runs twice daily to Mallaig (pronounced ‘ma-lag’), on the western coast of mainland Scotland.  The Jacobite train is a turn-of-the-century steam engine train that was featured as the train from tbd to tbd in the tbd Harry Potter movie.

The scene in the movie shows the train traversing the impressive tbd viaduct just outside tbd.  Everyone on the train seemed to want to get a photo of this crossing, and there were limited spaces at the ends of each coach that had windows that could open to get a good view.  Those who really knew what they were doing knew that the best shot on the way to Mallaig would be from the rear of the train on the left side.  That would provide a view of the majority of the train as it curved over the viaduct, with the engine belching out smoke.

After we arrived in Mallaig, we dropped off our bags at the West Highland Hotel, and went for lunch at The Chlachain Inn.  Afterwards, we checked in to our hotel, and did some shopping near the pier.  We had dinner at the The Cornerstone Seafood Restaurant, and afterwards we went back to the West Highland Hotel for drinks and desert.