Exploring Glencoe, Scotland In A Heatwave With My Dog

A trip to the Highlands with my best friend

Toby the Monkeydog pondering his trip Photo by author

Global warming made an appearance and bequeathed Scotland a run of clear skies. We had twelve uninterrupted weeks of ginger-baking summer sunshine. This was unheard of in Scotland.

‘If you don’t like the weather in Scotland — wait twenty minutes’ was a phrase I hadn’t heard in weeks.

This was seriously warm. People forgot where they left their umbrellas and even left their houses without an anorak. Ice-cream van men were putting deposits on Ferraris.

Don’t get me wrong, women still went to communion in their big woolly coats — it wasn’t so hot that it warmed up the inside of a church.

I took Toby the Monkeydog to the west coast of Scotland to explore Glencoe. Following a route through the Trossachs National Park, we stopped at The Green Welly and purchased the obligatory anti-midge spray (my goodness, that place is as busy as a confessional after an Old Firm Game).

At the viewpoint overlooking Loch Tulla, I pulled into the layby and parked facing the black waters. I sat spellbound. A solitary cloud cast a shadow on the loch, taking the shine off the surface where it fell, making it opaque and ominous. It slithered across the water like a malevolent…