We Should Sleep Well Tonight

To be honest we're both absolutely knackered. We decided to take advantage of the continuing glorious weather here in Scotland and headed to Kinross to do a spot of walking around Loch Leven. We'd heard that there was a beautiful Heritage Trail around the loch with well laid level paths making walking a doddle. 

The car park was reached through a small housing estate and some industrial units which belied the splendour and beauty of what was to come. After a quick coffee we set off down the trail.

It's a beautifully created and well marked trail with lovely features such as this rail at a viewpoint engraved with information about the history and wildlife of the area (this is just a small segment).

There are a dozen or more benches finely carved with slogans in Rabbie Burns style dialect - we enjoyed having a stab at their translation and think that we managed to understand most and learnt a few words to add to our sparse local vocabulary.

But it wasn't just a few benches and well laid paths with clear signposts that made our walk a success - the glorious scenery was quite stunning. We learnt that Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in (and escaped from) this island castle.

We saw some of the scores of geese that arrive at the loch to winter before we headed for a well earned snack at the cafe run by the RSPB.

The cafe and information centre is a paradise for bird lovers and there were plenty of twitchers about with their high powered telescopes and long lens cameras.

So why are we knackered after such a lovely gentle walk? Well, every inch of the lake's shoreline that you can see in these photos was part of the path and it came to just over eight miles - in each direction! So, for a couple of retirees who haven't had much exercise for three months a seventeen mile walk was quite an exertion. But we wouldn't have missed it for anything; glorious weather, beautiful countryside and great company. Who could have asked for more?