Absolutely!

Derwentwater. Not all the lakes here are called lakes – and did you know that there is a lake in Scotland – just the one, as all the others are lochs 🙂

I know. I’m glad I did more travelling down beyond Yorkshire when I did, cos I don’t see it happening now. (Kind of saying something given some of these holidays…) You are very welcome re the comment. You well show that a good time and lots of things to do, aren’t the prerogative of the big beast places.

SWAG is often used in the US military, Swift Wild Assed Guess. What is the lake?

What a great reply Shey and thanks for your lovely comment. That means a lot, and although I can’t get to those out of the way places anymore, it’s great fun writing about them.

Some of it is distance and cost these days. For a while after a hiatus when we thought the place we stayed in in Easingwold had been sold a private buyer, we went back down there every Ocitbe, but now the Mr does not want to drive that kind of distance. And okay cheapish train deals can be got but we also like to walk places we go. And intense marketing as you say is not the answer. Some places up here like Glenfinnan, Culloden and Glencoe are ruined by Harry Potter and Highlander groupies. Like that we noticed that Arisaig had dealt with its tourists, rather well, striking the balance re needing the boost to their wee economy and being overrun by camper vans. When I look at Scotland there’s so many places to go given it is quite a diverse country, with something to offer everyone but inevitably, when a writer pal from abroad cotnacts me to say they are coming here, it is always on one of these whistlestop tours takign in you know, the castles— yeah right, what they mean is the clan chief’s stately home– them Outlander stones— the Clava circle Culloden– that Harry Potter place — Glenfinnan. I really enjoy your blog you know cos you cover all the little places, the walks, the dens, the glens, as well as the bigger things.

There’s no doubt that the UK has a great number of worthwhile places to visit. We can’t do much about the weather, but we should be able to do more to arract visitors outside the obvious places to visit. Scotland did a lot a while back, but it doesn’t have to be intense marketing because that’s not really the answer either.

Listen, while I ahve never been down to your part of the world, I ahve many favorites down south.

No, there weren’t. Must have been lovely – so much quieter. 🙂

Maybe one day 💙