The Armin Grewe Homepage
Picture of the furnace at Bonawe Iron Works Picture of various storage buildings
Picture of the space where the water wheel used to bePicture of Armin reading the explanationWe woke up to quite rainy weather. After a quick breakfast we soon left Oban towards Glasgow. Our first stop was near Taynuilt, where we visited Bonawe Iron Furnace.

Bonawe was founded in 1753 and in use until 1876 (although use started to decline in the middle of the 19th century). Various buildings remain in different states of repair. Some of the old storage buildings are in quite good repair and also house exhibitions about the iron works. The furnace itself is in not such a good state and the waterwheel once powering the bellows blasting air into the furnace is gone. We spent a while walking around the site following the well laid out tour with its descriptive plates. The buildings provided shelter when the rain grew stronger, while we walked from one building to the next when the rain lessened.

Our next stop was at Cruachan Power Station overlooking Loch Awe. The tours were quite expensive and the tour times didn't suit our plans, so we just had a quick look at the free exhibition before we drove on. Past Inveraray (with a quick stop at Loch Fyne Whiskies) we continued to Cairndow where we had lunch at the famous Loch Fyne Oyster Bar. After lunch we made our way to Helensburgh, where we visited Hill House:

Picture of the front of Hill House Picture of Imke outside of Hill House
During our tour through Scotland in 2001 we hadn't been able to visit Hill House, so my sister asked to give it another try this time. We had a very nice afternoon looking at the house and the exhibitions. Even the rain stopped and we could walk around the garden and view the house from the outside.

Late in the afternoon we left and drove over to Glasgow to check in at the Victorian House. The evening was spent shopping in the book stores and later packing our bags to be ready for the journeys back the next day.

Picture of Hill House from the garden Picture of a view over the roofs of Glasgow

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