Glen Etive

Today we spend the day in beautiful Glen Etive. This valley is known for its picturesque landscapes, clear rivers and rugged mountains. In Gaelic it is called Gleann Èite. A single-track road branches off the A82 between Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe and runs about 20 kilometres through the glen to the head of Loch Etive.

As James Bond fans, we are particularly excited, because the glen was also a filming location for the film Skyfall. We stop at the famous spot where M stands with Bond and talks about his past. We leave our rental car at the roadside, with the brown slopes behind it. We try to recreate the photo from the film and are amazed by the surroundings.

In the 2012 film, Bond takes M in his Aston Martin DB5 to Skyfall, his childhood home in the Scottish Highlands. The driving scenes were shot in February 2012 on the A82 near Buachaille Etive Mòr, and further scenes were filmed in Glen Etive on National Trust for Scotland land. The house itself never stood in Scotland: It was a plywood and plaster set on Ministry of Defence land at Hankley Common in Surrey. According to VisitScotland, the family of Ian Fleming, who created James Bond, owned a lodge in Glen Etive.

We continue along the narrow road through Glen Etive, stopping several times to take photos and drone shots. Unfortunately it is very windy, so we mostly stay in the car instead of going out hiking.

At the head of the glen stand the cone-shaped peaks of Buachaille Etive Mòr and Buachaille Etive Beag. The names mean great and little herdsman of Etive. The great herdsman stands where Glen Etive meets Glen Coe, and its highest summit, Stob Dearg, the red peak, is 1021 metres high. Along the way we see a narrow gorge with a snow-flecked peak behind it. Down the glen, Loch Etive stretches away between the mountainsides, a sea loch about 30 kilometres long that meets the sea at Connel, north of Oban. Snow-capped peaks rise above the choppy water. A white horse stands in a field.

The Glen Etive road is a dead end. It finishes at a turning circle near a pier, served from 1847 by a steamer from Oban. The only way back to the A82 is the same road. According to the Highland Council, the Lochaber Area Committee decided in May 2026 to introduce parking charges at the car park at the end of the road and to ban parking there between 10 pm and 8 am.

We then drive to our next Airbnb in Auchtubh, where we are greeted by a very nice and interesting family. They live on a small farm with a dog, chickens and a big garden. Auchtubh is a hamlet about two kilometres east of the village of Balquhidder. The village and glen of Balquhidder are part of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, which was set up in 2002 as Scotland’s first national park. Rob Roy MacGregor lived and died in Balquhidder and is buried beside the village’s old church.

We go for a short hike on a forest track and see lots of sheep and very small lambs.

Back at the Airbnb, we eat in the living room, and our host keeps us company. We talk about Scotland, card games and travelling. She gives us a card game called “Canasta”, which we are keen to try out!