A splendid base for Highland touring
Banavie, Inverness-shire July 2, 1983
If you’re of a certain age, you probably have Tony Hatch’s Crossroads theme now playing in your brain – although that fictional Birmingham motel never achieved the AA and RAC two-star ratings achieved by The Moorings Hotel, in Banavie near Fort William. We half-expect Noele Gordon to come flying out, complaining that a Fiesta simply doesn’t create the right sort of ambience, and can the couple in Room 13 please move it further from the main entrance?
How might any Scottish Meg Mortimer (Meg's character in the legendary soap opera) have felt about the other vehicles here?
Twerking in on the left is a 1967 Triumph 1300, on its way to classic status by 1983.
Rather newer is PAS 719S, the 1978 Renault 12 next door. With its steel wheels, it looks like an L variant. This 1289cc example survived until June 1992. Next door is a sibling Renault 9, which would have been very new at this point: right-hand drive models were only introduced in March 1982.
Ford’s lukewarm hatch
Just visible behind the hotel is the tub of a VW T25 Transporter. Then there’s TAS 428T, the 1978-registered Fiesta 1300 S that in those pre-XR2 days was the sportiest of the small Fords, boasting 66bhp. Its neighbour, LMV 423W, is a 1980 Triumph Dolomite 1500 in more luxurious HL form.
Not surprisingly being almost totally obscured by DUL 480V, a 1979 Volvo 245 DL, is a Minivan, a real contrast in load-luggers. Finally, there’s DBY 273Y, a 1983 Ford Escort 1.6L and the sixth vehicle out of the nine here to be finished in red; obviously a very popular shade with holidaymakers touring the Ben Nevis region.
