The Great Glen

From Edinburgh, we drove north.  Many of the hills were forested and the autumn leaves reminded us of New England.  The landscape became increasing dramatic as we entered the Cairngorm mountains.

We spent the night in a Victorian era hotel in Strathpeffer, just north of Inverness.  Apparently, it was one of the first locations to have electricity installed.  Sage has been learning about Victorian times and was excited to tell us about how they would have done things when the hotel was first built.

We stayed on the third floor and it was a veritable labyrinth to get to our room. We didn’t mind the walk, though, and we loved the character of the hotel. The garden outside was beautiful as well.

From Strathpeffer, we went to Chanonry Point to look for dolphins and seals swimming in the Moray Firth. For those like me who were not familiar with the word, a firth is a narrow inlet of the sea or an estuary. The most northerly population of bottlenose dolphins lives in the Moray Firth and can often be seen swimming close to shore here.

We quickly spotted several seals who kept poking their heads out of the water to look around. We spent some time exploring the beach, but were just about to leave without seeing any dolphins when we noticed one in the water off the point. There was a pair of dolphins that leapt through the water together. We couldn’t tell if there was more than one pair, though, or if they just kept swimming in circles and reappearing in the same place. Anyway, they were beautiful to watch.

Next, we went to see Culloden battlefield, the location of the last battle between Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite forces and the government soldiers. We have an interest in the Bonnie Prince because he and his army camped in the fields outside our house near the Swarkestone bridge before retreating back into Scotland. Also, one of our local pubs is “The Bonnie Prince”.

Anyway, the new visitor centre there is fantastic. The interpretive displays presented the background of the conflict and the details of the battle in a very accessible way. It is perhaps the best historical presentation I’ve ever seen. We saw interactive maps showing how the armies moved through Scotland and England, heard accounts from soldiers from both armies, and got a chance to hold some of the rifles and pistols used in the battle.

Finally, we drove along Loch Ness towards our accommodation on the Isle of Skye.  Loch Ness was beautiful and very, very long. We talked a lot about the Loch Ness monster and Molly read about the evidence for and against the existence of such a creature. River was convinced that it was a hoax.

We stopped to check out the ruins of Castle Urquhart, located picturesquely on the north shore of the loch.

And we stopped at just about every wide stop in the road, just because it was Loch Ness and it was a particularly beautiful, sunny day in the Great Glen