Robot Claw

We drove up north yesterday. It took about 3 hours and as is common here the landscape changed many times during the trip.

Our goal was the northernmost mainland town of John O’Groats, which is a famous tourist attraction. I say ‘town’ but there’s not much to it except for a few tourist shops and some windswept caravan parks.

But we had fun! The above sign is famous so we had to have our photo taken, plus we had some great fish and chips…

And visited the best postcard store I’ve ever seen and then mailed some cards from Scotland’s northernmost post office:

And here’s a shot of what things look like at the end of the world road:

The island over the water on the right is Orkney. We’re heading there today on a car ferry to get even farther north and even further back into Scottish history…

Another full day resting in Inverness. We spent the morning visiting a 4000 year old burial site (Clava Cairns):

And Culloden battleground, where the 1745 Jacobite rebellion ended. This was an exceptionally well presented museum and historical site and absolutely worth the visit!

And then, before some afternoon R&R, we sampled the cuisine of the MacDonald clan:

We’re driving North right now. Will I have internet and be able to Blog? Time will tell…

Yesterday was our rest day and we just boulevarded around Inverness for a while.

That’s a real sporran (as opposed to the cheap ones made for tourists) on sale for £125. It’s expensive for a change purse, but I’ve learned that quality highland dress is not a poor mans outfit (kilts can easily be £600+).

A famous used bookstore in Inverness. Yes this is natural lighting, and yes it’s as pretty as the photo suggests. Sadly it didn’t have the sorts of books I’d have liked to find…

And there’s a highland cow cupcake I bought KLS. Highland cows are very well represented on postcards and yet I’ve sent none featuring them so far. Should I?

We’re up early today to beat the crowds to a local attraction. Let’s hope we succeed!

We drove to Inverness yesterday – our base for the midpoint of our trip – and the drive took us directly past the famous Loch Ness.

We stopped at the almost-as-famous Urquhart Castle for a look see:

This is a wonderful place to visit! I prefer the ruined castles to the rebuilt ones, and they’ve done a great job here showcasing it and explaining the rich history. Plus the views are spectacular with the lake alongside at all times. If you go, don’t even consider skipping the historical film…

Loch Ness itself is dark, deep and choppy with the cool winds always blowing across it. We wandered down to the shore to touch the water and get a closer look at Nessie (the famous lake monster) but she remained elusive.

This is not to say she’s a historical curiosity. Nessie sighting were the highest ever in 2017 and the local tourist industry is absolutely based on her (maybe these two facts are related) with just about every business – from hotels to nursery’s to pet washers – including her name or image on their signs.

And the souvenirs…

Let’s say they don’t hold back 🙂

Nessie herself may have remained hidden, but the mystery of the Loch was real, and I was so happy to have visited a place I’ve fantasized about since childhood. I was so motivated that in an act of astonishing creativity and talent I’ve commemorated the trip in a series of original watercolour paintings on postcards:

Which one will you get?

Skye is an island in the NW of Scotland, and yesterday we did a full day small coach tour to see the many sights on the island. Today’s post won’t include everything we saw, but I’ll say in advance this is an extremely beautiful and scenic location and if you ever visit Scotland you absolutely need to include Skye in your itinerary.

That’s a view from a ridge that runs across the middle of the island. This shot hardly dies it justice (I’ll post panoramas when I return) but the views of the treeless and ancient landscape were astonishing!

This is taken at a place called the Fairy Glen, since the story goes that Fairy’s once inhabited these strange conical hills.

You can see me in the top left of the above shot astride the hill from which legendary piper Alastair McCrimmon stepped into the Faerie Realm. Alas, the gates remained closed for me…

The entire place – nestled in the foothills of the tall mountains on Skye – was quite magical and I would have liked to have spent more time there.

There’s me writing a postcard at the tiny shop in the 5-house town we had lunch before heading to the SW corner of Skye to visit Niest Point:

We walked that trail all the way to the lighthouse behind and it was excruciating mostly due to a staircase not visible here. But the views!!!

Afterwards and at the end of your trip we visited a series of small waterfalls called the Fairy Pools. This required another long walk from the car park:

But it was worth it! We’re I younger and braver I may have even joined those swimming in the cold water!

As I said Skye was amazing and this is just a taste of what we saw. The day was long and we were exhausted at the end, but we’ll remember Skye for a long, long time.