Robot Claw

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.