Day 6 - a new Loch and Inverness

24th October 2019

We were up before the sheep this morning. The wind was blowing its full force and giving that lovely sidewards rain that seems to be a Skye speciality. As we left our pod at the unearthly hour of 6:15am, we did actually wake up the sheep that were lining the path from the croft to the road.

We (Andrew) drove the tricky dark roads back towards the southern part of the island, where we left Skye via the Skye Bridge, which connects Skye to the mainland. It is free to cross, but when it first opened there was a toll of £5.70 each way, making it the most expensive toll bridge in Europe. A protest group was formed by locals on both sides of the bridge and eventually the people were heard and the toll scrapped. We drove across it, thankful for a brief subsidence in the wind, and left our car with the hire company in Lochalsh. We waited 15 minutes for our luxury coach to Fort William and we were soon snoozing away in it’s warmth. Two hours passed in the blink of an eye and we were soon back at our other car in Fort William.

We were now heading towards the more famous of the Scottish lochs - Loch Ness.
Some facts: Loch Ness contains more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined, making it the most voluminous lake in the UK (the largest in area is Loch Lomond). Loch Ness’ water is 6°C in temperature all year round, it never freezes over - even in the coldest winter. On very cold days you can see steam rising from the surface of the loch, as it is warmer than the surrounding air.

After a grey morning, the sun was doing her best, and she greeted us at the start of the loch. Brilliant blue skies. The loch and surrounding landscapes are beautiful. We took some pictures and then went for a little walk around the village of Fort Augustus - very much catering for the swarms of tourists that must descend here in the summer. I bought a little china Nessie and we got back into the car to drive along the rest of the loch. It really is huge. it took us a solid 45 minutes to drive from the bottom to the top of the lake. We even saw some rainbows that had their end in the lake.

I guess the most famous loch is famous for the most famous monster. The Loch Ness monster. We actually learned of the reason that the world thinks Nessie exists.

In 565 AD Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he encountered local residents burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man was swimming in the river when he was attacked by a "water beast" which mauled him and dragged him underwater. Although they tried to rescue him in a boat, he was dead. Columba sent a friend to swim across the river (nice display of friendship). The beast approached him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and forbid the creature to ever touch a man again. The creature stopped and fled, and Columba's men and the Picts gave thanks for what they perceived as a miracle. Nessie and her descendants have stayed well away from humans ever since!

We pulled over at a sign for Urquhart Castle. We decided not to go in, but we did peer over the wall to have a look and it was popular with visitors.

We continued on and were soon at our hotel in Inverness. Inverness, meaning “mouth of the river Ness”, is the most northerly city in the UK. Around one-third of the population of the Highlands of Scotland lives in or close to Inverness. It is one of Europe’s fastest growing cities with a population of approximately 63,000.

It was a nice day, and we decided to head for Inverness Castle. We had passed over Urquhart Castle for this one, and were a little disappointed to find that Inverness Castle is no longer a castle. It is now the government buildings. They do however, have a part that you can climb up to which has a small exhibition and a viewing point. So we did that. The day was so clear that we got some wonderful views across the city.

We then had a pleasant walk around the town. It has a large pedestrian area and the usual shops, but also some sweet little souvenir shops and art galleries. We walked along the River Ness for a while looking at the interesting buildings. Some are almost like the canal houses of Amsterdam. It feels nice here.

We set off for dinner in the town. One ever such slight disappointment on this trip has been the food. We had envisaged pub lunches in front of roaring fires, but we really struggled to find anywhere that a) wasn’t posh when it didn’t need to be, or b) served food on time and cooked well. We had a few nice meals, but that tended to be after walking out of ones taking forever to serve or after looking for an age. Such a shame. We are ever so slightly at the end of season though, so that could be why.

This has been a lovely trip. We suspected that Scotland would capture our hearts, and it has. We will definitely be back, and if I ever find some sea legs it would be great to visit more of the small islands, or the Hebrides. One day.

For now, thank you as ever for those of you that followed along. We hope you enjoyed reading our mini adventures

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