A HIGHLAND FLING

A few years ago we did a tour of the beautiful Scottish Islands. It was one of our favourite trips, and I'd like to share some photos with you.

We flew from Bristol to Inverness, and hired a car at the airport. We headed south west to Loch Ness for our first night's stay. Obviously some parts of this area are quite 'touristy'; but it's still very photogenic. I managed to get a shot of the 'monster'. It's the purple one in the photo - just in case of any confusion?

The actual Loch Ness Monster

I had my first single malt of the trip, and we had our first of a series of wonderful Scottish breakfasts. They all seem to feature black pudding and haggis - what's not to like there?

The next day we headed off towards Loch Linnhe on the west coast, stopping off at the impressive Falls of Foyers on the way.

The Falls of Foyers

We stayed in a great hotel on the shores of Loch Linnhe, and we were treated to some spectacular sunsets. We took the opportunity to visit Oban, which is a lovely old town. Just to make us feel at home, the MV Balmoral was in dock!

Our next stopover was at Loch Duich. We had a compulsory excursion to Eilean Donan Castle, which was well worth the visit. Some impressive historical artefacts in there.

We crossed the bridge for a brief tour of Skye; but it was a mizzly overcast day, and we didn't see it at it's best. Perhaps another time. We also stopped off at Plockton, which is a lovely little seaside town.

Local flora and fauna

We headed north along the west coast, which was one of the best journeys I've ever undertaken. The landscape was among the most spectacular I've seen. We headed east from a very windy Durness, and made for our next stopover at Bettyhill. It felt a bit like the edge of the world up there, remote and quite bleak, but in a very good way.

Bettyhill

We had intended to head on to John o' Groats, but a fellow guest suggested that it wasn't worth it, so we headed south instead. We called in at the Falls of Shin on the way. We were able to witness the famous spectacle of the salmon leaping up the falls. We were also treated to the less impressive sight of a full size waxwork model of Mohamed Al Fayed in full Highland regalia in the visitor centre. He must own the place? Apparently the visitor centre burned down not long after our visit, and work is just starting on a replacement.

We headed back to Inverness for the last couple of nights of our stay. Among the highlights of our stay was a visit to the Glenmorangie Distillery at Tain, and a stopover at the seaside town of Dornoch, where we were treated to the impressive site of hundreds of gannets dive-bombing for a fishy lunch.

Highland cuisine

As I hope you can tell from my brief description, we really enjoyed this trip. The locals were very friendly. The food and drink was superb. The scenery was the best. You'd have to be a pretty lousy photographer to not be able to get some beautiful shots up there.

Hopefully we will return pretty soon.

Enjoy the photos.

Trev.