Eggbert's Travels

Monday 14^th to Sunday 20^th September 2015

SHE SAID WEEKLY ROUND-UP:

We are still in the Inverness area, & headed out to the famous battlefields of Culloden, a short drive from the BnB. This is where the Scottish hero Bonnie Prince Charlie came a cropper & fled the battle never to return to Scotland again. He dressed as a woman, evaded the government soldiers, & went back to France. Close by to these bloodied fields is an even more ancient area, called Clava Cairns. Here are burial chambers from the Bronze Age.

Our trip continues to the wilds of the northern Scotland, so we wanted to be prepared for all, including getting new shoes, hair cuts & food supplies in the city of Inverness...just in case you can't get these things further north. I had one stop request on the trip & that was at the “fairytale” castle of Dunrobin; such a cute place (if you can call it that).

We arrived to The Lodge at Thrumster House & moved in. It seems OK, though as yet not very warm. We are self catering here which is nice, we get the whole place to ourselves.

I have a long list of things to do up this way, & we ticked them off over the next few days. They included John O' Groats, which is the furthest point north from Land's End, not the most northern point, which is not far away, at Dunnet Head. Also, I wanted to go to the Ornkey Islands; done: a drive around the northern coast; done: & see some Puffins...sadly I lucked out on them as they have already headed out to sea for the rest of the year!

I did get one other thing ticked off on our trip around to Clashnessie. That was to see a Highland Games, the final one for the year actually, at Invercharron. Tossing the caber, a Scottish Piped Band & Scottish Dancing were all on. Clashnessie was a lovely stop on the wild west coast. You also need nerves of steel driving to the “outpost”; Geoff did really well!

The week wound up with a long-ish drive down the west coast, via Inverewe Gardens & Gairloch, to Skye. Who knew there was a bridge across to the Isle of Skye! Well there is, & here we are in a brand new self-catering cottage BnB near Struan.

Munlochy BnB

A lovely sunny morning in Inverness-River Ness

Memorial to the fallen at Culloden

The battlefields from the Jacobite lines

Across the battlefields

Clava Cairns- Bronze Age burial site

How strong is Hubby!

Culloden viaduct

Robin Red-breast

The bandstand at Nairn

 

Struie Hill Lookout - Dornoch Firth

Arriving at Dunrobin Castle, around the grounds & the fire in the entry hall



At the furthest point from Lands End

 

From John O' Groats to Dunnet Head



We both made it to the top, Archie too

 

Oil rig, with wind turbines for power off Helmsdale in the North Sea

 

The Lodge & main house - Thrumster

 

The pond at Thrumster House



Views along the A836 heading west

 

Melvich

Across the flowering heather moors to the mountains beyond



Next three pictures are the lookout at Bettyhill -
We stopped here for morning tea



Crossing the Kyle of Tongue

 

Across the moors to Ben Loyal & Ben Hope



Ard Neakie- Loch Hope



Loch Eriboll

 

Rispond Beach

Smoo Cave near Durness

 

Waterfall Cave in the Smoo Caves

 

Kyle of Durness

HE SAID:

Just as when I Skype my mother it seems that when I get a haircut it is worthy of a mention.

This B and B on Skye seems to be one of very few places that we have stayed at in the UK that has a planned bathroom. Most of the bathrooms we have encountered in the UK seem to have been added as part of a renovation. Therefore there is often a compromise in some way. Some of these compromises come as a surprise, some not. In the end the job in the bathroom gets done, so no big deal. It is just different to Australia. Australian places are, obviously, newer. We don't have the long history of bathrooms that the UK has, so the bathrooms are newer. You see? No toilet talk! Just "bathroom". I resisted!

After our day trip to the Orkneys, while driving home, we called in to the local pub of Thrumster - The Old Smiddy. On entering the front door we had dozens of people turn and gawp at us, as we were distracting a busload of tourists from their lesson/demonstration on bagpipes, from a fully kitted out piper. After about 0.7 seconds we slunk off to the other bar and listed to a couple of piped tunes over a quiet ale.

What I thought was quite a coincidence, was when Varena and I were both online with our laptops, and with no prompting or discussions on the topic for weeks, I was looking up the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis, whilst on Skye. Whilst I was doing this, Varena started talking about the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights. Great minds....

Our stop at the Highland Games was amusing. It was like being at the local school fete in size and organisation, but instead of selling second hand books and having egg and spoon races, there were athletes and musicians doing their thing. It was enjoyable to see a few blokes lobbing weights, kids doing their kilted dances, and a pipe band piping and drumming their way around the playing field. Very Scottish.

Unfortunately for Varena the puffins have all headed out to sea after spending the "summer" on land. As she was so keen to see one I bought her a stuffed one. Just a toy; not taxidermy. She named it Strommie, after the place of its birth, Stromness on the Orkneys.