Inverness - The Scottish Highland

After finishing up work in Dundee I was potentially out of work and homeless. I decided to head up North to the Scottish Highland, and payed a visit to my lovely friend Nick who I met travelling in Peru.

Nick and his lovely parents Margaret and Colin took me in for a week and were the most kind hosts imaginable.

On my first day on the highland I headed to Fort George for a tour around. It is still an active fort but it was originally built after the Battle of Culloden to stop any further Jacobite uprisings.

For those who needed a little bit of a history lesson (don't worry I did too) check out.

The next day the weather was miserable so I explored the city which is quite small but very very pretty. That night I went out with Nick's lovely girlfriend Annie, she took me out for some Inverness nightlife which involved me drinking a few too many whiskeys.

The following day Annie's friend Karen took me out to see a local eco community and we walked in the rain along the beach with her super dog "Doog"

who is very cool. Later on the weather cleared up and Nick's mum Margaret took me up to the Culloden Battlefield where the English managed to defeat many of the Clansmen and Jacobites in less than an hour. The field while not that exciting has flags to mark out the battle line and has stones for each of the clans to mark out the areas where the bodies were burried, so it is quite interesting.

The next day off to Loch Ness!!!! And guess what I saw "nessie" check out the photo!
Lochness is actually huge!

The town with all the tourist attractions is called Drumnadrocket there is the official lochness tour and then the lochness experience. However it is not even on the loch! Crazy, but it is where all the boat tours etc are arranged. On the Loch is Urkheart Castle which is in Ruins but has a quite interesting history.

Friday involved me eating vegetarian Haggis, sounds weird I know! But apparently it tastes just like real Haggis. It is actually really really nice, after dinner it was some more Scottish Hospitality ie more drinking!!

On the weekend, Nick's mum Margaret made the most excellent tour guide. She is a very sweet woman and I really appreciated all her hospitality. On Sat we went out to Cawdor Castle a beautiful Scottish Castle with drawbridges, secret dungeons, turrets and beautiful rooms. The castle also had beautiful gardens and a hedge maze as well.

The next day we headed to the Isle of Skye, on the West coast. It was an amazing but long drive with some beautiful scenery lush green mountains. On the Island itself there were very dramatic cliffs. The island areas were controlled by the Macleod Clan. And for those who had the "pleasure" of going to Macleod High. "Rock on Macleod!" and for those of you who never went I can not be bothered to describe what Macleod is like. Anyway we paid a visit to the Dunvegan Castle, yep the very one on our school emblem. They even use the "hold fast" motto! The tartan is quite similar to our uniform.

Kilt Sightings: 4
Piper Sightings: 1