Day 9: North to Inverness

Weather: Sunny
This morning we got an early start, around 8:30am. The first time we had no one to talk to at breakfast! We headed north through Fort William and Fort Augustus to Loch Ness. The main road led to the west coast of the Lock but, as we have been doing, we took the "road less traveled" and headed along the east coast. Ethel was really confused!

We arrived in Inverness around 1:00 pm, found our hotel and went to the tourist center to find a tour around the city. Well, there was none! Apparently, there are few local attractions aside from the castle and a battlefield.

Our hotel is located along the River Ness which runs through town and a short walk from the castle which houses government offices, therefore no tours. It is a very pretty town and we had a nice view of the river from our hotel. We took a walk around town following the road to the main shopping area and walked through some shops and the Victorian market.

Inverness Castle

We went to a whiskey store and sampled some local Scotch (which they call whiskey). The casks in which they age the scotch come from the US. During the Depression the casks could only be used once to provide more jobs so they were sold to Scotland. They re-make them in Scotland to distill their own scotch. The practice continues to this day. No scotch can be sold anywhere in the world unless it comes from Scotland. They are very proud of their whiskey. We saw several lads on the streets who had been to the local pubs for a good while!


Later we drove up the coast of the Firth of Carmarty to a small fishing village. It was very quaint and interesting. We took a back road up a hill to a spectacular point where you can overlook the water.

The road was very narrow, one lane, and we drove to the end. It began to shower and then stopped and a beautiful double rainbow appeared. I have never seen one so pretty. I think I took a hundred pictures!

This is a road???

Canola Fields

We headed back to Inverness and found a nice restaurant. We had dinner and headed back to our room. We have a nice sitting area where we can sit and overlook the river. It is 10:30pm and just getting dark. We are very far to the north.

This hotel actually has Internet access so we were able to borrow a laptop. Email checked, called Jim and now we are calling it a night.

Cheers!