Scotland - Day 4

[kmusser]

We awake to it raining again, pack up, and head down a side road along Loch Levin to a highly recommended restaurant only to be foiled by it being closed on Mondays. zammis takes her turn at the wheel and we continue north along the Great Glen. We eventually do stop at Ft. Augustus which is a very cute town along the Caledonian Canal at the southern end of Loch Ness where we have a very yummy lunch at a place called The Bothy and get a little shopping for Nessie schlock in. After lunch we continue on to Drumnadrochit – the Loch Ness schlock capital. We do the tourist thing and go through the Loch Ness Exhibition (the less schlocky of the 2 big tourist traps in town) and it is actually very interesting – takes a scientific approach at explaining the various Nessie related theories and a look at the massive amateur-organized searches using sonar in recent years. We backtrack a little bit to Urquhart castle just to take some pictures and then it’s on to Inverness.

We decide to take advantage of the long daylight (it never seems to actually get dark up here) to visit Culloden Moor and Clava Cairns after hours. This proves to be an excellent choice as we get the places to ourselves. Culloden Moor is the site of the last battle of the Jacobite rebellions and has come to symbolize the end of the highlander way of life. It is an appropriately desolate place - they have done an excellent job of preserving the battlefield site (which is now surrounded by suburbs), it was easy to imagine how it might have been. Just around the corner from the battlefield is Clava Cairns, a set of 3 pre-historic burial sites surrounded by standing stones that have been excavated and are now open to the sky. They were more extensive than I was expecting – going into them you definitely got that "entry into the underworld" feeling.

From there we go back to the other side of Inverness to find a campsite and settle at a campground along the River Beauly (which looks rather close to its banks, and yes it’s still raining) which has its own pub. We approve of campgrounds with pubs.

Comments

[auror.livejournal.com]

So did you see her?!?

[kmusser]

Only in her plushie form.

[ravenrose.livejournal.com]

I loved my long weekend in the Inverness region... the poeple up there are some of the nicest I have ever found... and the region has a magnificent stark beauty.

[winterbadger]

For no reason that I know, I have a great fondness for Inverness. Well, OK, maybe it's the lovely river and the footbridges. I did get a chance to see Culloden when I was there last, and I look forward to exploring the area more.

You're braver than I! I've never been bold enough to venture into the realm of Nessie-schlock. I fear my teeny brain would go poof! :-) Urquhart Castle is pretty neat though.

[cosmolinguist]

Still sad I missed this day. :-)