The Highlands

You would think we had seen enough locks

Today we left Oban where we spent the past week and went north towards Inverness. This route took us along the coast for a while and then along a series of lochs, including Loch Ness.

As before, this was an “A” series road, meaning it was two lanes, but often I would come across “Lorries” (that’s Scottish for 18 wheels), on corners with barely a foot of space between him and me, and there were spots with the now familiar warning “Oncoming vehicles may be in the middle of the road”. It was however a beautiful drive through the Scottish highlands.

Driving along the Scottish Lochs, the most surprising feature is that they are generally completely undeveloped. There is nothing on them. There might be a small town along the way on the lakeshore, but mostly they are unspoiled beautiful lakes with trees and fields. Although after spending a month in the UK where it rained sometime every day, perhaps the Scots just do not see living near the water as a positive thing.

As you drive through the Highlands, you are constantly presented with place names from back home in Nova Scotia, especially Cape Breton, and realize that this is where they come from. These are the

Urquhart Castle & Loch Ness

“highlands” that inspired the name given to Nova Scotia communities by the Scottish immigrants who settled in Cape Breton.

We looked for Nessie, but did not see her. However we did stop at the Castle Urquhart for a visit. It was cold and wet and according to the plaques around the place, the nasty Clan MacDonald, did a pretty good job of destroying the castle a number of times, so there was not much shelter from the Scottish rain. It was an interesting visit, and the castle, although nothing but a ruin now was well presented and you got a good picture of what life here was like.

Our Hotel In Inverness

Inverness is as far north as we go, and tomorrow we head back down to Sterling and Falkirk, and then to Glasgow for the flight home.