Having stretched out the journey to Inverness the previous day, we got into town quite late at night. We checked into our underwhelming accomodation - I think we truly got the worst-shaped room in the guesthouse, maybe in all of Inverness - and then went out looking for a very late dinner. We had very nearly given in and turned back to MacDonalds, but turned a corner and found the street with some life in it yet and a decent Italian chain restaurant still packed with tourists. Just quietly, I think there might be a rule that there has to be one of these on every second corner in every UK city.
The next morning we got to see a bit of Inverness. Looking across the River Ness, on the left is the cathedral and on the right, Strathness House. Below, it's the view a little to the right of that with the Hotel Columba.
One of our goals for the day was to go back to Loch Ness, which we had drive past on the way into town. But we decided to make a couple of other stops first. I picked the nearby town of Beauly because it sounded interesting.
We spent a lot of time exploring the ruins of Beauly Priory. Super cool.
In the centuries after it was abandoned from its original purpose, it came to be used as part of a cemetery. It seemed like it was special to have a plot inside the bounds of the old building, even though it was partially ruined and open to the air. I found it fascinating that these very old church sites, long after they had fallen out of use and favour with the change to Protestantism, remained a desirable (holy?) place to be buried.
We also had a look around in the nearby old schoolhouse which housed a group of shops including a very nice bookshop at the back and a big range of Scottish music CDs.
Before this day I had thought that we might manage to explore further north-west from Inverness but it just didn't end up being feasible. (Next time) Actually, as soon as we arrived in Inverness we had considered blowing off the second night in the guesthouse and making a rushed trip up to the Orkneys. We quickly realised this was going to be just a bit too crazy for just one night, a decent drive and a couple of hrs on the ferry each way. Just before we left a friend had provided lots of ideas and tips and had really pushed for visiting Orkney - but this was after we had everything pretty much locked in.
Another day, another distillery! After Beauly we made a quick stop at Glen Ord. It had been raining lightly while we were in Beauly, but now it was a beautiful day.
Then it was back to Loch Ness. We stopped in Drumnadrochit, gave 'Nessieland' a miss, and had a cheap late lunch at the fish and and chips place there among the souvenir shops (also a tasty beer for the non-driver).
So this, though one of the weirder ones, is an example of the efforts to cater to vegetarians at every level. I just wouldn't expect a stall selling fish and chips to have a proper vegetarian option. But here the fish shop had this battered, deep fried felafel with chips. Tasty. Weird. Very very dense. I don't think I ate dinner that night at all.
After lunch, the search was on for somewhere to get closer to Loch Ness. We drove south, stopping briefly at Urquhart Castle. We decided we didn't want to take the time to pay to go in and soon left when we realised there was no easy access to the loch here.
We made a loose plan to maybe drive right around the the other side of the loch and go back to Inverness that way. But on the way we stopped in Invermoriston, had a look at River Moriston Falls, and then walked quite a way along the side of the main road to finally find a spot where we could climb down and put our feet in the actual loch! Which was lovely. I considered a quick dip (yes, seriously) but I couldn't face it, not only because of the cold water but because my feet hurt standing on the stones for even a few seconds. It was really nice and peaceful sitting on the bank though.
Later we had a great night out at the Hootananny in Inverness, where North Sea Gas delighted a large, ever changing crowd of all ages, for several hours. It was brilliant.
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