Scottish Highlands, United Kingdom
It is somewhat embarrassing to admit that our plan to visit the Scottish Highlands was hatched by Zach and I while watching an episode of our favorite television show, The Grand Tour. In that car show, the hosts tour the Northern Highlands and the views from the drone cameras were jaw-dropping. We had to see that for ourselves, so we figured out a way to work it into our trip.
This all seemed straightforward while sitting on the couch in Illinois two months ago. The reality we eventually discovered was that people plan to visit this area and drive these roads 6 months in advance (ie: book one of the limited B&B accommodations) and we are not big on advance planning on this trip. I was also not going to admit to Zach that driving on the left side and shifting left-handed for the first time on single-track roads had me a little nervous. I’d only ever heard of single-track bike trails, but roads? Though we originally looked at doing the entire NC500 drive, budget and logistics quickly whittled it down to doing sections of the drive with a central base wherever we could find it.
After a two-hour car rental process in Edinburgh Airport, I swore off 3rd-party booking agencies and probably double-insured a Peugeot. With that done, we headed north for a 3-hour drive to Inverness, which would serve as our base of operations. Coming out of the rental parking lot and promptly going through six roundabouts with 3 and 4 lanes wide in airport traffic, I felt like I’d never been in a car before as the entire perspective was different. Surprise! Trish riding shotgun offered “constructive criticism” along the lines that she was riding in the trees on the shoulder and if I got any closer, I’d be losing her side mirror and her shortly as well. Suffice it to say, we had an adventure and finally made it to our B&B home base in Inverness for the next several days without loss of life, property… or marriage. First stop was a walk down to the nearest pub to see what all the fuss is about the whiskey up here and then to have a walk along the river in Inverness.
Riverwalk in Inverness
The next day we drove northeast and toured the Dunrobin Castle, which is this Disney-esque castle on the North Sea. We had planned to spend and hour or so and then move on. Instead, we spent well over six hours touring the gardens, watching a session on the sport of falconry, touring the actual castle and then walking the North Sea beach. It was an amazing experience that started with being piped in as we approached the castle entrance. Nothing is cooler than the sound of bagpipes that start playing when the piper sees you approach.
The falconry exhibition had both a falcon and a hawk flying around the crowd and practice hunting, as it was not hunting season yet. It was very informative as we learned a lot about the birds and how they were used in hunting. Bonus was that during the tour I told Zach this was Disney World Scotland, so check and done on that mouse park visit. We also spent time at nearby Carn Liath, which was believed to be the building for a village during the Iron Age. You could crawl through the tunnels still, which was amazing. We did not get nearly as far north as we’d planned the first day, but we were glad to have enjoyed and soaked in what we saw.
The next day we headed to the west coast town of Ullapool, but took the scenic route via Lairg. This was the portion of the drive on the television show that we really wanted to see. After a few wrong turns, I think we finally found it and the views were amazing, but literally too vast to do justice with my camera. Along the drive, we’d stop every 30 minutes or so at scenic spots. These were great places to meet fellow travelers and locals. We chatted with one local for quite a bit. He was born and lived in the Highlands, but worked for Shell and spent every other month in Iraq working for the gas company. Standing there looking at these views and thinking about swapping them for the desert and danger in Iraq every other month for years, just seemed unreal. Robbie was head back over there in two days and was busy knocking out those last minute chores. But, he and I stood there chatting for twenty minutes “sharing news” as he said. It really made an impression on me.
We fell in love with the Highlands in just these few days. The vastness and emptiness reminded us a bit of our recent road trip through the Back Hills and the drive from there through Wyoming to Cody. A return trip with much more forward planning is already being discussed as this seems like the perfect place to do with a small RV.
