Day 72 Invergordon, Scotland

You can count on one hand the amount of rainy days that we have had since we departed New York in July, but we are in Scotland now where our guide, later in the day, says that it rains pretty much every day. Our ship arrived into Invergordon at 8am and I think, quite honestly it is one of the worst docks we have ever seen.  There is nothing here except mud and slush, and the photo I took of our ship later in the day on the way back from our tour, gives you a bit of an idea.  The ship looks to be stranded in the middle of nowhere.  However, the port of Invergordon is known for having one of the safest harbours in Great Britain with its deep and sheltered water.

But, we are here to see Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle as part of our tour today.  As our bus departs the port it is raining very heavily so I knew we would not get to see much of the glorious scenery of the Highlands of Scotland. Somewhere beneath the cloud lies Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis - the highest mountain in Scotland at 1345 metres.

As we wind our way along very narrow roads and pass through little villages, we finally catch our first glimpse of Loch Ness.  Loch Ness is well known worldwide for the legendary Loch Ness Monster.  Unfortunately, we didn't catch site of Nessy today.

We soon arrive at the ruins of Urquhart Castle that lies on a peninsular jutting out into Loch Ness.  Urquhart Castle was once one of Scotlands largest castles and it saw great conflict in its 500 years as a fortress.  Control of the castle went back and forth between the Brits and the Scots during the war of independence. The castle was destroyed intentionally in 1692 by government troops to render it useless as an enemy stronghold.  The castle was then abandoned and later it was plundered for rocks to be used as building supplies.

We were meant to spend two hours at Urquhart Castle but our guide put to us to maybe cut our time back to one hour and heading to Inverness instead.  All the group were unanimous in their approval of this new unplanned schedule.  It was not the kind of day that you wanted to spend outdoors.  As we left Urquhart Castle we grabbed a packet of Scottish Shortbread to have a munch on in the bus.  Hands down, they are the best shortbread I have ever eaten.  They were so light and crisp they literally melted in your mouth.  The packet will be lucky to last the day!

It takes us around 20 minutes to drive to Inverness with a population of around 47,000 that is renowned for its magnificent castle sitting proudly above the city.  It is not open at the moment due to renovations.

We only had one thing on our mind when we walked the short distance into the town centre and that was to find ourselves a bakery that sold traditional Scottish Pies, that our guide told us were the best in the world. Big call.  It actually took a bit of finding and we did get a little lost along the way, but it was well worth the effort as they were delicious.  We found a seat inside, out of the rain, in the Victoria Market building.  

I wish we had more time in Inverness to shop some cashmere products that are so incredibly cheap here in comparison to Australia.  

We returned back to the ship along a different route and I am grateful for our guide who tried very hard to make the most of a very bleak day, and he succeeded.  He was also a bit of a character that makes the tour so much more fun when you can have a good old belly laugh.

Back on board the ship I quickly snapped a photo from the balcony while we had a little break in the weather. There is a lot of farming area in this part of the Scottish Highlands that in this photo are actually not very high at all…..