After the stormy day of yesterday we woke up to a beautiful sunny day.  We had our breakfast, packed up our belongings, loaded the car and went for a walk in front of our B&B. Today is so much different than yesterday.  The wind is down, the sun is shinning, it is beautiful!  We walk out to the spit.  A family of Swans are feeding nearby.  There is a couple and 7 signets.  The babies are very large, about the same size of Canada Geese.

This is our B&B from father out on the spit in front.  Our room is the top left gable window.

We head south today, towards St. Margaret’s Hope where we will take the ferry back to the Scottish mainland.  We go farther south to see some of the area that we have not seen yet.  Here are some of the images we captured.  Still can’t believe the sun is shining so brightly today!

During WW2 On 14 October 1939, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk at her moorings within the natural harbour of Scapa Flow (from Old Norse Skalpaflói, meaning ‘bay of the long isthmus’) in a nighttime attack by the German U-boat U-47.  Winston Churchill ordered the construction of several permanent barriers to prevent any further attacks.  Today these are causeways that connect some of the smaller southern islands of the Orkneys.  The yellow lines on this map are the causeways.

We sail on the 2:45 ferry back to the mainland and make our way to the hotel we have booked.  It is in Castletown, the Castletown Hotel.  It old, it’s “ok”, but it’s clean and availability for the next few days is very limited.  We had a good meal.  A seafood salad platter.

Tomorrow we are off to the town of Tain.  We will see what that has to offer.  🙂

I have been driving this little car for the past 3 days  now and I am way more comfortable driving on the “left”.  I don’t flinch any more when a big lorrie is coming toward me on a road that is about 3/4 of a road at home.  The car is a Ford Fiesta.  I assume that it is a 2017.  I don’t know if this is a feature that we have in Canada, but here, if I put it into neutral and let my foot off of the clutch, the engine stops, I depress the clutch again and the engine starts.  I believe there is a symbol on the car that says “Eco Boost” , I am guessing that that is what this does??  Not sure.

We heard the wind howling most of the night.  We spent some time after our breakfast to book accommodation for the next 3 nights.  We have booked a flight from Inverness to Belfast on the 28th and a hotel near the airport on the 27th, so we have 3 nights to fill.   It is more difficult than we imagined.  We will be back in the Highlands and it is the second to last weekend before school begins again in England.  In Scotland school started this week.  We were able to book accommodation close the ferry in a place called Thurso.  We won’t have a long drive tomorrow 🙂  We won’t need to sleep in the car, so we head out to see more of what Orkney (Mainland) has to offer.

The day is wild!  We head to the “Ring of Brodgar”.  This is the site that we decided to abort when 4 buses arrived just after we arrived yesterday.  We decided to take the 1pm Guided Walk.  Our tour guide told us that yesterday was sooo busy, there were 17 buses there at one time.  We wimped out at 4!!  Today the ship has left and the weather is not cooperating, so there are not very many in our little tour group.  The structure we are seeing is from the Neolithic period. 5000 year old in  many cases.  Also on the island there are settlements in the Iron Age (700 BC) and also evidence of the Bronze Age (2000 BC to 800 BC).  This is very hard to imagine!  Sooo ancient.

We spent most of the day driving and poking around.  It is not pleasant outside, so we have very few photos.  Here is a gallery of what we have.  🙂

We will head back to the Scottish Mainland tomorrow.  Hopefully the weather is better then.  🙂

The wind howls here!  We leave our B&B with an extra layer and our toques!  We (at least I needed them).

There are many archaeological sites in the approximately 70 Orkney Islands.  We are currently on what (I find a bit ironic) is called the Mainland.  There is ferry service to most of the other islands, but we have decided to concentrate on the Mainland due to the short time that we have here.  This morning we drove into Kirkwall, the largest town here and popped into the Tourist Info center and received some really great information there.

Also on our way into town, we spotted (kind of hard to miss) a HUGE cruise ship in port.  We are told that there are 4,000 passengers on board.  The population of Kirkwall is about 9,000, so the sudden addition of the cruise ship passengers  certainly has a big effect on their economy.  After we left the Tourist Info office we are surrounded by many of those passengers who have come into Kirkwall to get their taste of the Orkneys.  We decide to take the road less travelled and meander our way along the south coast of this island.

The Orkneys  were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. We come across a site called Orphir Earl’s Bu.  It was part of a Norse Earl’s manor house from the 12th century.  A Bu is a Hall.  Here is a photo of what remains of the Earl’s Drinking Hall.  A murder took place here in 1154.

We need to stop on the road for sheep.  These guys are moving.  The shepherd is following on his ATV with another sheep on the hood.  Pretty funny sight.

We move on the Standing Stones of Stennes.  The name Stennes comes from the old Norse Stein-nes meaning “stone promontory”.  It is believed that there were once more standing stones and sites in this landscape.

After that we are able to view the archaeological dig going on at Ness of Brodgar.  Ness in Scotland means “Headland”.  We have heard that it is only possible to work this site for 2 months of the year due to inclement weather.  After each dig season they cover the site using the tires that we see piled everywhere.  Excavations here have revealed a walled enclosure surrounding some fascinating structures/  One building is over 20  meters long.

There is another standing stone circle call the “Ring of Brodgar”  We arrived there just before 4 tour buses arrived carry some more of those 4,000 passengers.  We aborted, choosing to go tomorrow when the ship is off to it’s next port.

We make our way to the Earl’s Palace and get come geocaching done along the way.  Stu also spot a 1969 Morris Minor and needs to have a photo with it.

We wend our way back to our B&B to plan our evening.  There is nothing within walking distance for dinner, so we need to figure out where to go.  A little googling may help  🙂  We find that we are pretty tired after days in the brisk fresh air.  We have walked a lot kilometers.  9.25 today.  Last week over 74 K.  We are having great sleeps. 🙂

Another great breakfast at the Rossmount Bed & Breakfast.  It is always too much food.  This morning we pack up the left over continental breakfast of a croissant, a bun, ham and a variety of cheeses.  We have made them into sandwiches that we can eat along the way today.  Robert, our host offers to drive us to the train station where we will pick up our rental car.  Very much appreciated.

We arrive at the EuropCar kiosk in the Inverness Mall.  We stopped by yesterday just to be sure everything was in order for today.  The woman at the desk said that a 9am pickup would likely be an issue, that 10am would be better.  Not a problem for us, so we arrived for 10am.  We are told that the car we were to get is not coming back.  Not exactly sure of the reason, but whoever had it decided to keep it, or it was damaged and needed repairs, and they have not enough inventory at the moment.  Either way, no EuropCar for us.  🙁  We booked through RentalCars.com, so the young man from EuropCar is calling them to try and get us a replacement booking.  He gets one through Avis, but it is at the Inverness Airport and it won’t be ready until noon.  We plan to take a 6:30pm ferry to the Orkneys, the drive is about 3 hours, so we can still make it.  We want a leisurely drive along the coast, following the route below.

The airport is 20-25 minutes from the train station.  They arrange for Mathew, the young man we were dealing with to drive us there.  No extra taxi fare for us.  If the car that Avis provides cost more than the one we get, EuropCar will pick up the difference.  So I guess the only thing we will loose is a couple of hours.

We get the car just after noon.  I have been elected to be the driver and Stu is manning my phone with google maps loaded to our destination of Gills Bay where the ferry will take us to St. Margarets Hope.  We make our way from the Inverness Airport across the large bridge that crosses the Beauly Firth.  There are several large busy traffic circles we needed to navigate.  Stu is being very calm and keeps reminding me to keep left.  🙂  It isn’t long until we leave most of the busy traffic behind.  We are passing small pull outs every few miles.  As I am just getting comfortable with a new manual transmission car and driving on a different side of very narrow roads, I take advantage of pulling over to let others pass.

We come to a very charming village called Golspie.  We find a place to park and wander around taking in the the atmosphere of this little town.  I notice a large structure on top of a fairly large hill nearby.  There is an older man coming out of a shop.  I ask him what the structure is.  He explains that he is a proud Scottish Nationalist, he believes that Scotland should be autonomous, that he is a proud Gaelic speaker and former anthropoligist!!  He is a lot of things!!  This is a statue of the Duke of Sutherland.  He is one of the architects of the Highland Clearances.  We had only heard of the Highland Clearances yesterday from our guide.  During the 19th century Highlanders homes were burned, they did not own the land so they had to move on.  The reasons they were burned out was so that the Duke could make way for sheep production.  It was during this time that many many Scots immigrated to the US and Canada.  This gentleman would like to topple, explode this statue that he told me the Duke made the elder and in firmed people build for him.  It sound like that there is a difference of opinion on the destruction of this statue from what I have read on line.  For now the Duke stands high above Golspie.

We find another pull over, so I let the speedier drivers pass again.  This is at a place called Keiss.  There is a castle of sorts here and some interesting stone walls.  Stu takes advantage of the stop to take some shots of the castle.

We arrive at Gills  Bay just before 4:30.  We were aiming for the 6:30 ferry, but pull up to check on the process before we double back to take some photos of some brightly painted buildings we just passed.  One of the ferry personnel comes up to our car and asks us our name.  We tell him that we don’t have a reservation.  “Oh” he says and then gets on the radio to ask someone if there is room for one more car???  We are a bit confused.  We ask is this the ferry to the Orkneys?  When is it leaving??  Right now is the answer.  Wooo.  OK.  That works.  The schedule we were looking at sounds like the winter schedule to this fellow.  This is the 4:30 sailing and the next won’t be until 7:30.  Pheww.  We are happy to take this one.

We arrive in St. Margarets Hope just after 5:30 and make the 15 minute drive to St. Marys where we are staying for the next 3 nights.  We cross 4 causeways that join the smaller islands together before we get to St. Marys.  Here is our Bed & Breakfast here.  We are paying 80 GBP per night ($130 CAD).  We can already tell that these islands are so much quieter than Inverness.  There isn’t anything really close by for dinner so we drive about 10 minutes back over those 4 causeways to find a nice pub/restaurant.  Had a great meal, then home to The Inn.

Another great day!

I want to start off by letting you know that to save money Stu is giving up his morning coffee in favour of beer.  We pay close to 2.50 £ for a coffee, not a fancy coffee, not, a latte, not a cappuccino, just a plane black coffee.  We can get a half pint of beer for 1.80.  We have mentioned this to a couple of servers and they laugh and say “Well you’re in Scotland”  🙂

Well we had an AMAZING DAY!!!  We booked a tour with a company called Premier Tours.  The guide picked us up at 9:30 on the button.  He took us first to Culloden where he gave us a brief backgound on the site and let us loose in the Museum in the Visitors Center.  The Museum is very well done.  There is a 360 degree video re-creation of the April 1746 Jacobite rising final battle against the British  army that puts you in the middle of the fray.  There are weapons and other artifacts recovered on the site.  There was no photography allowed inside.  However, we were free to photograph the battlefield itself.  We headed to the large cairn that our tour guide advised us to.  We very quickly found the stone commemorating the Clan MacLean (Stu’s Mom was a McLean)

This is where the MacLeans were positioned at the beginning of the battle.  From this diagram you can see that the Scots were outnumbered by the British.

There are stones marking the spots of the demise of many other Clans in this memorial.

After we wandered the battlefield and the museum our guide took us to Clava Cairns.  This is the site that inspired Craig Na Dun in the Outlander books.  It has 3 ancient buriel cairns.  Each cairn is surrounded by 12 standing stones.  2 of the cairns are very similar and the other has a lower profile and from what our guide tells us, cremated remains have been found inside it.  The openings to these cairns face the setting sun and the bodies placed inside also facing the setting sun.

Well I am still in 2017.  I guess I just don’t have the genetic predisposition to travel through the stones, perhaps it wasn’t a soltice, perhaps I didn’t have the right gem stones.  In any case I am still in present day Scotland.

This is the Culloden House Hotel.  Our guide tells us that Bonnie Prince Charlie spent a few days here prior to the battle.  According to Travelocity it goes for $475 CAD per night.  We move on to the next site!!  🙂

After this site our guide takes us to a spot that is not on the standard tours of Inverness, Colloden battlefields or any Outlander sites.  This is the private mausoleum of the Fraser Clan.  We are the only ones here.  Our guide collects the key to the key (a large skeleton key is locked in the tower stairway).  He unlocks the BIG key and lets me unlock the mausoleum.  This is the burial place of Simon Fraser, the old fox, Lord Lovat.  He is a character in the Outlander books, but he is also a real historical figure.  After the battle of Colloden he was taken to the Tower of London for execution.  Our guide tells the story of his demise.  There were quite a number of people attending his beheading.  So many that the scaffolding collapsed, killing 20.  Lord Lovat, Simon Fraser, The Old Fox began laughing.  He is reported to be laughing up until he was beheaded.  Hence, the saying “laughing his head off!!”  🙂  HAHAHAHA!!  Here are some photos that very few people have seen.

Our next stop is Castle Leod.  Known in the Outlander series as Castle Leoch.  The seat of Clan MacKenzie.   It is a beautiful old castle with beautiful grounds.  We are at the castle before 2.  It is open to the public between 2 and 6 today.  Oh well, another time 🙂

This castle is in the county of Ross and Cromarty.  We think our friend Greg may inherit this place!!

Our next stop is Beauly, specifically the Beauly Priory that was founded about 1230.  The Priory is the burial place of the MacKenzies.  There are many stones in the cemetery and now inside the Priory.  According to our guide after Culloden, during the Reformation, the Catholic churches, including this Priory, were burned in an attempt to eradicate Catholicism.

James our guide drives us through the countryside and delivers us back to the center of Inverness.  Once here we decide to have lunch at the Castle Tavern.  We have tried to have dinner here for the past 3 nights, but it is a small tavern and they are always too busy.  So today, our last day in Inverness we decide to get there early.  Hopefully we can get a seat.  We are in luck.  There are 2 tables available inside.  We grab one in the corner and Stu orders us a couple of half pints as we peruse the menu.  We decide on Ale and Beef pie to share.  It is a perfect size and very tasty, as is the beer.

An amazing day!!

Tomorrow we are heading to the Orkney Islands.  We have a car reserved.  We will pick it up and drive north to catch a ferry to the islands.  It should be another great day!

We enjoyed our breakfast at our B & B then headed toward the river Ness and the Inverness Castle.  We have noticed that there is Inverness, Invergarry, Invergordon etc.  I googled and found that “Inver” means river mouth.  Inverness is at the mouth of the river Ness.  We get to the castle that has great views to the river.

While there I look for a geocache that is nearby.  I was able to find this one 🙂

It is time to head to the Inverness bus depot to catch the Hop on Hop off bus.  For a 24 hour period we pay 16 £ for the both of us.  That is a 4 £ discount for being over the age of 60!  We are saving all kinds of £s for being old!!  We ride the bus to a place called Doghgarroch Lock.  Here there are tours called Jacobite Loch Ness Cruise.  It is a 2 hour cruise into Loch Ness.  It is 18 £ each , but we might get to see Nessie!  We decide to do it.  🙂  We have about 30 minutes to wait for the boat so we wander around the area.

We board the boat and head down the Caledonia Canal into Loch   Ness.  We have a great crew.  There is a Highlander tour guide who tells us the history of the area.  He is quite a character who breaks into song a number of times.  I have tried to add video of his performances but alas they are too large.  🙁

We pass a number of historical buildings along the way.

We finish the cruise and head back to Inverness on the bus and find a nice little place for lunch.  We have a Guinness Golden Ale and I have  curried parsnip soup.  Stu has a shrimp sandwich.

For dinner, we go for another Italian restaurant.  We find that it is a bit more difficult to find a restaurant that has a table in Inverness.  We aren’t sure if it is because we have been looking on Friday and Saturday night, but we walk alot just looking for somewhere to eat.  We are lucky to be seated in this small place tonight.  We did have another late lunch, so we aren’t starving, but think we need to eat something.  We have a couple of appetisers and feel a bit guilty for taking up a table when they are turning people away constantly.   The food was really great.  We had our first Scotch Whiskey since arriving.  A very nice end to another great day!!

Tomorrow we are being picked up at 9:30 for an Outlander Tour.  Outlander is a series of books written by Diana Gabaldon about a Highlander named Jamie Fraser and a time traveling British woman named Claire.  There is a TV series based on the books as well.  We will see some of the locations tomorrow!!

We were woken from a dead sleep at 2:30 in the morning by the fire alarm in our building. Not a nice way to wake up let me tell you! We were scrambling to get dressed when it suddenly stopped. Stu went out into the hallway to find the night desk young man speaking with another guest a door or two down from us. He apparently burnt toast!! The alarms went off and that burnt toast smell permeated the floor. Not a great smell. It seems the guest had returned to the hostel after an evening out and decided to have a little snack. Not sure how he managed to burn the toast as the toaster in our room seemed to be the popup variety. Since our adrenaline was running it took us quite a while to fall back to sleep. I guess it could have been worse, it could have been a real fire.

After packing and checking out we walk to the corner to wait for the 22 bus that will take us to Waverly Train Station. When the bus arrives it is crowded with people, so we manage to squeeze in with our bags for the 10 minute ride. Stu goes off looking for coffee while I watch the bags. We are watching the departure board for our train and platform. The train appears, but the platform number does not. All the other trains have a platform, except ours. We decide to head out to the platforms as our departure time is nearing.

A few minutes before departure the platform is announced and we are able to board the train. We have reserved seats so we are on the hunt for them. There are lots of people with bags, but not much room to put them. We managed to find some spots to put the big bags and then our seats which were right next to them. We have two seats across from each other with a table. No one comes to sit in the other 2 seats so we move to the window side.  We order coffee from the train attendant.  It comes with these little tubes of milk.

We arrive at the Inverness Train Station.  We call our B&B to ask which is the best way to get to them.  The fellow tells me that they are about 300 meters away and will pick us up in about 5 minutes.  We should go the WH Smith Book store in the station.  OK, that sounds easy, we can do that.  🙂

Not too long after a woman approaches us and says ” you must be either Pat Salmon or (some other name I can’t remember).  I say yes “Pat Salmon”.  We follow her to where her husband is staying with the car.  They were out grocery shopping, so we pile our bags into the car, Richard takes us to the B&B, gives us the low down on the area. He then leaves to pick up his wife who continued shopping after we left her at the Train station.  These are some photos of our new home for the next 3 nights.  It is very cool, built in 1870.  We are paying 90 £ or $145 CAD for this, it  includes a full breakfast.

It is now after 2:45 and we are starving!!!  We walk down the street to our new “local”, The Corriegarth.  We share an order of fish and chips.  Either they are AMAZING or we were STARVING!!  We gobbled up every bit.

We head out to explore the city.  It is chillier here than it was in Edinburgh.  We are glad we have packed warm clothes.  We have some interesting photos of the city.

We have booked an Outlander Tour for Sunday which includes the Culloden Battlefield.   It was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and part of a religious civil war in Britain.  Off to follow Claire and Jamie :)!!

Tomorrow we plan to do the Hop On Hop Off bus of Inverness.

More adventures to come!

I just found out that Edinburgh was the origin of the Fringe Festival.  Makes it even more cool now.  🙂

History. The term was founded in the 1940s, when eight theatre companies showed up at the Edinburgh InternationalFestival, hoping to gain recognition from the mass gathering at the festival. … Edinburgh Festival Fringe was founded in 1947.

Just a wee bit of history for us all!

We are up earlier this morning as we need to get moving for our last day in Edinburgh.  This is our little studio in Edinburgh.  We are paying the equivalent of $115 CAD per night.  We paid the equivalent of $128.50 CAD per night in St. Andrews.  Much better per square foot in this place 🙂

As I have already mentioned the Fringe Festival is happening in town right now.  This is a HUGE festival.  We spoke with a Canadian comedian yesterday.  She is performing at 1:30pm most days.  We had the Castle Tour yesterday so we decided to catch her show today.  She mentioned that she would be at the Vancouver Fringe in September.  But we won’t be back for that.  We have heard of Fringe in Vancouver, but have never gone to any performances or experienced it in any way.  Our experience is totally from here.  This is the guide.  It is HUGE as I said!  We will check out Fringe in Vancouver in 2018.

Off we go to the Action Zone.  On the way we see a bus driver in training.  This is an incredibly busy city.  This training can’t be easy.

We have passed this scene for the past 3 days.  They are tearing down an old shopping mall, the St. James Center.  It is a place where you will always find people stopping to watch for a while.  It definitely seems to fascinate people.

The shopping centre, along with the former Thistle Hotel, the New St Andrew’s House office block and the multi-storey car park, come down to make way for a £1 billion redevelopment of the area.

Demolition is expected to take around 18 months to complete. The new development will include a five-star W hotel, 85 new shops, 20 restaurants, three new public spaces, 150 private apartments, an ultra-luxury cinema and 1600 car parking spaces.

We stop at the Waverly Train Station to purchase our tickets to Inverness for tomorrow.  The Waverly is just below the Balmoral Hotel.  We pay 43.10 £ per person for our fare.  Approximately $70 CAD each for a 4 hour train journey.  This is the train station.  A very large area covered with glass roofs.

Also on our way we see an interesting red phone booth conversion.  At phone on one side and an ATM on the other.

The sun is shining today so we get some nicer photos of the Harry Potter style buildings just off the High Street.

Today we saw 3 Fringe productions.  The first one, we decided to attend after we met the actors handing out fliers on the High Street.  They promised a serious subject with a twist and some funny bits.  It was definitely a serious subject.  Thankfully our next one was our Canadian comedian.  Her show did have a serious side as well.  But there was humor so we were feeling a bit more upbeat.  Our 3rd performance was the best of all.  It was a troupe called “Men with Coconuts”.  They did a James Bond style improv.  It was what they call a “Free Fringe” where you pay what you think it was worth.  Some shows have set prices, but a lot are the “Free Fringe” type.  We gave them 20 £ for this show. Wandering around we have people telling us of the next great thing, starting in 30 minutes!!  There are so many we want to see, but obviously not enough time.  We feel that we haven’t seen a lot of the historic sites here, but can’t resist the opportunity to take advantage of all the entertainment at our finger tips.  The venues vary.  Most are not full time theaters.  This one below is where we saw In Stiches, performed by our Canadian.  Probably could have used another couple of days here.

Here are a few more shots of this amazing city.

This morning we slept in until after 8.  This studio has a fibreglass bathroom.  The whole bathroom is a single fibreglass unit.  The building is quite new so the prefab element makes it quick and cheap to build.  The shower is amazing by the way 🙂

After our breakfast from the local grocery store we walk up to the High Street, The Royal Mile.

The Fringe Festival is happening in Edinburgh just now, so the High Street is a hive of activity.  People pushing their productions with fliers every 10 feet.  It isn’t long before I have a handful of fliers.  We plan to take in at least 2 productions tomorrow.  Any idea which ones??

The sun was shining earlier, bur the skies have opened up and we are getting soaked.  We head down a side street to find a cafe that has a seat available.  Most people in Edinburgh are taking refuge in bars and cafes.  It is hard to find a place to sit out the rain.  We come across the City Cafe and find that they have a place for us.  Checking out the menu we are a bit shocked to see a Classic Hot Dog for 8 GBP (13 CAD)  and a Deluxe Dog for 10 GBP (16 CAD).  Huh???  But they do have Calamari for 4.75 GBPs (7.75 CAD)  and Baby Back Ribs for 6.75 GBP (11 CAD).  Something  seems a bit off in my opinion.  We opt for soup and sandwich combo for 7 GBP  (11.50 CAD).  I eat the soup and Stu has the sandwich.  We add 2 half pints (2.50 each) of Peroni to finish our lunch.

As we wander up the High Street I am reminded of the Harry Potter movies and the Hogwarts area of Universal Studios Florida that we saw with the family in 2012.  It was in Edinburgh that JK Rowling began to write the Harry Potter stories.

We head to the meeting place for our Edinburgh Castle Tour.  It is very crowded with tour participants and Fringe Festival attendees.  Here are some of the photos of the Castle and the views from the citadel.

Back on the High Street we run the gauntlet of the people husking their shows.  It is incredibly crowded here!

There is entertainment all along the way.

According to my FitBit we have walked 32k the past 3 days.  We are tuckered and are heading back to our university accommodation.  We need to look at all of the fliers we got today to decide which Fringe shows we will take in tomorrow.  It will be our last day in Edinburgh.