I Spy a Monster … or did I?

Whilst in Scotland and in Inverness we made the requisite trip down to Loch Ness to see if we could spy a monster. Yes, I must admit, Loch Ness is surely one of the worst tourist traps in the world, and going on a cruise to look for Nessie ranks right up there with “going to the top of the Eiffel Tower” as one of the most cliched things you can do … but it must be done. These places are tourist traps for a reason, after all, because the tourists love to do them!  So we played tourist for a day, and took the boat out on Loch Ness. We tried to something a bit different though, and rather than merely monster spotting we took the cruise to Castle Urquhart, a lovely ruin on the shore of Loch Ness.  Unfortunately, our “something a bit different” turned out to be the same thing that 4,276,294 other tourists wanted to do that day! Oh well.  It was very scenic, if you can see past all the annoying Americans. 

This is the boat we took. It’s got a very shallow draft, so it can come right up to the shoreline. It’s also a catamaran, which I thought was interesting.

 

The guidebooks always describe Loch Ness as being “surrounded by the highlands” , but in my opinion these were pretty low and meagre. It did look like farther down the loch the mountains were more impressive …

 

Looking south on Loch Ness … it’s a really long lake, so it’s not surprising to think that a monster could hide in there for years and never be found. And no, that’s not Nessie on the far left of the pic, it’s just another boat. 

 

Arriving at Urquhart Castle by water is a pretty impressive experience, even if the ruins leave a bit to be desired. They really are ruins … there is hardly anything left of the castle that once looked out over the water.

 

Looking up at the remains of the castle keep. Yes, there was a conga line of tourists, all eagerly waiting for their 20.3 seconds at the top.

 

Historic Scotland did a nice job with the preservation of the ruins, and they’ve made a valiant attempt to provide historical background. But the reality is that it was a pretty poor castle, in a pretty useless location … nothing big ever really happened here.

 

Overall, I would probably not recommend either the Loch cruise or the Castle to friends visiting Scotland. It was quite pricey (especially the taxi out to the boat’s departure point!), and there are more interesting sites to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INverness: the city IN the Highlands

The title of this blogpost is just as annoying as it sounds, and yes, it is the tourism slogan for Inverness. I find it annoying because the name isn’t pronounced with an accent on the IN, the accent is on the NESS, so this slogan flips it all around and makes me sound like an idiot when I say INverness.

Looking down the River Ness, with the churches on the right and our hotel on the left. The river is quite wide, but only a few feet deep. It made me long for an inner-tube!

All that is beside the point, however, because both Alex and I really enjoyed our stay IN the city IN the Highlands. The city is considered the capital of the Highlands, but I definitely didn’t feel like I was IN the Highlands whilst there … I heard lots of seagulls, and not many bagpipes. But it’s really a nice place.  The river Ness (which is where the city name, Imbhir Ness in Gaelic, comes from – it means “Mouth of the River Ness” was a charming and babbling brook.  We were both astonished at how clean and clear the water was – you could see right through to the rocks below. I think we’ll have to go back for the Highland Games next July, as I really do want to see those!

This is the castle of Inverness, but it’s a bit of a fake. It’s a Victorian reconstruction, and you know those Victorians were never very interested in accuracy! Nowadays it’s the civic and court center, so you can’t tour the inside (unless you get yourself arrested, but I don’t think it’s worth it!)

We enjoyed a charming walk about a mile upriver to the Ness Islands, which seemed really idyllic. Just a few small islands in the middle of the river, you feel like you’re totally on your own. They also have some really cool artistic benches scattered about, providing the perfect spot to enjoy the scenery.

This is the train station in Inverness. I have to admit, I think it’s definitely one of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen. It’s really a pity, because on either side are some nice stone buildings, but the squat, concrete, 1970′s style of the station is hideous. I wonder what they tore down to put this up?

 

A couple enjoying a quiet moment on the Ness Islands.

 

We saw a lot of people sitting along the banks of the river – some rather precariously! A few were almost vertical along the steep banks … and I would be afraid that if I nodded off, I would get a dunking!

 

A pedestrian bridge spanning the River Ness, leading from the “mainland” out to one of the Ness Islands. Alex was enchanted by the house in the background with the pointed turrets … it looks like a princess lives there!

 

After a lovely dinner we took another stroll by the river, and captured the castle just after sunset. It’s pretty striking the way it sits on that hill and overlooks the river … it must have been quite intimidating back in the day!

 

 

 

 

The Isle of Skye (or The Adventures of Alex’s Hat)

You might have seen the rather dashing man in a hat in some of my previous posts. Or perhaps I should say, you might have seen the man in the rather dashing hat!  We got this great piece of haberdashery at Camden Lock market back in June, and we’ve both been itching for an opportunity to wear it.  So this holiday seemed like the perfect time.  The hat did everything a hat is supposed to do … it shaded the face and neck, it was cool (even though it’s technically more of a winter hat, the felt is quite light), and most importantly, the aforementioned “dashing” factor.

So imagine my distress when Alex LEFT THE HAT ON THE BUS.  Yes, the hat he’d worn for precisely 2.5 hours was abandoned, alone and forgotten, on a strange and foreign bus on the Isle of Skye. Poor little hat.

Luckily for me the Scottish folk on Skye are terribly friendly. I also think they only have about 6 buses, so when I called their helpline the next morning I was happy to hear that they’d undertake a search for the missing hat.  Sure enough, about 5 minutes later we got a call saying the hat had been found.  Hurray!  But even better, they asked where we were staying and arranged for the hat to take a trip on THAT bus and be delivered very nearly to our front door.  It was amazing service.  John at Stagecoach buses on the Isle of Skye deserves a serious commendation – he was polite and helpful, and most important, he got us the hat back. 

From that point, we walked across the one-and-only bridge to Skye to the town of Kyle of Lochalsh. It’s a nice big bridge, and I’m rather proud that we walked it. (Also a good opportunity for the hat.)

Alex. On the Bridge. With the Hat.