We took off from Aberfeldy … can’t say enough about the location and the facility. Anyhow off on the A9 north. A couple of years ago we thought we would stay in a little place called Kingussie between Perth and Inverness. Well that would not be our choice now. Kingussie is in the middle of the Grampian Mountains and pretty barren and stark. And if you were staying in the little village, there is nothing near for shopping, etc.

We went on toward Dornoch where we had a reservation at the 2Quail B&B and restaurant. Our host for the B&B is a well known and highly rated chef in England and we were unable to eat there because the booking for dinner must be done well in advance, even at about $180 per couple. Dornoch is a neat little town on the very northeastern coast of Scotland and really convenient to the places to the far north. After we checked in we explored the little burg. We were right on the main street and parked right in front of the place. The town is probably about 1000 people and really compact and ancient. We had dinner at a local pub where we did some email and then were told that at 8pm there would be a demonstration of the local pipe band so we went out into the cool rain to watch. Really neat and the bagpipes are kind of chilling as a military call to battle; but a bit chilly under the kilt, eh.

In the morning our hostess convinced Bruce to have some of the black pudding … better known to us as blood pudding . Actually it was a circular cake resembling a sausage patty but a bit more crumbly … and very good. Then we were off to explore some of the Gunn heritage north of Dornoch. We made it up the coast to Dunbeath where we stopped by chance at the Neill Gunn Heritage center. There, we found out that the Gunn heritage museum would not be open until June first so we would not be able to see inside it. We did find out a lot about the Gunns and a good email address for future research from the lady at the center.

We did go up to the Gunn heritage center just beyond Latheron and it really was wonderful. We wandered around the graveyard and looked at all the Gunn headstones in the place. The setting is truly spectacular and the vegetation is a lot more colorful that I thought it would be. Extremely green and lush and the gorsh bushes are a bright yellow-orange and cover the hillsides. The Caithness region is a truly beautiful place at this time of year and yet very lightly populated … just sheep.

To end our day in the north we stopped off at the Dunrobin castle which is another baronial home still in use today and full of antiques and beautiful art and history. Dunrobin is just north of where were staying in Dornoch.

We will be back to the north as we only scratched the surface of what was there.

On Moday we left the 2Quail and headed south toward Fort William on the west side of Scotland. Actually the place we picked was in a little burg called Roy Bridge to the east of Fort William and a Best Western Grand Spean Lodge up the side of the mountain … actually it was an 1870ish hunting lodge and the views of the snowy mountain were spectacular. Our dinner in the lodge dining room looking at the snowy slopes reminded us of looking at our own Rockies. This was really surprising because we had though that we would see some limited mountains but the high snow covered ones were really a treat and took our breath away.

Our room was on the third floor above the lobby and without an elevator the two 60 pound suitcases, two computer type cases and another bag full of stuff took some effort … a lot of effort.

Tuesday morning we headed back to Edinburgh airport and stayed at a Quality Inn … remember the fire alarm from when we arrived … which also housed the Thrifty car rental place; planning paid off here.

The Quality was a good choice as was the Thrifty rental located in the lobby of the place and that planning paid off.