So it's Inverness

At least that's where we were headed that day, but the journey in the morning continued around Skye. Next stop Dunvegan castle.


This castle belongs to the McLeod clan, probably a very nice one, but of course me being me, i arrive there during renovation, the castle was suffering from a serious humidity hitting its walls and was being mostly covered in scaffolding and white protective sheets. It's got pretty nice gardens though, that was nice to go around, got some good photos out there.

What amazed me in all those castles is the size of the bedrooms and generally private rooms, these were tiny! All the clans just used to show off their lavish extravagant rooms where they received guests and stuff, and in the process took away all the space from a nice wide bedroom for themselves, i guess back then how people saw you was what mattered...I'm glad we care more about our own comfort these days :D

The drive from there to the bridge of Skye was uneventful, albeit full of Skye scenery, now the next stop was really cool! Eilean Dunan! A lot of movies have been shot here, and although the most recently rebuilt, it was by far the most impressive we've seen. It was built a few centuries back, can't remember the exact history but it's quite old :) Wings and towers have been added and removed throughout the years, until it got it's final shape in the 16th century. That though got totally destroyed until a McRae-Gilstrap bought the little island containing the castle in 1911 and started restoring it till he brought it to its original (16th century) shape in the 1930s.

So the exterior is awesome, very special, done in stone and looks like how you imagine a castle should, the interior on the other hand is very simple and practical, small rooms, modest furniture, etc...But still a very impressive castle, my favorite so far :)

After a nice lunch at the castle's restaurant, the journey was resumed passing the famous Loch Ness (no, didn't spot the monster) and heading to Inverness.

Inverness is pretty nice, a relatively small city, just guessing i would say the size of Bedford maybe, a river runs through the city and it's a very pleasant walk there around the city center, added to it the view of the Inverness castle (which contains a history museum) on top of a hill right in the heart of the city overlooking the river Ness. There's also a mini-Notre Dame de Paris cathedral in there that's worth a look :) St. John? Oh! St. Andrews!

It was cosy.

The morning after was the end of our journey. But just before heading back to Aberdeen, we decided to go back to Loch Ness, check their visitor centre and have a boat ride in it. Simple as that visitor centre was, i enjoyed it a lot, it describes the myths that surrounded that mysterious lake for ages and reveals some interesting facts about people faking them for publicity :) Followed by a beautiful boat ride. It's always different seeing the place from a boat, the different angle maybe...

Now back to Aberdeen, getting ready to jump from helicopters and survive in water.