Brian, and sometimes Clare, sampled various beers during the trip. If driving after, Brian found low or no alcohol beers as Scotland has zero tolerance for driving after consuming alcohol. Some of the varieties displayed clever names.

Loch Ness is the lake which is the source for the river Ness. Inver means end of river; Inverness means mouth of the river Ness. The river Ness is only seven miles long, but is a good salmon fishery. And thousands of people want to visit the associated loch because of the monster, a myth going back to the 300s but repopularized in 1933 with a fake photograph of the monster itself.

We began our second full day in Inverness driving to and around Loch Ness. The sites that highlighted Nessie, the monster, were too crowded to stop even just for a look. The Urquhart Castle ruins we thought to visit were also booked, so we continued around the large lake to the Rewilding Center in Dundreggan. We went to the visitor center, then walked two short hikes with informational signs. Then we asked two of the employees a bunch of questions. Great guys! The Rewilding Center is attempting to bring this swath of forest back to pre-human conditions, a massive project that will take time to achieve.

Next, we headed to the Falls of Foyers for a hike and lunch, which was a tourist hot spot in the 17-1800’s, now less popular because a lot of the water in the falls was diverted for hydropower. The electricity generated was originally used to manufacture aluminum and, at least once, the Germans bombed the plant during WWII.

We got back to Inverness and had to start packing for the trip home. What a wonderful trip! We were lucky to visit Scotland and learn so much along the way.

Culloden Battlefield is a short drive from Inverness, and there we went for another Outlander site. But it was so much more. The Cullloden Battle, though the actual fighting lasted only an hour, was pivotal in World History at the time. For hundreds of years, the French and English were in a somewhat constant state of war, vying for control of the seas and all their colonies. Had the Jacobite Rebellion succeeded, as the French hoped, life today could have been very different.

After Culloden, we drove to another cairn. This one was constructed 2000 years before Christ, used again about 1000 years later, then again about 500AD.

We wandered around Clava Cairns for a while. Five distinct cairns were accessible, two with entrances inside (but tiny areas to explore).

Later, we wandered around Inverness.

In the evening, we again found music, again two gentlemen, this time with a guitar and a violin (or fiddle). They taught some adventuresome visitors the moves to some Scottish folk dances. Some of the dancers were pretty good!

Monday was another early morning, because we had a ferry to catch. But on the way, we went hunting for puffins! We had previously assumed we would see the cute little birds in our wandering on these northern islands, but we hadn’t. So, Brian looked up RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) sites on the way to the ferry and found one. It involved a walk, of course, but what a view!

We did not find puffins, but their cousins, guillemots, were abundant. They look different from the puffins we saw a few years ago in the Skellig Islands off the coast of Southern Ireland, but they are still incredibly cute, and they nest in the cliffs.

The ferry ride back to the Island of Great Britain was a bit rough at first, with big waves rocking the boat. We saw the Old Man of Hoy again, with the sun at a different angle.

When we got back to the main part of Scotland, we decided to take the longer, more picturesque route to Inverness for our last three nights. A great decision!

John O’Groats, at the far northeastern point on Great Britain, is a popular tourist attraction because many citizens of GB like to walk the over 800-mile trail from Lands End in Cornwall across the island to the northeast. We went just for fun.

Nearby, we looked at Duncansby Head; we took a short walk to see the famous sea stacks.

A bit south, we visited the Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, which was quite difficult to get to, on tiny farm roads with few passing places. But the complex drive and short hike was worth it, because this castle’s structure mimicked the surrounding rocks beautifully.

Notice the thin rock layers of Devonian sandstone.

We got to our hotel in Inverness near the town center in the early evening. After a light dinner, we found a bar that featured live music, again with two young men, one playing an ordinary accordion and the other a guitar. They also called their performance Folk Music, but the content surprised us! The musicians took songs that were familiar to us, by UB40 and other bands, including ballads that Joan Baez sang, and mixed and matched them into a lively medley that was enjoyed by all. One couple started dancing, we helped move the tables out of the way, and that gentleman invited others to join them. Soon the whole front of the bar was lively with dancers who also sang along with the familiar tunes. We gave the band a good tip. The main singer had a wonderful voice.