Clay and I spent a little over a week exploring the Highlands of Scotland from September 12th-19th. Upon landing we drove 6 hours north to Tongue (1 night), the next day we passed through Durness on our way to Lochinver (2 nights), then we stopped at Ullapool (1 night), Dufftown (2 nights), and then to Edinburgh (1 night), and back to Glasgow (1 night) before returning home.
Highlights of our trip, in chronological order, include:
Castle Varrich in Tongue
Cocoa Mountain chocolate store in Balnakeil Craft Village, near Durness, where former military base buildings have been re-purposed into residences and small shops for artisans. We also stopped at Lotte Glob's beautiful ceramic studio overlooking a loch.
Smoo Cave in Durness:
White sand beaches near Durness;
In Lochinver we took a fly fishing lesson with Stewart of Assynt Fly Fishing.
After our fly fishing lesson we drove the Drumbeg Loop where we saw additional gorgeous beaches and stopped at the Little Soap and Candle Company.
On our way back to our B&B we had a delicious dinner at Kylesku Hotel where they focus on locally grown/raised/caught ingredients. This was our favorite meal of the trip.
The next afternoon we walked up the majority of Stach Pollaidh between Lochinver and Ullapool.
That night we stayed in Ullapool at coziest bed and breakfast with an amazing view from the bed and breakfast table.
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| Ullapool in the distance |
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| breakfast in our room, same view from bed |
It took awhile driving from the west coast of Scotland to the east from Ullapool to Dufftown in the Speyside region of the country. Dufftown, because it has 7 main distilleries, is known as the whisky making capital of the world.
Before checking into that night's accommodation we visited the Speyside Cooperage where we were able to see casks being made by hand. All barrels are casks but not all casks are barrels, barrel being a specific size of cask. Wood is imported from America and the barrels are assembled by hand, after being used they are returned and reassembled and repaired.
The next morning around Dufftown we visited the ruins of Balvenie Castle and the occupied and functioning estate of Ballindalloch Castle.
That afternoon we tour Aberlour Distillery with a nosing and tasting session at the end.
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| This much will make you legally too drunk to drive. |
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| Bird in his Heaven. |
That evening we joined the Dufftown Distillery Walk taking us 5 miles around town while we learned the history of the local area and the local distilleries.
The next morning we had a falconry lesson at Huntly Falcony Centre where we were able to handle owls, hawks, and falcons and learn the process of how to train them. Our course was just the two of us with a trainer for 3 hours, you can hear her Scottish accent in the videos.
Our final stop was a few hours in Edinburgh the day after the vote for independence. We walked from Edinburgh Castle down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse which sits across the street from the Scottish Parliament. #DelightedToBeUnited
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| Top: Edinburgh Castle & Palace of Holyroodhouse Middle: Media village covering the referendum Bottom: Scots voting, Scottish Parliament |
We truly enjoyed our time here and were amazed about how it hardly seemed real 2 days later when we were back at home with Mr. Duke preparing for another workday in New York City! Amazing memories were made!
