Nessy

Today is Tuesday

We had a nasty early start at 6.45 am. Every time during the night before we were reminded as we walked past the coach. 
Unfortunately I set the alarm for 5.00am, got up, had a shower, became absorbed in something and forgot to wake Tammy up until 6.30am. I was OK, Tammy was in a bit of rush.

 

 

We drove through the Orkneys on the way back to the ferry. It is such a wonderful place. At this time of year it gets dark at about 10.30pm and it is daylight again by 4.30am. On June 21st  there is only about 2 hours of night time. In December it gets dark at about 4.00pm and doesn't get light again until about 10.00am.
We drove past one of the houses that has a green roof. There are a few of them here.

 



Our first stop was Dunbeath. A small fishing village where we stopped for a walk along the beach. This was a thriving fishing village in the 1800's and the town built an 'Icehouse' into the side of the hill. This was filled with blocks of ice cut from the sea in winter and was used to keep the fish cold in the summertime.




 




Next was a stop to look at the monument celebrating the people who immigrated to other places when the 'clearances' happened in the highlands.
The Highlands never recovered and is, to this day mostly uninhabited as a result. The statue has the words

'Their voices will echo forever thro the empty straths and glens of their homeland'

It is a moving memorial.


 



The town itself is very pretty, Helmsdale, it's a relatively modern town built in 1813 to take advantage of the herring fishing boom.








Dunrobin Castle is an interesting visit, although the building dates back to the middle ages most of the present work dates from the mid 1800's. We looked around the inside. It is all set out as it would have been 150 years ago. No photographs are allowed inside, they would prefer you to buy the guide book.






The gardens are terrific. There is a museum of artifacts collected by and often shot by, the various people that have lived in the castle. We found it a bit confronting. As soon as you walk in the door you are eye to eye with a stuffed giraffe, it gets worse from there. Elephants foot umbrella stands and every wild animal and bird you can imagine. All with the proud plaque stating 'shot by Lord Eddie Noo in 1865'
There was an eagle demonstration in the garden that was brilliant. The Falcon swept over peoples heads by a couple of inches. The big Eagle Owl actually landed on a small child's head. He screamed a lot but seemed uninjured. The little boy was OK too.

Then it was time to head for Loch Ness for a spot of monster catching. We were pretty excited because our tour guaranteed a glimpse of Nessie.

First we had a sit down and made sure we didn't look like tourists.


We checked into our accommodation for the night and headed into town at Fort Augustus. We had a look at the locks, unfortunately no boats were passing through them, they are fascinating all the same. Then we found a pub for tea. We ordered Haggis, it wasn't too bad as long as you didn't think about what you were eating. We had a pint.
The long awaited boat trip was at 8.00pm, the best time to spot Nessie. We were lucky there she was right outside the window of the boat.










 


Back at the Youth Hostel there was a bar and live music. So we had to try another local beer or two, the blog will have to wait until tomorrow.