We start the day with a dip in the sea, what a life! Then we eat our breakfast, play some Uno and drive West. We’re only allowed back at our holiday park at 17:30 as the road will be blocked because of a visit from Trump. He transfers from Airforce One to Marine One at the nextdoor airbase to visit his nearby golf course.
Our first stop is Brodi castle, when we arrive the tour just started, so we start with exploring the garden and playground which is a lot of fun with tunnels, musical instruments, a huge rabbit and much more. When we’re done, it’s still 30 minutes wait for the next one-hour tour, so we decide to skip it as we have a long list of sites today. And the children don’t like to listen to someone talking for an hour anyways.
We drive to Fort George, a still active army base, home to the highlander regiment and based on the tip of a peninsula. This star fort is therefore surrounded by water and last time we saw seals. So Tim brings his big telelens and Cleo takes over the other camera for some wider shots. She shoots everything like a papparazzi so we’ll have some extra photos to go through back home.
As we wander the curtain walls Tim spots some dorsal fins in the distance. No seals, but dolphins this time. They are quite far away but still visible with the naked eye. As we wander a bit futher we see a big crowd on a beach at the other side, dolphins are jumping out of the water in front of them, maybe a good spot for next time..
We end with the Highlander museum. No, it has nothing to do with that great 80s movie but is all about the regimental history and the wars it fought. Meanwhile Olga finally gets on the internet to get a timeslot for the Loch Ness castle but everything before 17.00 is gone. We decide to go for the 17.00 slot, we can’t return early anyways, so we’ll just find something to do for the next three hours.
So, we visit the nearby Clava Cairns. Three circular bronze age tombes surrounded by stone circles. They lie in a small forested area and although it’s crowded with other tourists, it’s still a special place.
When we arrive at the Bullodon battlefield visitor center it’s suddenly very crowded: a Cruise Ship arrived and hundreds of people visit the museum. We make our way through the crowd to learn about the Jacobite Rising of 1746, the last pitched battle on British soil where 1600 men were slained (1500 Jacobites) in less than an hour.
The Jacobites were seeking to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British throne. The children find another threasure hunt and run through the busy isles until they find a small theater where a movie is shown. It turns out to be very bloody.
Loch Ness is next, we scan the lake for signs of the monster. Cleo is the first to see something in the waters. The other three of us only see the monster statutes in front of hotels, restaurants and shops.
We have a timeslot to visit the Urquhart castle at 17, but are already allowed to enter when we arrive at 16:30. It’s busy at the castle, but only some ruins remain. We do a quick tour, enjoy the lovely views of the Loch and call it a day.
It’s dinner time when we leave the castle, but still an one and a half hours drive home. So we go out for an Indian dinner in Inverness. We’re back home at 20:30.
