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Today was mainly wet, though it did dry up later.
My first port of call was Chanonry Point, on the Moray Firth. This is one of the top spots in the world for seeing bottle nosed dolphins from the land. Chanonry Point sticks out into the firth, narrowing it, and fish tend to gather here. The dolphins here are twice the size of bottle nosed dolphins elsewhere in the world. The official thought is that they need extra blubber because of the cold - so nothing to do with the supposed Scottish diet!
Through the gloom and sheeting rain, I spotted a few swimming around, but not photogenic. They didn't seem to be in a playful mood - maybe it was just too wet!
The Minx and I then sailed along the roads, alongside Loch Ness, to Urquhart Castle. Arriving at lunch time, I popped into the tearoom but wasn't all that impressed with their selection. Nonetheless, I forced a piece of Chocolate Fudge Cake and Hot Chocolate down me. I then watched the very interesting introductory film and wandered around the exhibition.
By this time, the rain had calmed down a bit, so I ventured outside to be greeted by a fantastic view of the castle with Loch Ness as the backdrop. The castle was constructed on a piece of land that juts out into the loch, thereby guarding it. The castle was involved in the wars between the English and Scottish, changing hands several times. It was also raided by someone I'd met earlier on my travels - The Chief of the Isles Donald MacDonald, who wanted to expand out of the West Highlands. Although he took the castle, he couldn't hold on to it. Nevertheless, over the next 150 years the MacDonalds continued to raid it and the surrounding land, stealing livestock and other goods.
The next chapter was the last action seen at the castle. During the Jacobite Risings, the Castle was loyal to the crown. However, the crown decided it wasn't worth defending it, so rather than risking it falling into the hands of their enemies, they blew up the gatehouse.
Unfortunately, I didn't spot Nessie, even though it had stopped raining. Seems she was feeling shyer than the dolphins! If you look at the map, you can see that Loch Ness is massive, and forms a big part of The Great Glen. This is a large geological fault that is the most active in the UK - though thankfully not on the scale experienced elsewhere in the world. The Caledonian Canal was built to link Loch Ness with Loch Lochy and Loch Oich, allowing ships to sail from Fort William in the west to Inverness in the east, saving them from sailing round the north coast.
By the time I left the castle, the sun was bravely trying to get through the dark grey clouds, so I decide to get the roof off for the 10 mile drive to Invermoriston. Apparently, the name of the river (Moriston) means River of Falls, and with all the rain we'd had, it was very noisily trying to get to Loch Ness as quickly as possible. It made for a very impressive sight. I shall try to send some photos, if they're not too large.
I then continued to drive along the Great Glen to Spean Bridge, where I turned left to head back east. During this time it had started raining again, so the roof was back in place. However, as I went further east the clouds cleared and we had blue sky, so the roof came off again!
I briefly joined the A9 to head towards Pitlochry, but it was a lot busier than I've been used to, so decided to take the scenic route to my final destination, Strathtay, via the B8079, B8019 alongside Loch Tummel and then the B846 to Weem, where I then followed a minor road to my B&B.
Once settled in, I walked a couple of mins down the road to The Inn on The Tay in Grandtully. Here I really enjoyed a Sausage and Black Pudding Pie - and it was a proper pie fully encased in pastry! Delicious.
Today we drove 234 miles!
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