A very long trip yesterday from Ullapool to cousin Gillians in Beverley (near York). Really rather too long, especially as we did exactly what we didnt want to do - drive into the middle of Glasgow. We had the route all worked out - simple really! but because of massive road works, lots of off ramps blocked off etc. we sailed past the turn off to Carlisle and ended up in Glasgow. We took the first of ramp that we could find and ended up in a wide shopping stre...

Monday We had a lovely light meal last night in one of the waterfront pubs – very popular spot and we had to wait half and hour. The time passed fairly quickly with the help of a red wine or two,. Both had seafood soup which was yummy, then a fish cocktail. We had a good nights sleep in a charming B & B right on the waterfront with a lovely young couple as our hosts. They had both been working and living in Chch for a while and had come back home to ...

Saturday Got up early and had a decent cooked breakfast before heading off to John O’Groats (about 30 min trip) to catch the ferry to Orkney Islands. It was really foggy all the way to the ferry and I didn’t think for one minute that we would be leaving in time, but sure enough off we went on schedule. We sat out on the deck all the way and were quite warm, but couldn’t see a blooming thing. The sea was calm mercifully (although a little bit of a swell)...

Saturday Got up early and had a decent cooked breakfast before heading off to John O’Groats (about 30 min trip) to catch the ferry to Orkney Islands. It was really foggy all the way to the ferry and I didn’t think for one minute that we would be leaving in time, but sure enough off we went on schedule. We sat out on the deck all the way and were quite warm, but couldn’t see a blooming thing. The sea was calm mercifully (although a little bit of a swell)...

Inverness to Castletown (near John O’Groats) Had a lovely dinner last night in Inverness town and were delighted to see many groups around the town performing Scottish dancing, bands, pipers etc. After another sumptuous breakfast this morning we headed out of town towards the North Highlands. Took a couple of little side trips and had a bit of a walk around small towns on the way. Travelled on to our first serious stop the Glenorangie Whiskey distillery. W...