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My aunt and uncle occasionally complain that their nephews rarely come and see them ever since they moved to a cottage on the north side of the Beauly Firth just opposite Inverness, so I used the Bank Holiday to fix this.
I managed to pick the weekend between the end of the rainy season and the start of the midge season, so got to see the Highlands at their best. It's a primary-coloured place, the blue of the sky and the sea, the yellow of the gorse among the verdent velvet of well-sheeped grass. I saw a red squirrel just behind the cottage, a Moray Firth dolphin playing in colliding currents just off the point at Fortrose, and some gannets; Sunday took us to Brodie Castle and the new visitor's centre at Culloden Moor, and on Monday we went on a long drive in perfect weather, to see the length of Skye and the teeth of the Cuillins from the edge of the mainland at Applecross, with Lewis dim in the distance beyond it, and Loch Kishorn from the high pass at Bealach na Ba. Two hundred photos, as yet unsorted.
Even the train journey up and down is very pretty: the line goes by the sea for miles, with lovely views of Berwick and Alnmouth on their peninsulas, and there's a great view from the Forth Bridge. With a bit of luck with connections, it's eight and a half hours from Cambridge to Inverness: no further than Bordeaux, Marseilles or Frankfurt.
I managed to pick the weekend between the end of the rainy season and the start of the midge season, so got to see the Highlands at their best. It's a primary-coloured place, the blue of the sky and the sea, the yellow of the gorse among the verdent velvet of well-sheeped grass. I saw a red squirrel just behind the cottage, a Moray Firth dolphin playing in colliding currents just off the point at Fortrose, and some gannets; Sunday took us to Brodie Castle and the new visitor's centre at Culloden Moor, and on Monday we went on a long drive in perfect weather, to see the length of Skye and the teeth of the Cuillins from the edge of the mainland at Applecross, with Lewis dim in the distance beyond it, and Loch Kishorn from the high pass at Bealach na Ba. Two hundred photos, as yet unsorted.
Even the train journey up and down is very pretty: the line goes by the sea for miles, with lovely views of Berwick and Alnmouth on their peninsulas, and there's a great view from the Forth Bridge. With a bit of luck with connections, it's eight and a half hours from Cambridge to Inverness: no further than Bordeaux, Marseilles or Frankfurt.
