2019 Holiday in Inverness: Days 5 - 6: Dornoch Firth, Tain, The Black Isle, Rogie Falls and Ullapool

Wednesday began with a return visit to the beautiful beach at Dornoch for our morning walk. Brock met a little friend to chase around with. [Click on any photograph to see a larger version].

We took a scenic route around Dornoch Firth, stopping off at Bonar Bridge.

Tain was our next stop, for a quick look around the town, before having a delicious lunch in Greens Restaurant (mozzarella and sundried tomato salad for me; quiche and chips for Rob). Lovely interior, great food and friendly staff - highly recommended. The only improvement I could suggest, is having a dog friendly table or two!

Historic court building in Tain.

Interior of Greens.

We drove on to Cromarty on The Black Isle - a picturesque, 18th century town on the tip of the peninsula, with spectacular views including oil rigs being serviced or decommissioned, and the 'sutor' rocks guarding the entrance to Cromarty Firth.

South Sutor

View from the shore at Cromarty

There are lots of interesting independent shops and cafes to visit. We enjoyed looking around The Cromarty Pottery, and purchased a spoon rest with a fish and seaweed design, and a small, white spoon with a blue pattern on it, made by potter, Barbel Dister. Follow the link to see similar pieces on her website.

I finally bought some postcards and stamps on the way to Chanonry Point at Rosemarkie! They seem to be harder to find in these days of online sharing. Chanonry Point was looking very dramatic under cloudy skies, with a brisk wind, and choppy water on all three sides of the peninsula. It is sometimes possible to see dolphins from here, but I have visited four times and have yet to see them. 🐬

Distant view of Fort George

FRI PORSGRUNN This Cypriot cargo vessel is currently in the Baltic Sea, as I type. You can trace its whereabouts through the link above.

Here's Rob's photo of me taking the photo of the ship! I am standing on the point of Chanonry Point.

Chanonry Point lighthouse.

Dinner when we got home was a take away from The Curry Hoose in Culloden. There was a good selection of vegetables in the two curries we ordered. The pakora and rice were also good. Quite pricey, but there was enough food for two meals.

On Thursday, we set out towards Ullapool, stopping off at Rogie Falls for our morning walk. There are two short walks from the car park: (one more 'strenuous' as they put it on the sign post. We took that route to the falls to walk off our curry of the night before!). There was plenty of flow in the Black Water to make the waterfalls quite a torrent.

On the drive along the A835, we saw stunning views all the way along, including this one of Loch Droma.

 At Ullapool, we had a walk around the town before lunch in The Celidh Place. A very nice, dog friendly venue with a book shop attached. We managed to get the table next to the wood burning stove 🔥 I had a GF cheese and Waldorf salad open sandwich; Rob had a split pea burger and chips - both meals were very tasty.

There are lots of shops to investigate, and we bought a couple of cards in the community charity shop, a sweatshirt from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, and an ice cream to eat while admiring the view out to sea.

Powfoot

Rob and I took Henry down to the beach at Powfoot on the Solway Firth for his walk today.

It was a bit more overcast than yesterday, but the views across to England were still beautiful.

Rob and Henry.

Henry and I.

Our Holiday In Inverness VII

Days 7 & 8: Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October 2009

We had planned to go to Aberdeen for the day, but instead decided to visit lots of towns and villages near to the sea, with the idea of viewing houses for sale and seeing what the areas were like.


Our mammoth drive included:- Charlestown, Redcastle, Avoch, Alness, Dornoch (that's Henry on the beach again!), Clashmore, Tain, Rosemarkie, Cromarty, Balblair and Resolis. Although we are not really that serious about moving, it's nice to imagine what it would be like to live somewhere different - especially somewhere right next to the sea... We gave each place a star if we liked it and a 'black spot' if we didn't. One day we will go all the way round the British coast line and finally find our ideal house.


One place we stopped at to walk Henry was the Clootie Well walk. The cloot is a piece of cloth that is tied to a tree near the Well as you make a wish. As the fabric slowly rots away, your wish comes to an end. We were told the story by a man walking his terrier around the woods. He had lived in the area all of his life and had made his own wishes, but was a bit annoyed that people had started to use pieces of plastic to 'cheat' the spell. I see from a website that the well was initially for pilgrims wishing to cure someone of illness. A piece of their clothing was tied there, and as the fabric rotted the illness disappeared. There must have been some semi-naked people going about as there were trousers, under pants, socks and all sorts of clothing tied up around the Well!

Good coffee and cakes were later imbibed at the Sunflowers Cafe in Tain - a nice, small town, where I found some lovely buttons in a second hand shop.

Much later that night we went to Nairn, to the Dragon Pearl Chinese Restaurant.
JKW: vegetable wan tans, with chili dipping sauce (shared), stir fried vegetables in Kung Po sauce with egg fried rice (shared), pineapple fritters with ice cream, lager.
RJW: vegetable pancakes, vegetable chow mein, coke.
Cost: £32.00
Efficient staff and a relaxed atmosphere; several families with very young children were made welcome while we were there. The starters were the usual, unremarkable, deep-fried fare. The main courses were tasty, and included a good variety of vegetables, bean sprouts, mushrooms, cashew nuts etc. The fritters were hot, crisp, dripping with golden syrup and delicious. Recommended (if you're not on a diet).

Saturday came round all too quickly and we started off on the drive home. We stopped for lunch at one of our favourite towns in Perthshire: Dunkeld. It is very picturesque, with imposing buildings, the River Tay storming its way under the town's bridge and providing an attractive backdrop to the shops, cafes, delicatessen (Food For Thought - well worth a visit), a great hardware and kitchen shop, hotels and antique shops. The photo below was taken in March 2009.


We brushed shoulders with the rich and famous as we ate lunch in a cafe - Elaine C Smith of Rab C Nesbitt fame was also there!