Holiday to Inverness: Days 7 - 8

29 - 30 March 2013
Dornoch, Tain & Inverness
The Journey Home

The beach at Dornoch was our first stop of the day, for a walk along the sands. This was followed by coffee and a cake in the town, and a look round some of the shops. It is a picturesque town, with some beautiful houses and buildings, surrounded by lovely countryside and a long, sandy beach. It is about 40 minutes drive north of Inverness.

Lunch was at Tain in the 'Sunflowers Too' Coffee Shop, where we ate jacket potatoes, which were okay. Nice staff, but lots of children running about, so not very relaxing.

Brock enjoyed yet another walk around the River Ness islands, back in Inverness. We did a bit of shopping in the city centre (including some 'Herbalism' cleanser for me from LUSH) before heading back to The Bothy.

 Still plenty of snow in the mountain ranges (this photo taken through the car window on the journey home)

The end of the week had come around so quickly and we headed for home just after 10.00am on the Saturday. Being the Easter weekend, we decided that Dunkeld would be too busy and stopped off at House of Bruar instead. It is a site near Blair Atholl in Perthshire, where the company sells clothes, food, souvenirs etc; like an outlet centre without the discounts! This was somewhat of a mistake as it was packed with holiday makers. We made a bee line for the restaurant, where I had a main salad plate, Rob had vegetable lasagna and salad and we both drank Americano coffees. The bill was around £21. The food and staff were very good, but we couldn't enjoy it, with the packed in crowds of people. The ladies loos had a 10+ queue waiting to use them. We were glad to be back on our way, and got home in time for dinner.

Holiday in Gairloch: Day 3: Rogie Falls and Inverness

The weather on the west coast was horrendous today - wet, with gale force winds. We decided to beat the rain by heading for the east coast. We stopped at the Rogie Falls and gave Henry a walk, and ride in his stroller, as far as the first waterfall view point.

We had lunch in the Pizza Express in Inverness, where Rob ate the Fiorentina pizza (with egg and spinach) with a coke, followed by coffee. I had the Warm Vegetable and Goat's Cheese Salad, Peroni to drink, with a small portion of Semi Freddo Reale (gelato dessert with nougat, praline, marsala wine) and coffee. It was a good meal and I liked being able to have a small version of the dessert. Rob thought that the furniture and furnishings looked a bit scruffy compared to our last visit. The staff were good, though, and service was quite fast. The meal cost just over £30.00.

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery was our next stop. It has free entry with an optional donation box. We were just in time to watch a strange movement/music/light show of automata called "Sharmanka: Gothic Kinetic". There were lots of weird sculptures with moving parts. Some had a rather sinister edge to them, with strange creatures and skulls peeping out of little doors that opened and shut. Quite entertaining!

After a quick look round the shops, it was on to the River Ness Islands walk. This is a lovely circular walk along the banks of the Ness, passing over picturesque bridges and islands in the water, with distant views of the city. The weather was warm and sunny and it was very enjoyable.

Rob pushing Henry in this buggy.

A fisherman with a beautiful, turreted house in the background.

View of Inverness from the walk.