Day 7 March 26th Invergordon



Invergordon and snow

When we woke up we were off the coast of Scotland 

The Astoria

and as we had been told we did not arrive in the Murray Firth at Invergordon until about 1300.  It was overcast, not too cold but dry.  We breakfasted and relaxed, wrote blog etc in the morning.  When we came to a halt we could see snow in the distance on the mountains.  We had an early lunch and got ready for the excursion we had booked to visit Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle and places in between.  We loaded into the coach and were soon on our way towards Inverness. 



fisherman in river Ness

The River Ness flows through Inverness and there was a fisherman trying to catch salmon in the traditional way.  After about 40 minutes driving we arrived at the loch and 

Loch Ness

embarked on our Jacobite launch to go “Nessie “ observing and to travel to the castle.  If you look at the lake views you may find a strange water born creature lurking below the surface or a ripple caused by something other than the wind but unfortunately we were unable to find either.  After the ½ hour cruise we landed at the ruins of 

approaching Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle and wandered round the extensive area 

the castle grounds

and rooms covered plus climbed the steps to the top of the keep.  We spent some time here (it was now nearly 1600) and decided to make our way to the visitor centre and café.  We were disappointed to find that by the time we got there the café had closed and so there was a coach load 

looking through a top window

of not very happy people.

 

the keep



Not very good but we soldiered on and got in the coach for the journey home.

Our guide was keen to tell us about all things Scottish and we heard about the history and clans of the various settlements we went through.  It was impossible to retain the huge amount of info directed at us!  Eventually we drove through the 

mural on Invergordon house

town of Invergordon which had some house murals along the walls of the High Street which depicted various features of the town’s history. Very colourful and after this we were soon back at the boat.

We sorted ourselves out and prepared for dinner as the boat began to leave the quay side.