Scottish Highlands

Date of this trip: September 12-15th, 2012

I know. I know. I am really behind on my blogging. I have gotten so far behind that I have been working out a plan (for several weeks now) on how I can get back up to date. In the meantime, I have been getting further and further behind. Well, here goes. Better late than never, right?

Back in September, James and I wanted to travel and see what these Scottish Highlands were all about. We got in the car early one Saturday morning and headed west of Aberdeen toward the Cainrgorms National Park.

We came across this little guy later in our journey through the highlands. In case you only look at one of our pictures, I wanted this to be the one you see.

Starting our adventure

There must be more sheep than people in Scotland.

Heeeeey, coooooow!

This is the first castle upon which we stumbled.

Castle number two, also known as Glenbuchat Castle

James needed a little pick-me-up so he snacked on some of these berries. Don't worry, he ended up making it in the end.

Love this

The Scottish countryside is lovely.

Another castle

These guy is a highland cow, also known as a Heilan' coo. We had heard much talk about the famous "hairy cows" so I was really excited when we came across a family of them.

I love them.

Found one with horns

The beach and mountains at Aviemore

After driving through the highlands, we traveled southwest toward Loch Lochy.

A hydro-electricity plant on Loch Lochy

We stopped at the lovely Letterfinlay bed and breakfast on Loch Lochy for a warm dessert. 

Little did we know, this was going to be the best sticky toffee pudding imaginable. (We have since been to Letterfinlay, and they no longer have the same chef or sticky toffee recipe. If anyone knows where this chef went, please let me know!) 

The moment you have all been waiting for...

Although Loch Ness was pretty and incredibly massive, the other lakes we drove by were more beautiful. (It is possible that I had built up Loch Ness to be a fantastical place in my mind for the six weeks we studied the Loch Ness Monster in the sixth grade...) Don't let this keep all of you from searching for Nessie.

We had a picnic dinner overlooking Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.

A picturesque ending to our day in the Scottish Highlands.