Adventures in Scotland - Day 4 The Highlands

Today we headed further into the Highlands, and I know why they are named that - Endless mountains as far as you can see! It's impossible to capture the beauty in a photograph because you have nothing to compare it to, and no sense of scale for how high these mountains are. But that didn't stop me from trying to take a million pictures! Every turn was another breathtaking view. And the sheep and cows are everywhere - even along the roadsides where there are no fences.

We started with a stop at the dam and fish ladder in Pitlochry before heading north.

We drove through Cairngorms National Park, which basically takes up the middle part of the Highlands (also home to Balmoral, the Queen's hunting lodge, but we didn't stop there). 

These yellow spiky shrubs are everywhere - called Gorse - they are all in full bloom now.

The Moray Firth, driving into Inverness.

We had lunch in Inverness, which is the northernmost 'city' in Scotland (there are still plenty of towns farther north). 

It is located on the River Ness (which feeds from Loch Ness to the Moray Firth).

We ate at a pub across the street from Inverness Castle, which is now a courthouse and jail.

And it has a statue in front of Flora MacDonald (the woman who helped Bonnie Prince Charles escape after losing the Battle of Culloden).

Then we headed to Culloden Moor and the battlefield, which had a nice visitors center (not quite on the scale of Gettysburg but enough to get a nice history lesson).  It's a very somber place and you can see how emotional it is for the Scots who visit. It was the last major land battle fought on British soil.

For my Outlander friends - memorial stone for Clan Fraser.

The Memorial Cairn.

We headed further north to our hotel, which is another old manor home that was built in the 1800's.

Beautiful views of the lake!

Who makes bathtubs like this anymore??

They have beautiful walled gardens and a pond - my mom and I could've spent all day wandering the gardens, but I won't post all those pictures here. Just a few! 

He's very busy reading about the castles we are visiting tomorrow.

The garden walls were built with the original house in the 1600's.

Lots of things in bloom!

The bees were very happy. We've enjoyed Heather Honey a few times on this trip - a real treat!

We had another gourmet meal at our hotel - another Michelin rated restaurant - and then strolled around the gardens for a while.

A beautiful sunset at 10:30pm (view from our room).

Tomorrow we visit Loch Ness, some castles, and then arrive on Isle of Skye for two nights.