UK2026: Day 4: The North Remembers

Pretty lovely sleep, all things considered, at our little lay-by down by the river. We did have some rain which despite waking us up did sound lovely.

Post awakening I did a short walk down by the river. Mrs Milddogs met some local people who were out and about. One fellow was headed down to the river to do some salmon fishing. Had we known that there is salmon in the river, dinner would have been more significant last night.

We departed our spot somewhere around 0945 on a quest to go North. How far North? All the North we could go!

We stopped at a few lay-bys along the way for snacks and breaks. Our first significant stop was North Kessock at the community pier just over the bridge from Inverness. We had a little lunch and a walkabout.

Next stop was Alness where we filled up with diesel for the first time. We had planned to do some light provisioning but abandoned that part.

We found a lovely lay-by on a bridge near Glenmorangie and had to stop there. Glenmorangie is home to a whisky distillery. I think it was one of Dendog’s favourites.

Off we went to the castle. Not White Castle, not Dunrobin Castle but Castle Sinclair Girnigoe. It was at the end of 5 km of single lane road (good practice) and the about a 750 metre hike. Both well worth it.

There was path that went along the edge of the cliffs. We went down it, but edges are not my thing! It’s pretty cool to stand amongst history and marvel at how they built these things many hundreds of years ago.

We decided to stay at the campground at John O’Groats, the most northern habitat on the main island of the UK.

Mrs Milddogs cooked dinner while I messed about outside. Post dinner we headed to The Last Pub. It seats about 10-15 people and they brew beer. I proclaimed my lack of affection for bitter or hoppy beers and the kind barkeeper offered me samples of three different candidates, I thanked him and left. Oh, no we didn’t. I had a pint of the lager and Mrs Milddogs had a different half pint. We chatted with some other patrons and then headed back to our RV. Oh, the van parked next to us looks a bit like our van at home and I almost walked into it.

Shower alert! The washrooms here are pretty darn great. I’m a bit biased right now given our string of marginal washrooms so my scale may be a bit askew. I give the showers a solid 9.

Windy as heck here tonight. Reminds me of Angel Peak, NM or Matagorda, TX. It’s also cold, but we have electricity here and the diesel heater so we should be good for indoor temperature. We are hopeful that the shaking will stop and we will get a good night sleep.

Now that we have conquered the north, we shall head west.