UK2026: Day 8: (Updated) Donuts on Clan MacDonald Land
Location: Drumnadrochit
Woke up, got out of bed, made my breakfast with moldy bread. Sad face. Good thing there was a backup plan and a bakery in town.
A few photos of where we parked. Instagram style versus reality. To be clear, it was a great park-up, just looks funny. The green box is part of the water infrastructure for the area.
Today’s mission was to take in Urquhart castle on Loch Ness. To get there we backtrack down the Aisle of Skye. But first a stop to tour Portree. Lovely little town. We stopped at pretty much every gift store looking to the perfect things for us. Also went down to the pier and sadly the fish market store was closed. After an hour or so we hit the gas station and fortunately it had diesel.
Southward bound! In Broadford we stopped at the Shellfish Shack and Mrs Milddogs got some scallops and some “cull and skink” soup. She particularly enjoyed the soup.
We stopped at many vistas along the way. Was interesting to see the view from the other direction. Repeating myself: so many amazingly beautiful vistas along the way. Wow!
We drove past Eilean Donan castle again and those movie making people are still there. We pulled over and got some shots from the other side in the sun (somewhat).
At Kintail we saw some harbour seals basking in the rocks and then a few kilometers along the way we saw our second deer prancing along the hill next to the road.
Eventually after much driving along pretty good roads we arrived at our campground in Drumnadrochit which is home to the castle. We got our assigned spot and had a relax for a bit before heading to our assigned castle viewing time. Urquhart castle was really special. They have done a good job of preserving it and making sure tourists can get information. Very memorable experience. Staff are wonderful as well.
We went back to our campground and then decided we had not had enough driving for the day so we headed into Inverness to look around. It’s only 22 km, how bad can it be? Let us remember that your real average speed intercity up in the north is about 60 kmph (at best). It seems to be a very busy city with an established high street. Worth a look. We ended up driving back after sunset but fortunately did not see any deer nor monsters on the road. Pretty sure Nessy can slither along the road, right? Why can’t I make up the monster rules? With the drive into Inverness we had travelled the length of Loch Ness.
Back to campground for a good night sleep.
Weather was perfect almost all day. Clouds and a bit of rain came in later in day but overall a great Scotland April day.
We met a lot of nice people today. Appreciate their guidance and help. Especially Lynne in Drumnadrochit. Sometimes it’s hard navigating new areas. Kind strangers can really help.
Oh, we were both running out of data, so we topped up Mrs Milddogs Saily and I bought a local eSIM as we had to make some calls. Incidentally the local eSIM is way cheaper!
I’m a day behind, today’s post will be done tomorrow.
Give yourself a hug for us.
