Scotland: Inverness and Elgin

The goal for this trip?  See the countryside of Scotland, check out castles and other ruins, taste scotch and enjoy the less touristy side of things.  check, check and check.  Having a car was essential for driving about and getting a feel for the country. Of course, we still got a chance to go for some nice runs.  Inverness was particularly pleasant.  The River Ness had nice paths on both sides and multiple pedestrian crossings.

Inverness and Loch Ness are famous for the Loch Ness monster of course.  We did the usual stop at the famous Urquhart Castle and drove along the Loch.  it was too sunny and beautiful to even consider a monster. We'd probably not had enough beer and/or whiskey either.  But we did end up heading out towards the Isle of Skye.  The scenery changed and got rougher and wilder looking.  Eerie.  yeah, i could imagine monsters around in those hills and lochs. 

This meant that we stopped at a very famous (and highly photographed) castle Eilean Donan.  It was spectacular both for the setting and the demonstration of obsession.  This was a ruined castle built originally in the 13th century but ruined by the 18th century like so many others but it was rebuilt in the early 20th century. 

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The countryside is beautiful.  Sheep and cows and rolling farmland. And everywhere you look there is ancient history.  Remember this is the are the Romans didn't conquer and walled off from the rest of Britain. I was really interested in seeing some of the Pictish sites.  Pictish?  it means the "painted people" and that's what they were called.  No one knows what they called themselves.  The carved scroll work on this 21 foot tall sandstone block were amazing.  the battle scene on the other side is weathered and no one knows which battle is represented.  And even better, this stone was just off of a road next to some houses.  Off the beaten track for sure!  

And after all that trekking about, it was wonderful to go back to the other draw of the UK.  Pubs!  I had my fill of steak and ale pies and tasty brown ales.  And no I didn't try the haggis.