Inverness

As I mentioned in my last post, my next stop after Edinburgh was the city of Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. The crazy weather I experienced in Edinburgh continued as I got farther north, and then got worse. It snowed almost the entire bus ride to Inverness, and at certain points it was piling up enough on the road that I was starting to think we wouldn't make it to our destination. But other than one questionable moment when the bus had a hard time getting started again at one of the stops, it did just fine, and although we were delayed by about an hour, we finally made it.


My Couchsurfing host met me at the station and brought me to his house, which was very cozy and comfortable, and I had my own room (which has actually been the case in way more of my couchsurfing experiences than I expected). He was a great host, very nice and generous, and he made me dinner every night that I was there, including Haggis, which I think I talked about in my last post. Unfortunately I couldn't stay with him the whole time I was in Inverness because he went to France for the weekend so I moved to a hostel for the next two nights.

One thing my host said when I was first talking to him was that he wasn't sure what I would find to do in Inverness for 4 days, and it turns out he was very right about that. Inverness is smaller than I expected, so I was able to see pretty much everything noteworthy in the city center in one day. My first day of sightseeing I walked into town, went to the tourist office for a map, and then tried to go to the Inverness Museum, but it was closed for a special exhibition. So I checked out the castle (I didn't go in because it's still in use, I think my host said for government business), walked along the river to the Botanic Gardens (which were also smaller than I expected but still cool), stopped at the cathedral (I was the only person inside the whole time I was there, which has never happened to me at a cathedral before), and then went back to the center of the city and just wandered around for a little while before going back to the house.

Inverness Castle

View down to the River Ness from in front of the castle

View down the river

Botanic Garden

Cool plant, called Pitcher Plant

Close-up of a "pitcher"

Another view of the castle

The next day my original plan was to go to Loch Ness, but the weather was so gloomy when I woke up that I decided to wait for another day. So all I did was walk into town and go to the museum, which didn't take too long since the museum was small, but it was cool because it had information about how Scotland was formed and basic history of Scotland up through recent decades. I got pretty wet from the snow/rain/slush that was coming down on my walk there, so I was cold and damp for the rest of my time out and about that day, so after the museum I only wandered around for a little while before I decided to go back to the house and get in bed and get warm. So the rest of that day was spent relaxing and making plans for the coming days.

Day 3, I went to Glenmorangie Whisky Distillery and did a tour. That was fun because even though I've done several brewery tours in the past, I'd never done a tour of a distillery, and I learned many things about whisky that I didn't know before (including that Scotch Whisky is spelled without an "e". The guide led us through the whole process, and we got to see the huge copper stills where the distillation takes place. And then at the end we got to taste some of the whisky. I'm not much of a whisky drinker, but it was more enjoyable than most of the whiskey I've had in the past. I also met two Americans during the tour who were from California but were living in Scotland for 6 months, and they very kindly gave me a ride back to Inverness. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the distillery but I took some of the outside.

Glenmorangie Distillery

Lots of whisky barrels covered in snow. The distillery uses American barrels that have been burned on the inside and have held bourbon already, which contributes to the color and taste.

Some of the distillery buildings

My last full day in Inverness, I did the trip to Loch Ness that I had held off on a few days earlier. I'm really glad I waited because the weather was great the day I went! It was cold but really clear and even sunny at times. I took the bus to a town called Drumnadrochit, and then walked about 2 miles to Urquhart Castle, which is right on the side of the lake. I could have taken the bus directly to the castle, but I thought walking would be nice because I would see more of the countryside. It was a nice walk despite the cold, and the hills were beautiful with the snow on them. The castle was also nice. It was actually just the remains of an old castle that stood on that spot for hundreds of years and was an important location strategically for several battles, until the last group who held it decided to destroy it so that their enemies could not use it. Like I said, the weather was great so I got beautiful views of Loch Ness as well as getting to see the castle. Here are some of my pictures.

View during my walk to the castle

First glimpse of Urquhart Castle from the road

Loch Ness! Sadly no sign of Nessie.

So even though Inverness didn't have a ton going on, I was able to fill my time there well and I definitely enjoyed it. It's a cute little city with a lot to offer in the surrounding areas. Overall my time in Scotland was definitely a success, and I'm very glad I got the chance to go, even though I chose the coldest time of year for it. I'm now in Belfast, Northern Ireland, so my next post will be about that!