'Pay & Display' free day!

Today we headed to Urquhart Castle from Fort William but first we made a pit stop to Costa Coffee for a caffeine hit and some breakfast.

We arrived at Urquhart Castle, just in time for our booked entry time.  It was actually free parking which was very surprising as the motto here in the UK is 'Pay & Display' so we have a chuckle every time.

You firstly walk into the gift shop/cafe and from here read about some of the history of the castle and some of its inhabitants.  We are then ushered into a theatre to view a 10 min re-enactment of the history of the castle.  The final scene is of the last owners of the castle (Clan Grant) and as they were about to be over run they filled the gate house with barrels of gun powder, lit the fuse and left. This was done as a sort of "if I can't have it, then neither can you." And as the 'film' finished the screen is raised and the curtains opened to reveal what the castle ruins look like today.  They were never rebuilt.  Urquhart Castle sits on the western edge of Loch Ness.  Would you believe, that we didn't find Nessie?

We spent about an hour and a half walking through the ruins.  We had great weather walking through - beautiful and sunny weather with a slightly cool breeze.  Another day of lovely scenery at every turn.  

We then travelled up the road to the town of Drumnadrochit in Glen Urquhart. Here we had some lunch and a walk around.  Managed to get some more free parking.  We had some lunch at the cafe with lovely background music of the bagpipes and the weather started to get a little drizzly.  We had a look at some local shops.

Claire finally bought a hairy coo (for Poppy) and the odd lady in the shop gave her a tip to a farm up the road where you could see a Hairy Coo.  So of course we jumped at the chance and even better when we realised we could have homemade scones with jam and cream with a side of patting and feeding the coos. Better yet, free parking again, just to the right of the washing line. This was a local working farm and the cafe is part of the family house.  The staff they have working are travellers with literally no hospitality skills at all but happy to have a day of earning a few bucks and they do a great job.

We met the family of cows, a bully of a big brother who was literally a garbage guts and hogged all the snacks us tourists were trying to feed the coos.  They had also had a new calf born 4 days prior and still yet to be named.

Carrie finally got her scones with jam and cream.  They were well worth the wait and were delicious.

We then headed onto Inverness (the capital of the highlands).  This is the first time in the last 2 weeks that we've come across some stupid driving (of others) and very surprised no accidents occurred.  

We've arrived to our hotel which is a gorgeous very old hotel which first opened in 1856 and has this grand staircase (resembles the one from the Titanic) in the foyer.  The hotel is literally right next to the train station. We managed to do some fancy reverse parking into a very tight parking space (the last left at the hotel), and better yet, it was free again.  Shh don't tell anyone. We went for a walk around the town, planned the rest of our stay in Inverness (tours etc) and of course stopped in a pub for an obligatory beer and cider and then went and grabbed some dinner.