Today marks the turning point in our road trip around England and Scotland - the day we start heading back to York to return the car. Mind you, we are not rushing back as we don't have to be there until next Tuesday but still, we are generally heading in that direction.
By the time we had breakfast and packed the car, the early morning fog had lifted and the sun was shining. Lairg was a good choice for a base for the past few days. The B&B was really nice and it was possible to get to all the parts of northern Scotland that we wanted to (even if the driving times were a bit longer that I had expected). We set off in the direction of Inverness, this time taking a more direct route than the one we took to get to Lairg. Last time through Inverness we took a quick look around and weren't all that inspired by the place. We did the same again but this time went to a different part of town. What we found was much more interesting and definitely put Inverness on the list of places to stay in if we are ever back this way.
Our destination for the next two nights is Stonehaven which is on the east coast a little way south of Aberdeen. We had a choice of routes and selected one that would take us through part of the Cairngorms and back into Speyside and to Glenlivet - locality and distillery. Well, you can't go to Scotland without visiting at least one distillery and seeing I missed out on Talisker, I had to find another one. Even though they were in their maintenance period, we had a very nice tour around the distillery before being to the tasting room. On offer were 12 Year Old, 18 Year Old and Nadurra, a single malt that has not been chilled filtered. The only problem was that you could only try one each. Seeing as there is a bottle of 12 Year Old at home, Anita and I shared the 18 Year Old and the Nadurra. Both were very nice but it will probably be the only time we get to taste Nadurra as I doubt if it has been exported to Australia.
After having a late lunch in the cafe at The Glenlivet, we visited the nearby ruins of Drumin Castle. After that, it was time we made our way to Stonehaven going through places suchs as Dufftown, Bridgend, Lumsden, Muir of Fowlis and Crossroads along the way. It was a pleasant drive with even the backroads being wide enough to have a centre line - quite a change from the single track roads of Skye and the Highlands.We arrived in Stonehaven a little after 5 o'clock and settled into our B&B, Twentyfourshorehead, which is located on the quayside of Stonehaven Harbour. From our B&B it was only a short walk along the quay to The Marine Hotel where we had a very nice dinner.
Not a lot remains of Drumin Castle
The view from our B&B window
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