Exploring Speyside

Today we set out explore Speyside...famous as the home for many Scotch Whisky distilleries...but somehow we didn't stop at one. We set from Inverness heading east avoiding the major roads...eventually finding ourselves at the late 14th century Cawdor Castle. We stopped off their to tour inside the castle, have lunch and to wander the gardens.

Cawdor Castle and gardens

After the castle, we left heading in a south-easterly direction. This brought us up over the moor and into the Cairngorm National Park on the west side Aviemore. We drove up the road to the top as far as Loch Morlich before turning back...it was late in the afternoon and the railway to the top had finished for the day so there was no point in going any further.

Crossing the moor

Looking across Loch Morlich to Cairngorm Mountain

Taking advantage of the long days this far north, we didn't head straight back to Inverness. Instead we drove through Grantown-on-Spey to Nairn on the coast of the Moray Firth. The idea was to have some dinner there before heading into Inverness...but we got there to find that it had been Highland Games day in Nairn and it looked like it was going to be Carnival Night. It was quite hectic with people everywhere with the traffic coming in from Inverness queued for miles. We decided that trying to buy dinner there was not such a great idea and headed back into Inverness instead.