Location: Inverness, Scotland

Meag: Over breakfast we discussed all the things we want to do and strolled over to the visitor information centre to check out our options. We looked at a few different day trips but figured we might be better off renting a car and doing it all ourselves. So that’s what we did!

Sebastian, the Polish man with an Irish accent who worked at the car rental place, was quite a character. I asked him for advice on driving in Scotland and he basically just said “Follow the other cars and you’ll be fine, lass.” Surprisingly that was useful! After some initial nerves about driving a standard on the other side of the road (which means shifting with your left hand – obvious if you think about it but still took some getting used to), we were off and all was well. I did go the wrong way within about five minutes but hey, what can ya do.

Sav: there was quite a few occasions where I’d say go left, Siri would say go left… aaand Meag would go right. It was hilarious and we never had any real problems but it was certainly an adventure.

We decided that we wanted to do a few things that were in the opposite direction of our next destination, so we headed over to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Driving along Loch Ness and singing loudly to Taylor Swift was like a dream come true. The lake was absolutely breathtaking, its moody dark blue colour with the surrounding highlands landscape are clearly famous for a reason. And even though the biologist in me knows it’s not real, I still kept my eyes on the water for the flick of a tail or the bob of a monster head. The myth came from someone seeing something!

Meag: We drove along the winding roads beside Loch Ness to the castle. It’s an old castle now in ruins with beautiful views up and down the Loch. The first thing you do upon arrival is watch a video summarizing its long history. It played an important role in Scottish history so it was great to get this context before we checked out the castle itself. At the end of the movie, the screen rose up and the curtains drew back to reveal a huge window looking right out over the castle. It was great way to see it for the first time!

We walked in the ruins, climbed the towers and were nearly blown off our feet a few times with the wind. It never gets old to look out over a landscape and imagine all the things that have happened there and all the people who have been there before.

Sav: that same feeling carried over to our next stop: Culloden Moor. This is the site of a huge battle between the English and the Jacobite army. The Jacobites aim was to restore a Stuart King to the throne, and they fought hard and won a lot of battles… until Culloden. It was amazing but also hard to think about all the eyes that have looked out over this place, and all the men that have died there. 700 Jacobites died in the first 2 minutes of battle, and another 800 within the hour.

We walked around the battlefield and found a lot of clan head stones- including for clan Fraser, one I was particularly interested in seeing. We didn’t speak a lot, but instead fell into a knowing silence that we often do when visiting a place like this.

M: By this point in the day I had mostly gotten the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road, but still had to remind myself out loud which lane to go into when turning. One issue we didn’t foresee with driving was parking, or lack thereof. We probably spent the better part of an hour driving around town, checking out all sorts of side streets and parking garages looking for a suitable overnight place to leave the car. Fed up and hungry, we pulled into an awkward little spot below our hostel so Sav could go get advice. In the end we found a spot on a side road where we parallel parked the car. Now now I know you’re thinking “Meaghan, why are you talking about parking the heckin’ car?? It’s not rocket science!” I beg to differ. I don’t think I have parallel parked ONCE since my driving test so this was quite a feat (thank you for all your help on this one, Sav).

Sav: I literally stood outside the car with my hands on the bumper yelling through the open window to keep going or stop or whatever. It was probably pretty funny to watch. (I just realized I wrote that with a huge smile on my face so I guess I can confirm it was funny.)

We went for dinner at the restaurant next to our hostel, and ended up asking the waiter for suggestions on what to do for the evening. What he recommended ended up being this beautiful little walk along the River Ness, through huge twisted trees strung with fairy lights and dotted with old-timey lamp posts. A series of small islands connected by cute white bridges eventually led across the river. We walked back home and all said and done it was over an hour we had been gone, but such a lovely way to spend the evening. (Thanks waiter!)

Big plans ahead, stay tuned!

S&M

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