Arriving at the Auchnahillin site by Inverness, it turned out to be one of the better private site’s we’ve stayed on, with full facilities and nice big pitches. After settling in we went for a drive over the Kessock Bridge and parked in the Dolphin Centre car park. We took the dogs down some steps to the banks of the Moray Firth in the hope of spotting dolphins or seals, but no luck there, so on the way back to the van we stopped at Harry Ramsden’s drive thru chippy, yes, like McDonald’s but just a chip shop!
It rained so hard in t
he night the awning had a puddle in it! When it finally stopped we went into Inverness for a walk around. First we walked along the Caledonian canal to the Moray Firth, passing a marina and a flight of 4 hu
ge locks on the way. There is also 2 locks and a swing railway bridge where the canal enters the estuary, and we were lucky to find that there was a sailing boat from Germany just coming out of the sea lock, so we watched it for a while navigating through the sea lock, past the swing bridge and into the next set of locks. We carried on our walk along the Firth and came to the mouth of the river Ness, then followed the river into Inverness, past a large industrial harbour and
into the centre of the city where the castle and the cathedral sit on the banks. Further up we walked onto the Ness Islands, a lovely nature reserve/park which is a series of islands linked by foot bridges across the River Ness, it was a very peaceful place to be in the middle of the city, and the only noise we could hear was the rushing water of the Ness. Once we crossed the last footbridge our walk was nearly over as we passed through the sports centre where we were parked, we spotted that they had a café though, so had to go in for a coffee and a bit of yummy carrot cake, just reward after having walked 6.5 miles!
The next day it was a much drier morning. We drove the 8 miles up the road to Culloden Battlefield site, which we had seen signposted off the road as well as in our National Trust book. The battlefield site has a large visitor centre and exhibition, as well as walks around the
battlefield itself. First we went round the exhibition which explained very well the circumstances of the battle (basically, in 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie who was exiled in France managed to convince the French to fight with him to take the English crown. He went to the Scottish Highlands and recruited the clans, or Jacobites, to fight from the North. After numerous successful battles into England the government got 
annoyed with The Jacobites and chased them back to the Highlands, at this point the French were supposed to invade England to distract the government army, but they were late, and the plan failed. It all culminated in a huge battle at Culloden, by Inverness, where the Government forces overwhelmed the Jacobites and put an end to the uprising.) The exhibition includes some excellent sound and vision experiences, one of which is a 360 degree cinema experience of the battle itself, the battle was so graphic in detail that Linda had to stand by the door! After the exhibition we got the dogs and went for a walk around the battlefield, we both had audio tours given to us which are triggered by GPS, so when you walk to certain spots the guide tells you a bit about the history of the site via headphones, very high tech! We easily spent a few hours here and both really enjoyed it.
We’ve also been over the bridge to the Black Isle, we had a few things we wanted to see there and the first stop was the brewery where they offer free tours and tastings. When we got there several cars were already in the car park and a few more arrived before us, it was so busy in the little shop that we decided to come back later. We carried on along the Isle and ended up at the small town of Fortrose, we parked in a small car park which is in front of the ruined
cathedral, so we went for a look round that first. Not much remains of the cathedral (only one small section) so it didn’t take us long to have a walk round the grounds and we were soon heading for the coast. Chanonry Point, a small spit of land which pokes out from Fortrose into the Moray Firth is a famed location for spotting dolphins, so we thought we’d try our luck and headed along the beach. As we got to the end of the beach we sp
otted a crowd of people. We had timed it perfectly, as there was a school of dolphins all headed down the Firth and out to sea, we got down to the beach head just as they were coming within 25metres of the shore and got a really good look at them as they rose up out of the water, someone said they were following mackerel, there was a solitary seal with them, he must have been after the mackerel too! It really made our day, so to top it off we had an ice cream!
Next stop was further along the island at Learnie Forest, Phil had spotted that there were some bike trails there. We parked up and Phil went off on his bike while Linda took the dogs for a walk
. The track is graded blue for a while and has some nice flowing singletrack before you reach the black. Now I thought Laggan was tough, but sections of the Learnie Black were plain loony! One particularly steep, twisty rock staircase had me staring at it for about 10 minutes before I could convince myself to ride it, Great! The ride was finished off with a fun blast down the ‘bike park’ a section of jumps and berms which return you to the car park after about 9 miles of riding. Linda covered nearly 3 miles on her walk up to the viewpoint over the estuary, because the sun was out and the air was clear it was a lovely view down to Chanonry Point where we had been earlier, and across to Fort George.
We made a quick stop off in Rosemarkie to have a quick play on the lovely beach (water was freezing!) and then went back to the Black Isle Brewery, but this time it was a bit quieter, so we had some samples and listened to the lady tell us what a busy day she had!
Off to Loch Ness the next day, so we were up and out early. First stop was a village called Drumnadrochit where, after driving along the Loch for a few miles, we stopped at the tourist information. They gave us a leaflet for some local walks, and we opted to do a 3 mile loop up to a viewpo
int on top of Craigmonie. After a steep climb up through the woods we emerged on top of the rocky outcrop which has stunning views of Loch Ness. We had our lunch on a bench facing the view and we spotted a number of boats on the Loch as well as Nessie swimming about.. We meandered back down off the hill and continued our drive down the Loch. Eventually (it’s a long Loch!) we reached the other end and spotted the canal locks where the Caledonian Can
al continues on it’s way to Fort William, turning onto a B road on the other side of Loch Ness, it was much quieter here, it took us high up above the loch before descending back down and the views of the mountains a
bove The Great Glen were fantastic. We dropped back down to the Loch and into a small hamlet called Foyers, here we saw signs for a walk to a waterfall so we parked up. The falls were very impressive, with the peat coloured water cascading down the slick rocks into the huge pool below. Further down the road we reached a small rocky beach, Prince loved it, and did numerous impressions of a white Loch Ness Monster while retrieving a stick, it was uncanny!
The next day was the Black Isle Show, an agricultural show which is claimed to be the biggest in the Highlands. On arrival we were ushered into one of the many massive car pa
rks they had available, and parked up in the middle of a huge field, already swamped by hundreds of cars. A quick lap of the flower/veg tent proved that it was going to be a busy day as we were barged and prodded by the oldies rushing to get a look at the marrow most shaped like a willy or boob or something! We made our way out and went across to the main ring where the prizes were being dished out to some horses and ponies which Linda knew far more about than Phil.. Then over to the livestock area where we walked amongst the cows, bulls and calves, we had a look at a lot of sheep and then went and patted some very friendly goats. We had a wander through s
ome of the trade stands and looked at some huge new tractors before heading back to the ring. The motorcycle display team were doing their th
ing, so we watched them doing wheelies, fly-by’s, jumping through fire and generally whizzing around seeing how many people they could get on 1 motorbike (10, in the end). Then the police dog handlers came on and gave a great display of well managed dog misbehaviour, with the wound-up-to-fever-pitch German Shepherds running amuck and biting criminals arms off as they ran to get away. Hugely entertaining! We had a bit more of a walk round the trade stands before it was time for the grand parade of livestock, so we got a good position at the side of the arena and watched all the handlers tromping up and down with their cows/bulls/calves/horses/ponies some of which got a bit spirited and did a bit of bucking and/or running off which was fun for us spectators but not so much for the handlers. Then off to the food hall where no dogs were allowed, so Linda went in first and tried samples of cheese, wine, brandy, whisky, oil, some of which she bought. While Phil was waiting outside he got chatting to some crazy fire juggling unicycle riding circus bloke about the delights of dogs and unicycles, so wh
en Linda came out he handed over the mantle and ran inside to do some more tastin
g. He bought a bottle of Whisky and we headed over to the fun fair. The fair was huge, with loads of rides and entertainment. Phil went on one, some rotating, flashing, upside down sort of thing that flung the riders 100ft above the park. Great fun for Phil, who came off it with wobbly legs, and even more fun for Linda who watched him being flung around like being in a giant washing machine, outside, in the air! We went back to the goats for another pat before calling it a day and heading home.
Move day today! After saying bye to our next ‘van neighbours, who were from Dundee and also leaving today, we were on the road. On arrival we drove down the farm track to Mill Farm CL near Dornoch and there was a sign on the gate that told us to beep the horn, we followed instructions and a lady popped out and told us to drive down the track and pitch where we liked! Round the corner was a lovely little field with 5 hard standing pitches each with their own water and electric, and great views down to the sea. Yippee, another little gem!
It rained so hard in t
he night the awning had a puddle in it! When it finally stopped we went into Inverness for a walk around. First we walked along the Caledonian canal to the Moray Firth, passing a marina and a flight of 4 hu
ge locks on the way. There is also 2 locks and a swing railway bridge where the canal enters the estuary, and we were lucky to find that there was a sailing boat from Germany just coming out of the sea lock, so we watched it for a while navigating through the sea lock, past the swing bridge and into the next set of locks. We carried on our walk along the Firth and came to the mouth of the river Ness, then followed the river into Inverness, past a large industrial harbour and
into the centre of the city where the castle and the cathedral sit on the banks. Further up we walked onto the Ness Islands, a lovely nature reserve/park which is a series of islands linked by foot bridges across the River Ness, it was a very peaceful place to be in the middle of the city, and the only noise we could hear was the rushing water of the Ness. Once we crossed the last footbridge our walk was nearly over as we passed through the sports centre where we were parked, we spotted that they had a café though, so had to go in for a coffee and a bit of yummy carrot cake, just reward after having walked 6.5 miles!The next day it was a much drier morning. We drove the 8 miles up the road to Culloden Battlefield site, which we had seen signposted off the road as well as in our National Trust book. The battlefield site has a large visitor centre and exhibition, as well as walks around the
battlefield itself. First we went round the exhibition which explained very well the circumstances of the battle (basically, in 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie who was exiled in France managed to convince the French to fight with him to take the English crown. He went to the Scottish Highlands and recruited the clans, or Jacobites, to fight from the North. After numerous successful battles into England the government got 
annoyed with The Jacobites and chased them back to the Highlands, at this point the French were supposed to invade England to distract the government army, but they were late, and the plan failed. It all culminated in a huge battle at Culloden, by Inverness, where the Government forces overwhelmed the Jacobites and put an end to the uprising.) The exhibition includes some excellent sound and vision experiences, one of which is a 360 degree cinema experience of the battle itself, the battle was so graphic in detail that Linda had to stand by the door! After the exhibition we got the dogs and went for a walk around the battlefield, we both had audio tours given to us which are triggered by GPS, so when you walk to certain spots the guide tells you a bit about the history of the site via headphones, very high tech! We easily spent a few hours here and both really enjoyed it.We’ve also been over the bridge to the Black Isle, we had a few things we wanted to see there and the first stop was the brewery where they offer free tours and tastings. When we got there several cars were already in the car park and a few more arrived before us, it was so busy in the little shop that we decided to come back later. We carried on along the Isle and ended up at the small town of Fortrose, we parked in a small car park which is in front of the ruined
cathedral, so we went for a look round that first. Not much remains of the cathedral (only one small section) so it didn’t take us long to have a walk round the grounds and we were soon heading for the coast. Chanonry Point, a small spit of land which pokes out from Fortrose into the Moray Firth is a famed location for spotting dolphins, so we thought we’d try our luck and headed along the beach. As we got to the end of the beach we sp
otted a crowd of people. We had timed it perfectly, as there was a school of dolphins all headed down the Firth and out to sea, we got down to the beach head just as they were coming within 25metres of the shore and got a really good look at them as they rose up out of the water, someone said they were following mackerel, there was a solitary seal with them, he must have been after the mackerel too! It really made our day, so to top it off we had an ice cream!Next stop was further along the island at Learnie Forest, Phil had spotted that there were some bike trails there. We parked up and Phil went off on his bike while Linda took the dogs for a walk
. The track is graded blue for a while and has some nice flowing singletrack before you reach the black. Now I thought Laggan was tough, but sections of the Learnie Black were plain loony! One particularly steep, twisty rock staircase had me staring at it for about 10 minutes before I could convince myself to ride it, Great! The ride was finished off with a fun blast down the ‘bike park’ a section of jumps and berms which return you to the car park after about 9 miles of riding. Linda covered nearly 3 miles on her walk up to the viewpoint over the estuary, because the sun was out and the air was clear it was a lovely view down to Chanonry Point where we had been earlier, and across to Fort George.We made a quick stop off in Rosemarkie to have a quick play on the lovely beach (water was freezing!) and then went back to the Black Isle Brewery, but this time it was a bit quieter, so we had some samples and listened to the lady tell us what a busy day she had!
Off to Loch Ness the next day, so we were up and out early. First stop was a village called Drumnadrochit where, after driving along the Loch for a few miles, we stopped at the tourist information. They gave us a leaflet for some local walks, and we opted to do a 3 mile loop up to a viewpo
int on top of Craigmonie. After a steep climb up through the woods we emerged on top of the rocky outcrop which has stunning views of Loch Ness. We had our lunch on a bench facing the view and we spotted a number of boats on the Loch as well as Nessie swimming about.. We meandered back down off the hill and continued our drive down the Loch. Eventually (it’s a long Loch!) we reached the other end and spotted the canal locks where the Caledonian Can
al continues on it’s way to Fort William, turning onto a B road on the other side of Loch Ness, it was much quieter here, it took us high up above the loch before descending back down and the views of the mountains a
bove The Great Glen were fantastic. We dropped back down to the Loch and into a small hamlet called Foyers, here we saw signs for a walk to a waterfall so we parked up. The falls were very impressive, with the peat coloured water cascading down the slick rocks into the huge pool below. Further down the road we reached a small rocky beach, Prince loved it, and did numerous impressions of a white Loch Ness Monster while retrieving a stick, it was uncanny!The next day was the Black Isle Show, an agricultural show which is claimed to be the biggest in the Highlands. On arrival we were ushered into one of the many massive car pa
rks they had available, and parked up in the middle of a huge field, already swamped by hundreds of cars. A quick lap of the flower/veg tent proved that it was going to be a busy day as we were barged and prodded by the oldies rushing to get a look at the marrow most shaped like a willy or boob or something! We made our way out and went across to the main ring where the prizes were being dished out to some horses and ponies which Linda knew far more about than Phil.. Then over to the livestock area where we walked amongst the cows, bulls and calves, we had a look at a lot of sheep and then went and patted some very friendly goats. We had a wander through s
ome of the trade stands and looked at some huge new tractors before heading back to the ring. The motorcycle display team were doing their th
ing, so we watched them doing wheelies, fly-by’s, jumping through fire and generally whizzing around seeing how many people they could get on 1 motorbike (10, in the end). Then the police dog handlers came on and gave a great display of well managed dog misbehaviour, with the wound-up-to-fever-pitch German Shepherds running amuck and biting criminals arms off as they ran to get away. Hugely entertaining! We had a bit more of a walk round the trade stands before it was time for the grand parade of livestock, so we got a good position at the side of the arena and watched all the handlers tromping up and down with their cows/bulls/calves/horses/ponies some of which got a bit spirited and did a bit of bucking and/or running off which was fun for us spectators but not so much for the handlers. Then off to the food hall where no dogs were allowed, so Linda went in first and tried samples of cheese, wine, brandy, whisky, oil, some of which she bought. While Phil was waiting outside he got chatting to some crazy fire juggling unicycle riding circus bloke about the delights of dogs and unicycles, so wh
en Linda came out he handed over the mantle and ran inside to do some more tastin
g. He bought a bottle of Whisky and we headed over to the fun fair. The fair was huge, with loads of rides and entertainment. Phil went on one, some rotating, flashing, upside down sort of thing that flung the riders 100ft above the park. Great fun for Phil, who came off it with wobbly legs, and even more fun for Linda who watched him being flung around like being in a giant washing machine, outside, in the air! We went back to the goats for another pat before calling it a day and heading home.Move day today! After saying bye to our next ‘van neighbours, who were from Dundee and also leaving today, we were on the road. On arrival we drove down the farm track to Mill Farm CL near Dornoch and there was a sign on the gate that told us to beep the horn, we followed instructions and a lady popped out and told us to drive down the track and pitch where we liked! Round the corner was a lovely little field with 5 hard standing pitches each with their own water and electric, and great views down to the sea. Yippee, another little gem!
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