May 21st - today was a moving day - about 105 miles from Aberlour to Embo near Dornoch and we've landed on Grannie's Heilan Hame campsite! We started our journey in lovely warm sunshine but as we neared our destination the skies darkened and the wind howled but we did manage to get mostly set up before the deluge started!
We chose the mostly A9 route and that took us over 3 long bridges - the first being the Kessock Bridge over the Moray Firth, next came The Cromarty Bridge which crosses the Cromarty Firth and last was The Dornoch Firth Bridge over the Dornoch Firth.
And there isn't much more to say about today! Luckily the rain soon stopped but the wind continued to blow and it was cold. We did venture out for a short walk to check out the site's amenities and we had a brief gander over the dunes at the sea but we were soon back in our snug little home from home!
May 22nd - up to now we've been away for 2 and a half weeks and not suffered from any rainy days! However, if the weatherman is right that is about to change cos he says it'll rain for most of the afternoon today and for nearly all of tomorrow so that might have to be a duvet day!
Today we needed shopping and to try and make the most of the dry but cloudy morning we decided to head into Tain to have a walk along the Plaides path that boarders the Dornoch Firth and it was there that we learnt about The Fairies of Gizzen Briggs! An info board told us that if we looked out to sea we might spot the fairies but as we had forgotten our binoculars we couldn't quite see them.
The story begins with the Chief of the Mackays wanting to build a bridge to shorten the journey he had to make from Tain to Dornoch to meet his sweetheart ❤️. The local witch told him to consult Skian Beg who was the wise woman of Tarbat so he sent his clansman Angus to her and she agreed to help by giving him a box of fairies 🧚♂️, but with a warning not to open the box. Of course Angus did and the huge group of fairies escaped and demand that Angus gave them some work. Angus ordered the fairies 🧚♂️ to build a bridge out of sand over the Dornoch Firth and they obediently set about the task but when the tide came in their efforts were ruined. They begun again but it was in vain because the tide came in again as it does twice a day. The story goes on to say that they still work on the bridge all these years later so maybe if the day had been clearer or the tide had been lower we might have got lucky! It seems there are breakers between Tain and Dornoch known as The Gizzen Briggs and it is here that the fairies are always trying to build their bridge. When the tide comes in and the waves crash people say 'how loud are the Gizzen Briggs' but the noise is really the fairies lamenting that their work has been spoilt again!
Our walk took us across The Alexanda Suspension Bridge which was a bit rickety to say the least, and then out beside the Dornoch Firth where we watched loads of oyster catches swooping and squawking as they did low fly byes but luckily they didn't drop any bombs!
We finished our outing with a big Lidl shop and just made it back to the van as the rain 🌧 started - it seems The weatherman was 50% right after all.
May 23rd and 24th - well, the weatherman was wrong about the 23rd! It had howled it down all night and the wind had roared and rocked the van, and although the blustery conditions persisted not a drop more rain fell. The 24th started dull but as we didn't go out till lunch time we got the best of the day as the sun eventually broke through.
And these 2 days are really a tale of 2 castles 🏰. The 23rds castle was just a derelict neglected ruin that from a distance looked like a row of jagged rotting teeth! Skelbo Castle sits on top of a hill with magnificent views out over Loch Fleet which today looked quite dark and moody. To get to it we'd walked about 3 miles through the Coul Links along gorse laden tracks with distant views out to sea Links is a Scottish word for coastal grassy sand dune areas and our path followed the western edge of the former Dornoch Light Railway which ran from the head of Loch Fleet carrying golfers and tourists to Dornoch. The path is now part of the 147 mile John O'Groats trail which connects Inverness to the northernmost mainland settlement in the UK.
The 24th's castle was the very picturesque Dunrobin Castle at Golspie that has been lovingly restored and extended and is the most northerly of Scotland's great houses. It is also the largest castle in the Highlands with 189 rooms and one of Britain's oldest continuously inhabited castles dating in part from the early 1300's.
We paid our entrance fee (£12.50 senior rate) and went on to explore the castle's magnificent interior which was festooned with portraits, beautiful furnishings from a bygone era and loads of ornamental parafinalea that were set out in rooms as they would have been when the early Sutherlands inhabited the castle.
Then we nipped down into the grounds to watch the falconry display and that was where Amigo the hawk and Robin the peregrine falcon entertained us. The expert falconer provided huge amounts of very interesting facts about both but his main point was to explain that while hawks will hunt in groups falcons are solo artists who rely on speed. They gain great heights before they strike and on their downward plunge they have been recorded at reaching speeds in excess of 200 mph 😮 and killing thir prey with the initial collision 💥 of their talons.
Next we explored the formal gardens which were already very beautiful but it was easy to see that they would become more so as the summer season progressed.
Then came the museum with its huge collection of animal trophies, antlers, taxidermy of numerous birds, pictish stones and all sorts of other memorabilia. We then finished off our visit by indulging in coffee and delicious cake in the tearoom.
After all that all that was left was the drive home but on the way we stopped beside Loch Fleet were we spied numerous seals basking on the sandbanks. Apparently most of them are harbour seals who give birth to one pup in June. The info boards told us that the pups are able to swim on the next tide after being born and that their Mum's will nurse them for 3 to 5 weeks on milk that contains 40% fat! Apparently that is about twice as much as in a Capaldi ice cream 🍦 or a McDonald's milkshake 🥛 .
While we were there we also spotted an Osprey doing several fly-bys! It was a wonderful sight to see but he was far to fast to catch on camera 📷 !
May 25th - today turned out to be another lovely sunny day and for our entertainment John had decided on a drive which turned out to be quite a loooooong one (115 miles). we left the campsite and headed along the A9 beside the Cromarty Firth and eventually crossed over the water to enter the 'Black Isles. At that point we were striking out for an RSPB site at Udale Bay but when we got there there wasn't a lot to see other than lots of oystercatchers. Maybe that was because the area is a very common place for ground nesting birds to lay there eggs. The other thing we did see in the Firth were the oil rigs!
From there we traversed along the opposite side off Cromarty Firth with the sparkling water on one side and bright yellow gorse clad banks on the other until we eventually reached the settlement of Cromarty itself - a town we could both recall from listening to the shipping forecasts on the radio when we were nippers! We then took ourselves off on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to get to the 'Sutors of Cromarty' but when we arrived it was inaccessible and the road was so narrow and potholed it was a bit of a scary ride😨!
Next came the much more peaceful shores of Rosemarkie where we enjoyed our lunch and from there we walked to Chanonry Point to see if we could spot the dolphins 🐬 who regularly feed in the waters there. Apparently it's one of the best places in the world to spot dolphins from the shore - and we did quite a few times but only fleetingly. The info boards told us that the spit of sand and gravel running out into the Inverness Firth often results in them being only metres from the shore as they play and fish in the strong tides.
From there we started our trek home but our final treat was a couple of sightings of ospreys flying quite low over the road.
May 26th - Well the weatherman's been telling us fibs again! He said today was going to be fine but it was a damp squib right from the start so we didn't go out until 2ish and even then it was in fine drizzle.
As it was late in the day we just headed around Loch Fleet to explore part of Loch Fleet Nature Reserve where we'd been told 2 pairs of Ospreys nest. Apparently the same ospreys return to Loch Fleet every year following their 3000 mile migration from Africa because the Loch supplies them with a plentiful supply of fish and the tall Scots Pines provide the right habitat for nesting. However, our luck was out today because we saw neither the Ospreys or there nests but when we ventured into the hide there were plenty of shell ducks, curlews, oystercatcher and eider ducks on show.
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| No Osprey but this little chap followed us for a while on the path. |
We only stayed out for a couple of hours because tomorrow is another moving day and as we need to catch a ferry over to Orkney we need to set off from here quite early. Therefore once we were 'home' we got as ready as we could for the get go in the morning.
Bye for now and next time (and the time after) will be from the most northerly Scottish islands 🏝 .
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