Just got back from a fantastic weekend in the Scottish Highlands!

With my trusty purple hand luggage, I headed for the airport and had coffee and planned some posts.

It was a last minute trip as my Mum was up there after travelling for 2 weeks in a campervan as support for 3 cyclists going from Land’s End to John O’Groats. I got to see them finish their mammoth journey which was was a great way to start my weekend. Well done Neil, Emma and Liam!

We stayed at a lovely hotel on the coast at Melvich called the Melvich Hotel. The room was lovely, although we didn’t stay there very much. The restaurant had amazing views of Melvich Beach, which we walked down to one day.

There was also the hotel cat that followed us up to the view point one evening.

The food was amazing! We started the first night with a mini venison kebab and local crab.

 

The I had the special venison burger with goats cheese – Delicious!

The second night we skipped the starter and I had the venison pie – again so good!

We the shared the chocolate brownie with cherries and peanut butter ice cream – I was in heaven! (I was so enrapted I forgot to take a photo!)

We also tried the local Caorunn Gin and tonic with a slice of apple (both nights) and now I’m on a mission to get some back home. It was sweeter than normal gin and the apple added something special!

During the days we worked our way along the northern coast of Scotland. We stopped first at John O’Groats.

 

Then went the Castle of Mey, where the Queen Mother used to live and had an amazing lunch of roasted vegetables and goat’s cheese in a jacket potato – I’ve take a liking to goats cheese recently. We also wandered through the Walled Garden and it was beautiful.

We also went to Dunnet Head – The most northerly point of the UK mainland.

The next day we wandered (in the car) all the way along the north coast. We stopped multiple times just for the views.
We took a peek at Smoo Cave.

We then found Cocoa Mountain and had the best hot chocolate ever! Also I loved the mugs and will be seeking them out when I get my own place.

Mum and I couldn’t figure out the best way to drink it was it was so hot and the mugs had no handles!

We then made our way back to Inverness with many view stops through past Loch Shin and a waterfall.

  

In Inverness we found a lovely pizza restaurant where we were told they through the their pizza dough, but no pizza dough throwing was seen. Great pizza though!

We also wandered up to Inverness Castle and then felt we had done Inverness, which was good as we woke up the next day and it was pouring with rain. We still headed out in the car down to Loch Ness to a bit of Nessie spotting. We saw him several times in a few different guises.

We visited the Urquhart Castle.

Then took the scenic route back up to Inverness to following a lovely route without buses and campervans. Plus a fantastic find of a beautiful waterfall at Foyers.

Then back to the airport to fly home. A fantastic last minute wandering – everyone should visit the Scottish Highlands!