Strathpeffer and Loch Ness, Scotland September 27, 2026

We arrived in the small town of Strathpeffer in the northern Highlands yesterday evening. We are staying two nights in a very unique hotel. It was built in 1879 in the Victorian style. Our room is on the third floor, down a side hallway with slanted ceilings. My guess it was originally a servant's room. Everything is old, but functional and quaint. 

This morning we are doing a driving tour deep into the northern Highlands which many people never see. 

We did a quick photo stop overlooking Dornoch Firth. Firth is Scottish for estuary.

 There is heather growing all over this area, however its at the end of its flowering season. You can still see a little bit of purple in the picture. 

A shop yesterday had it growing in a planter 

We stopped at the Falls of Shin, a waterfall site popular for watching salmon jump during spawning. It's the end of spawning season so no fish, and the falls are more rapids than waterfall. It was still pretty. 

I've been on the hunt for Highland cows since we arrived in Scotland. I've seen a few from the bus, but didn't get a picture. There are not very many, way more sheep! Today I got a picture of this guy. I'll keep looking!

I did find a shortbread cow, though. 🤣

We continued north and west across the very top of Scotland. Its a beautiful and remote area, although there are some small villages and sheep farms. This far north in the Highlands brought us to the Mountains

of Assynt.

A little tree growing on a little island in a little loch

Everything is so green because it often rains here

Across the mountains was the Atlantic Ocean. 

As you can see, its very cloudy today with off and on drizzle.  We have been so fortunate with beautiful weather until today. I honestly thought it would rain much more. We'll see what Ireland has in store for us in two days.

This afternoon we went on a Loch Ness adventure. We started out stopping at Urquhart Castle ruins. This is where we boarded the boat for the Loch Ness tour. We had to rush to catch the boat, so just a picture of the ruins. No time to watch the movie in the visitor center or look around. I'm not even sure what it was all about. 

Picture from the web as mine didn't turn out

We boarded the boat for the shortest boat tour we've ever been on, 20 minutes. It was raining, so we sat inside. There was narration, but people were talking so loud, I heard very little. The windows were wet so no pictures. 

Loch Ness from the bus

Loch Ness from the bus 

The boat we went on 

Then we went to a nearby hotel for the Nessie Experience. It was a video presentation explaining the history of the monster. It was well done and interesting. We had an included good dinner at the hotel.

This was one of the optional tours and cost just under $140 each. It's the first thing we've done on this trip that was a disappointment. I guess you can't win them all!

On the way back to the hotel, we drove through Inverness. This is Macbeth's castle built in the 1800s. So, relatvely new by Scottish standards 🤣