Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 7

Today (09/04/2026), we were leaving Isle of Skye and going to Inverness to see Loch Ness and some sights in the area.

Our hostess (Yvonne) made us a breakfast of porridge and the vegan haggis she'd made the previous day. Rob (her husband) asked if we would like to try out a Scottish tradition - adding a small amount of whisky to the porridge. We said OK and he brought the porridge with a small amount of whisky floating on top! Honestly, it didn't taste very different but we could smell the alcohol-iness in the first few spoons.

Rob is quite talkative and loves to talk about politics, the state of the world, travel, and many other topics, so we spent almost 45 min during breakfast talking about US and UK politics, immigration, travel hot spots and tips and more. It was a very interesting conversation. He's also got very progressive views so our bandwidths matched and we didn't find the conversation boring.

Sahana had already finished all the packing, so we were ready to leave after breakfast. We were looking for a farm where we could pet and/or feed the Highland cows (or coos!). Rob told us about one farm nearby that we could go to and he also suggested another small town called Plockton a bit further on that was reputed to be very scenic.

We said goodbye to our gracious hosts and loaded up the car. We set off to pick up Rashmi and then went to The Wee Greek Baker which was almost next door to the Airbnb. This is a fully plant-based bakery that I'd discovered during my research and I didn't want to leave Skye without buying something from there. But, we were feeling very full after breakfast, so we just got some stuff packed for eating later in the day or the next day.

We looked for the farm where we could pet/feed the cows but couldn't find it. Instead, we found a different hotel/farmhouse where we could potentially do it but due to the wet weather that we'd had the previous night and the very overcast sky, they said that the cows would not be coming out and would be under some trees, so we couldn't see them today. Disappointed, we headed back out and proceeded to go to Plockton.

Plockton is a very small town on the water and I think it has only one small, narrow road running through it. We managed to find some street parking and walked around for a while, taking some pics and just generally enjoying the small town feeling.

From Plockton, we found our way back to the highway and drove to our next stop, Fort Augustus. Remember the locks that we visited near Fort William a few days back? Here in Ft Augustus, there is another set of locks on the same Caledonian Canal. There wasn't much to see here, so we just saw the locks. Since no boats were waiting to pass through them, the gates and the locks weren't going to be operating, so we just visited the gift shop, purchased a few things and started driving towards Urquhart Castle, our next destination.

When we reached Urquhart Castle, there were several cars waiting to enter the parking lot and we were a bit worried that the parking may be full. Sure enough, when we approached the entrance, we were told that unless we had already got tickets and also purchased parking, they could not accommodate us. This was a bit of a shock because a) we hadn't expected the castle to be so crowded and b) I don't know why I didn't plan ahead and do the booking like I'd done for the other places.

Anyway, we had to hastily decide what to do next, so we decided to go to a place called Clava Cairns which is a group of Bronze Age burial chambers. The Bronze Age means a time period around 4000 years ago (around 2000 BC), so this is seriously old! Three of the burial chambers are in the form of stacked rocks in a circular formation either with or without an entrance. There probably used to be a roof covering them at one time but currently, there was no roof for them. Some of the rocks had art or symbols on them. The whole place reminded me of Stonehenge but on a smaller scale. It was an interesting place but it was also very cold and windy, so we were happy to get back in our car and to the next stop, Culloden Battlefield.

Culloden Battliefield is the site of a bloody battle between an army of Scots that were called Jacobites and the English for control of Scotland. The Jacobites lost decisively, just for the record! Anyway, it was close to 5pm when the ticket booth closed, so we decided to just view the battlefield from a distance. We could still enter the main viewing areas but it was getting even windier and colder, so it was getting difficult to walk a few paces while staying balanced! We stayed for only about 15 min and decided to head to Inverness and rest for the day.

By the time we reached Inverness, the weather had actually improved. It was a bit early for dinner so we decided to walk around Inverness downtown and along the Ness River. Rashmi had stayed for a couple of days earlier in Inverness so she knew her way about some of the roads there, so she was our guide as we talked and looked at the various sights in the city. After spending about 45 min, we decided to go and have dinner at a food court inside a mini-mall/marketplace. We found a vegan place called Salt'n'Fire and ordered a falafel wrap, pita+hummus and one more item. Rashmi ordered a veggie burger from some other place. Food was delicious and we just talked and ate and listened to some very, very loud live music which drowned out all conversation!

We dropped Rashmi off in her hostel and then went to our hotel to check in and retire for the night.