Inverness

I drove into the city centre in Inverness. After parking the car, I had a wander. Walked over the bridge, admiring Inverness castle while doing so. After getting a local map from the information centre, I popped into a market to look at the shop stands. I found a neat embroidery shop. Now, I've never been one for sewing, but they had all kinds of animal designs in the windows and I had to look. I fell in love with the designs. Thought, how hard could it be? Doing cross-stitching or embroidery? After looking at many patterns, I chose a smaller one. A bookmark kit of the Scottish thistle. Perfect! A new hobby to look forward to.
After walking up and down the streets, I decided to watch a film at the cinema. The Disney film, Brave, propaganda was everywhere and figured that if I was going to watch it, it should be seen here in Scotland. Plus, it would be a nice change of pace.
The cinema was just outside of town where all the outlet stores where. It was a great film... however, I do love my cartoons.
After grabbing some lunch, I drove along Loch Ness to Drumnadrochit. It was a small village with a few tourist attractions like The Loch Ness Centre & Exhibition. I decided to go through this Nessie Centre as it had a more scientific approach to the myth.
Starting with the birth of the Loch Ness from the ice age, to environmental fingerprints (by man and nature) in and around the loch, modern day history, explorations and phenomena's that surround it. Lasers and special effects are used creating attractive displays.
Original research equipment, an underwater suit worn for an underwater walk in the loch, sonar survey vessels and submarines, original film footage and photographs were all a part of the exhibition. I learned about hoaxes and optical illusions to truths and findings of the navigation of the loch.
One of the film footages I liked was of a sonar tracking of the Loch Ness. Numerous boats all out within certain distances of one another, leaving no space unscanned, searching and documenting the underwater floor. I large image appeared on one of the sonar screens on the boat and soon disappeared. When they back tracked to find it again, they couldn't. If it was driftwood, or rocks, anything inanimate, they should have had no trouble relocating it. But they never could find it again. Question as to it being a large school of fish was pondered. But thought that the image was too large to be so. More mystery!
It was interesting seeing how folklore and science could come together, still leaving you wondering... is the monster real? Could it have been possible for a creature to survive with all the food and space available in that huge abyss? Even with science, there was no disproof... albeit no proof either. Just more questions. Gotta love it. Overall, I thought it was a great exhibit and was very glad I chose this attraction to visit.
After the exhibition, I checked out the shops in the village and then pitched my tent at Borlum Farm Camping Park. There were many horses for trail rides here. And sheep. I think the sheep were on the tent pitch area eating the grass at some point because the ground smelt a bit of dung. Wasn't unbearable, but not the nicest. At least there was no mess to step in at night. It had all seeped into the soil. A shower in the morning would help refresh from the night anyway.
The next day I went to visit Urquhart Castle. The ruin was very picturesque, sitting atop a bank over the Loch Ness with the sun rays peeking through the clouds.
I started the visit with a short film they have to give you a brief history of the castle. The fortress was battled over time and time again. It fell into English hands after Edward I's invasion in 1296, then the Scot's reclaimed it, only to loose it again. Then, during the War of Independence, Robert the Bruce claimed it once he was King of the Scots. After he died, it was the only Highland Castle that held out against the English.
From there, after things calmed down with the English, battles between the clans to get the stronghold occurred. Mostly the MacDonald Clan coming in from the west to battle for more power.  Back and forth for 150 years, the castle was claimed and reclaimed again between clans. Eventually in 1692, the tower was blown up to prevent it from becoming a military stronghold. Very bloody battles on this land. So much history.
After the film, I went into a room that had some of the old armoury I could try on. That chainmail is really heavy!! I only put the head piece on. I could barely hold up the body chainmail. Same with the sword and shield. Pretty solid stuff. To walk around in all that gear, and need to move and fight with it... wow. Strong warriors! I couldn't even pull the string back on the bow they had. Lol.
There were also artifacts displayed that were found around the castle site. Jewelry, working tools, etc.

Once outside, there was a large catapult (called a trebuchet siege engine),  the gatehouse, the Grant tower (you can climb the spiral stairs up for a nice view of the Loch and for spotting Nessie seeing how the deepest part of the Loch is right in front of the castle, at 227 metres deep!), a prison cell, a cellar and kiln that were well intact. The rest were remains of the once former chapel, kitchen, pigeon house, smithy, etc.
The gift shop was fairly large and a nice cafe, with a balcony to overlook the view of both the castle and loch, had wonderful smell coming from it.
From there, I drove back to Inverness and stopped at the sports centre. There was a marathon taking place. So many people from all over to compete. I watched it for a while then followed the pedestrian path along the water (part of the Great Glen way) into town to roam around a bit. The path crossed over small little islands called the Ness Islands that were very peaceful, full of trees and birds.
After dinner I figured it was time to think about where I should camp for the night. I followed the main road to Beauly along Beauly Firth to Reelig Glen Forest. It was just starting to get dark, so I took advantage of the rest of the light and walked one of the trails in the forest. It was very peaceful walking along the stream. Most of the birds were in bed so it was very quiet.
Driving back to the highway this morning, there was a lovely mist over the water. I stopped at a few spots to enjoy the scenery. One spot was the entrance to the start of the Caledonian Canal. At Clachnaharry Sea Lock. This canal starts here and goes all the way to Fort William. It's about 97 km long and only 1/3 of it is man-made. The rest is formed by the lochs. Would be neat to do a canoe ride from one end to the other.
I also stopped at a layby to walk down to the beach rocks. Even the Kessock Bridge looked nice this morning. Now I'll get back on the road, and head to the Cairngorms National Park.