The Scenic Route

When you are travelling around by car, spending only one night or two in any one location there is an interesting balance that needs to be struck between getting to your next destination and seeing all of what you want to see.  To see everything is impossible, so you need to pick the top 5 (for example) – once you have picked them,  you must decide how long you have to spend at each of these five spots based on how much diving you need to do - (based only in part on who far you need to go, and in part on how challenging the roads you need to travel are).

So after our day in Skye we had to head to Dyke/Forres several hours drive east to our next nocturnal destination. On our selected route (since there are some more direct and less scenic routes or less direct and more scenic routes in inverse proportions) took us past Plocton (somewhere I wanted to go because I had read somewhere that it was the town where a British show called “Hamish Macbeth” was shot). It was very scenic – the town, not the show – right on the coast, with a little harbour leading out to Loch Carron (Loch seems to mean both lake and inlet in Scotland).

Next we had to decide, do we go east, on the more direct road to our destination or do we go north/west the more scenic route and visit Inverewe Gardens.  We chose to visit the gardens, not so much we chose, as I was driving and turned that way on purpose because I knew my mum wanted to go to them, schedule  be damned. Inverewe Gardens is one of the largest gardens in Scotland and it brushes up against Loch Ewe (this being a lake).

After a gourmet lunch of oatcakes and cheese we were faced with a choice – take the North Coast road along Loch Ewe (more scenic but possibly a bit shorter in distance, based on where we were, or backtrack along the way we had come and back out onto the more direct route.

Since six of one equals a half-dozen of the other, we decided on the more scenic route and by chance (ok, not really by chance since I knew it was there and I wanted to stop) we stopped (albeit briefly) at Corrieshhalloch Gorge, to click a few photos before driving the rest of the way to Dyke.

In Dyke we are staying at The Old Kirk Bed and Breakfast (a shameless plug for my Aunt & Uncle’s B&B, I’ll admit it) a very nice (Four Star) converted church, with three spectacular rooms and a fabulous  lounge – complete with stained glass window.  Not to mention the fabulous staff (my Uncle is one of the friendliest people you will ever hope to meet). [This ends my honest, yet rather shameless plug].

Dyke (which is really a very tiny village, Forres being the closest town) is situated on what is referred to in Scotland as “The Whisky Trail” a driving route that will take you past most (if not all) of Scotland’s Whisky distilleries, some of which offer tours than generally end in a tasting.  For those less alcoholicly inclined, there is also a lot of really nice hikes and walks in the area and it’s not really that far away from Inverness and Loch Ness.

Today we got up reasonably early and headed out for a run before breakfast, my old war wound (my badly blistered toe) was really painful and the “short run past the castle” took a wrong turn and became a 5 mile run/limp making us late for breakfast.

We stopped in Forres briefly to have a quick look around and snap a few photos before heading out to locate (and tour) the Glenlivet Distillery.

We managed to take the long route – driver wasn’t listening to navigator and saw a sign for Glenlivet Estate (or some such thing) and headed down along the scenic route to the distillery (I was neither driver nor navigator in this part of the narration).

The distillery itself is is near the little river of Livet and in a glen (hence the name).  We had a interesting tour and tasting and I learned the difference between Irish and Scotch Whisky (and why, in the tour guide’s opinion, Scotch Whisky is better – and since I don’t drink it, I will have to take his word for it).

After the tour and a quick bite to eat we headed towards Kingston a small town on the coast.  After a few missed turns we made it in time for a leisurely walk along the “beach” (very rocky) and a look at old WWII fortifications, looking and limping all the way (as my toe was really sore).

We made it safely (and efficiently) back to The Old Kirk in time for dinner out at The Old Mill with my Aunt and Uncle.