Day 9 - Highlands to Perth Shire

We awoke at our hotel on Loch Linnhe, still buzzed from our hike the day before. Gavin enjoyed a morning swim and sauna while Carmen blogged. Afterwards, we ate a breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, then packed our bags and loaded the car to see more of Scotland. Our goal for the day was to head up towards Inverness, past the brilliantly named Loch Lochy and along the fabled Loch Ness, then cover some of the ground back towards Edinburgh, stopping for the evening where we felt inspired. 

 Loch, mountain, castle, lovely! Around every corner, there was something to explore, but never enough time to do it all.  Near Fort Willam we stopped at two castles- one, in ruins by a swiftly flowing river, the other a 5-star hotel with immaculate grounds, a giant chess board on the front lawn, and a group of people skeet shooting into the country behind. Driving along Loch Ness, we imagined we saw signs of Nessy around every turn (a ruined boat! must be a sign of Nessy!), but not the monster itself, only a long, deep, windblown Loch reflecting grey skies. 

In Inverness, we navigated many a roundabout passing through the city, then crossed the Moray Firth to the Black Isle in hopes of visiting the Glen Ord whiskey distillery. When we arrived, we discovered the distillery was in the process of a major expansion and no tours were possible, so we continued on our way, looping back across the Moray Firth and heading southeast through the extensive Cairngorms National Park. The landscape opened up into wider valleys and more gentle hills and we began to miss the stark, rugged simplicity of the western highlands and islands. We stopped at a wee dairy for a late lunch and passed a remarkably picturesque whisky distillery surrounded by the hills of Dalwhinnie, then stopped for the night near Pitlochry as it grew dark. We stayed at something akin to a hunting estate which inexplicably accompanied its rather fine dining with continuous tracks by Jack Johnson and Ben Harper in the background. Retiring for the evening, we decided we needed to get out and touch more and drive less on Day 10.