John O'Groats

Started the morning by driving along the edge of Loch Ness, and quite unsurprisingly, despite our best efforts, Nessie was nowhere to be found. However, we did see some wonderful views and a lovely vista of Urquhart Castle on the banks.

Shortly after the end of the loch we encountered Inverness, but didn't stop as we'll be coming back later. The traffic thinned out after Inverness, and we made much better time than we expected.

Stopped for morning tea at the historic town of Dornoch which was lovely. Slightly off the highway so it misses the traffic, it has a large number of major buildings and pretty much the whole main street is made from old sandstone. The castle and cathedral dominate the centre of town, and it was all very charming. Not so for the last witch to be executed in Britain in 1722, who was dropped into boiling tar in the city centre.

After Dornoch we turned north through the centre of the highlands on a secondary road. Well formed, but only one lane, with passing bays every 100 metres or so for you to sort yourselves out when a car came the other way. The terrain was very like the northern countryside of Ireland - bald grassy hills with lots of exposed rock. However, it had one great advantage - the road was fairly open so you could see cars coming from a fair way away. It made the driving so much more relaxing than inching around blind bends in Ireland. Regardless of the remoteness, even the paddocks of the Scottish Highlands have all the modern services as you can see in the photo below.

Arrived at the north coast of Scotland just on lunchtime at a small town called Tongue, where we availed ourselves of a pub lunch. The afternoon was spent driving along the north coast looking at the cliffs and offshore islands. Detoured to Dunnet Head which is the northern most point of the British mainland. Now just a lighthouse, but once it was a fully operational military radar station during and after WWII. Later on we came across another WWII bomber base and airfield which has now been converted into a nuclear re-processing and storage plant. Just what every seaside village needs.

Finally to John O'Groats at the north eastern tip of the mainland. Fairly touristy. Full of food and craft vendors. They even wanted to charge you to take a photo of the John O'Groats signpost. Anyway, we got there without mishap, and the scenery was beautiful.

It was 20 degrees, blue sky and sunny. we were in short sleeves, sunglasses, and had the car airconditioning on. The sea was sparkling, and there wasn't enough breeze to turn the wind turbines. The sign said 'John O'Groats'. We re-checked the map and, yes, it did say Scotland. Perhaps there's a different Scotland somewhere whose weather people talk about.

The hostel is an old style one just like we had at home in the 80s, closed during the day, with lots of rules about when you have to go to bed, when you have to get up, what duties you have to do, when you can use the shower and so on. Very Northern Scotland.