Best Places To Visit In Scotland :-Journey to Inverness : My Scottish Fairy Tale : Part 1 — Urquhart Castle
When I thought of #Inverness , I had mostly heard of it through the folklore of the “#Loch Ness” Monster .Little did I know that the beauty of the place would be grander than the Monster himself (Assuming it’s a He). So when we decided to travel down to this lovely jewel of the Scottish highlands during our visit to London I just had the picture of vast green meadows and innumerable sheep like little White spots on a vast Green carpet on my mind but then what I experienced was nothing close to what I imagined. The words that can come close to describing my tryst with Inverness is “Pure Bliss”.
Given that I was travelling in the winter (23-Dec) during Christmas to one of the cities closer to Santa’s home was thrilling enough.I have always loved the thought & feeling that precedes while travelling to #Scotland.The feeling similar to that of visiting #Goa ,A place that does not loose its charm irrespective of the number of time you visit this place.Every visit makes you feel more intoxicated than the previous !
For the regular tourists Inverness is not exactly a part of your tour itinerary given that your stay is put up at the more famous & Facebookable #Edinburgh and the Scottish highlands trickles down to a day tour that hardy does any justice to the beauty of the lands. Its like sampling your most favourite food leaving you craving for more and you are told that the “Stocks Are Out”.
So #Scottish highlands should be a minimum 2–3 days part of the travel and not a sampler.
Reaching Inverness is easy once you get to #London. Nestled in the highlands Inverness acts as the administrative capital of the #Scottish highlands with a rich history. The city is well connected with most low cost airlines and #British Airways . #Gatwick & #Luton are where the low cost airlines operate and the national carrier flies out of Heathrow.
The good part is that the flight tickets to these cities or rather call them town on the highlands are pretty inexpensive. I got a deal of a return from Inverness for as low as 60 pounds per person, an actual steal with #Easy Jet . Possibly such steals have stolen airlines like Monarch off its profits ….they just shut down a few years later . Currently #British Airways and #EasyJet fly to these cities. I would recommend #Luton and # EasyJet as the preferred mode given the easy check in and relatively faster boarding from an airport that is not as busy as #Heathrow.
As we took off from #Gatwick it was afternoon on a very cold December week. Christmas was in the air and the walk from the Airport parking to the terminal if anything just reminded us of the same with a cold breeze and the gargling of your vocals as we quickly went through the motions to the waiting room. The good thing about such terminals that are not the main terminals in city are that they don’t present you with great variety when it comes to shopping and thankfully is good for the wallet for the money- minded travellers.
But surprisingly #Gatwick was a mix of easy limited variety shopping and good food.But behold all the eateries are on the first floor so don’t go looking for them on the ground floor.
The flight to #Inverness which takes just over an hour was a treat to the eye especially flying over unadulterated terrain with an early setting winter sun kissing the clouds golden with its final goodbyes for the day.
As we neared the Inverness airport and our aircraft circled the terrain for its final decent ,I saw my first glimpse of the #Loch Ness.It was grand beyond my dreams and all I could see was a small part of the Loch outlined by small patches of grass lands as far I could see with medieval stone houses on the bank . As we approached the runway our pilot warned us of a windy day to welcome us to Inverness. We had probably the most smooth landing I have ever had and as usual it was courtesy a lady pilot and wow! they are consistent with smooth landings!
As we gathered our winter wear that probably would fit into a cargo plane and got off the aircraft we were greeted with a cold winter breeze that felt like a soft cold slap .The airport was a small town airport not bigger than a small aircraft hangar with a solitary conveyer belt and the walk to the terminal gave us the feel of what was to come- An lovely winter holiday.
The Inverness airport has private taxis to take you to the main city which is about 30 minutes away. We had booked ourselves at the #Mercure Hotel which greeted us with some motivating loo-work.
I recommend #Mercure because of the classic location right on the banks of #River Ness that flows into the Loch. The front of the hotel looks into the street which was not so busy on the winter evening and the back of the hotel looks into the lovely #River Ness that flows through the town. The reflection of the town on the River Ness is a sight worth waking up to.
#Mercure is also close to daily stores for picking up quick bites and water. It also has some good restaurants around for that nice and lazy dinner.
Expect a slight drizzle during your trip at this time of the year more so due to the inability of the cloud to stay vaporised owing to the temperature at 4 Degrees with a cold breeze which makes it feel like an absolute 0.
You need to be well equipped with thermals and body warmers that cover your neck and has a hood. No such exhibition needed for summers…but then summers don’t come close to the experience that winters in Scotland give.
Day: The planning for Inverness tours will not be complete without access to transportation. In case you are travelling for 2–3 days to this town its better to hire a car on a daily or hourly basis. The best suggested is to hire the car for the entire period of stay. Public transport is not the best option given that most attractions are quite a distance away. Some quick links for rental services are #Enterprise Rent-A-Car (+44 1463 235525) or a # Turner Hire Drive (+44 1463 716058).
The planning to visit places in Inverness seemed to have a ready start. The choice was unanimous and equivocal- The #Urquhart castle and its amazing placement next to the #Loch Ness.
The Urquhart Castle is on A82 that winds along the banks of the Loch Ness. We drove down by 4:30p.m and travelled along the #River Ness and then were led to the banks of the Loch. We slithered past the beautifully arranged Yachts and house boat along the river .The wind was wet and cold and the day was getting darker quickly. We passed by woods with the occasional bungalows perched high up in the mountains which reminded me of the Friday -The-13 #Jason movie’s Cabin homes. There are no lamp posts along the road and can get very dark after nightfall .Then we came to a sharp left that took us past a sleepy village with a small bar and a few single homes with not a soul in sight. I have sometimes wondered — How would people who live here spend their time being away from the whole damn world in this “Wilderness”? Soon enough we sloped up and the road turned close to the Loch again and behold -There was the famous Urquhart Castle down there along the Loch in all its Broken splendour and centuries of stories written all over the grounds around it.
We quickly bought the tickets as the closing time was 6:00 p.m. We also had guided bus tours with Japanese couples making their way out. The Samurai & the Indian’s were visiting the Scots.
The Castle, the green meadows around it and the majestic Loch Ness made for an amazing sight for the sore eye. What made the picture even more perfect was the light drizzle in the cold winter evening, dimmed lights as the twilight set in ,the gentle breeze that blew the drizzle onto our face and above all the faint bluish tint to the entire view as an combined effect of all the drizzle ,clouds ,twilight ,wind and the chill coming together. We walked past the meadow that had the remains of a possible long used battle worthy “Traction Trebushet” and a collection of stone projectiles that was used. It seemed to have a story to tell of the broken castle which had seen a lot of action. We waded through the multiple layers of the castle as the light got dimmer and windier and the view Blue.There is nothing much to see in the castle but ruins that stand in the splendour of the Loch.
We got back to the ticketing counter and store just in time for the final theatre story of the #Urquhart castle. The film spoke of the long and bloody history with the castle falling in multiple hands till it was burnt down. I could not but wonder, How could there be bloodshed over something so beautiful and enchanting. Yes-There was magic in the air. The film concluded and there behold was the final surprise of that day the curtains opened up and there stood the castle lit up by the lights standing gloriously in the darkness screaming out a thousand stories.For folks visiting the castle plan your trip in the evening to catch this special surprise package. The castle looks majestic against the setting sun-all lit up like a perfect bride enchanting you with its spell.
We drove back to the city .The roads were dark and lonely but the castle kept lingering on my mind and till this day the thought of it is like a whiff of fresh air .
The city has a good choice of restaurants .The best place to have a good dinner would be one of the restaurants along the River Ness . There are some great options for the tired traveller to have his meal in solitude like #Jimmy Chung’s for Chinese or # Jonny Foxes for authentic Scottish & Eclectic cuisine with live music.
The quiet dinner at #Jimmy Chung’s for some authentic Chinese Buffet and the equally quiet river Ness flowing by was a perfect finale to the little dream run on the first day.
Day-2:
The best part about not having a plan in a new town is that you end up discovering the best part of that city. We did not plan for any attractions and just went with my dear sis-in-law’s gut feeling about a science Centre that she thought would be the place to go. The drive to the destination was fed into the Satnap and we started off on a journey through one of the most beautiful countryside’s that you would ever see. The road went winding between rivers, streams, forests ,sleepy villages and ended up in what did not exactly look like our proposed destination but a lovely nursery selling Christmas trees. Just as we waited for the next move the locals pointed us to our next destination-#Mount Cairngorm & #Loch Glenmore. Names that was never on our list and yet we were set for our next magical journey.My next Blog post will detail my dream trip to these amazing places as my trip to #Inverness got even more magical. But for now let me leave you with some pictures of the magic I experienced…. at the Loch Glenmore!
