Day 5 - The Highlands — Wayfaring Abroad

The plan was to drive north to Inverness and along the way stop at Urquhart Castle and see loch ness along the way. But as we were driving north we decided that we should try and see Eilean Donan Castle as well. Its quite the detour and was going to put our plans on a tight timeline but we were enjoying the drive so we branched off west and drove up to Eilean Donan Castle.

The views through the Highlands and along the different lakes were incredible. The sun was poking out of the clouds and fog. We found ourselves stopping every other minute in order to enjoy the views. The fog was cascading along the tops of mountains and resting on the tops of the lakes. It was everything we hoped for.

The drive up to Eilean Donan Castle was long; because of the stops we were taking it wound up taking us around 5 hours, which meant that we were going to be cutting it, close with sunlight.

When we got to Eilean Donan we found that a break in the clouds was opening right by the Castle and we were getting the sunlight to enjoy the sights. We wandered up to the castle and were struck by incredible winds. We stood at the base of the castle looking out and across Loch Dulch.

Along the drive to the Castle we had seen signs for the Skye Bridge so we decided that since we were only 10 miles away that we should cross it. After we made it across and then through roundabout and directly back across the bridge, we headed south and onwards to Urquhart Castle.

The drive down to Urquhart Castle was beautiful. We crossed along the countryside and next to farms. Watching wild goats graze along the roadway and sheep eat in the fields.

We arrived at Urquhart Castle right as the sun was setting and the cold had struck through the clouds. We went down to the castle and managed to walk through the entire grounds with enough light to see everything and were greeted by an incredible sunset.

The sun cast a pink hue along the entire sky and light up Loch Ness. The clouds opened up just enough to give us a blue sky next to the pink and purple clouds. It turned out that our timing to the Castle couldn’t have been better.