Travel 30 in 30

One man's goal to travel to 30 countries in his 30th year

Inverness Scotland – The search for Nessie

December 5, 2018 Main Posts United Kingdom/Ireland No Comments

After a fun few days in Edinburgh, I decided to head to Inverness for a quick search for Nessie and some of the castle ruins in the area.  It is also where I would be catching my plane to Northern Ireland for my next stop on my trip around the UK.  I took the bus to Inverness and arrived in the early afternoon to the same hostel as Evan who i had met in Manchester.  The bus i took was accidently the gold bus which had a attendant who provided refreshments throughout the ride.  It was the cheapest bus I could find last minute and was probably more expensive than the other bus, but it seemed as though the other bus was sold out.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

The scenery was pretty pretty on the drive through the highlands.

I met Evan at a bar near Inverness castle and we had a few beers before heading to a Spanish restaurant where we got the tappas of the day.  Not very Scottish, but sometimes you can’t always eat the food from the place you are in.  After some delicious (yet a bit pricey) dinner, we headed back to the hostel where we gathered a small crew together for an evening of chilling, Gear VR demos and pool.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

We headed off to check out the nightlife in Inverness and due to the pretty cool crowd we had, no matter where we ended up we had fun!

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

There was a pretty solid group of  us from mostly North America and Germany.  It was also key that during this evening three of us decided to rent a car the next day and explore a bunch of castle ruins as well as check out Loch Ness!

I awoke early in the morning and jumped on the a bus to the airport to go pick up the car as that was the only rental car place in the area.  This would be my first time driving on the other side of the road, so i was a bit nervous, but confident I could do it with a little bit of concentration.

I picked up the car, picked up my other passengers and were on our way to Loch Ness!

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

after some photo ops on the Loch and then headed to Urquhart castle which was packed with tourists.  We went to 4 other castle ruins on that day and this one was the most annoying since you had to pay, there were tons of tourists and it was not that impressive.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

The ruins were from the 13th to 16th century which at the time i thought were pretty old (but now i am in Egypt and things are over 3000 years old!!! I guess that’s perspective).

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

It was a bit of a walk to the parking lot but overall we saw and we enjoyed but were eager to continue our tour.  We jumped in the car and headed towards the next castle ruin, but first required some food.  Along the way we stopped at a fish and chip joint which was delicious!

After some fish and chips we headed to our next castle ruin which would start the trend of none tourist attraction almost all to ourselves castles.  This one was called Invergarry Castle and we were the only ones there.  There was a fence around it, but there was a very easy path to get in. We explored these ruins for a bit then headed to the next one.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

We continued our drive around the Loch and stopped at a few more places for photo ops.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

We then headed towards the next stop which was an old barracks in the highlands.  Called Ruthven Barracks they were built in 1719 and are built on a former castle ruin.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

After a quick scotch break, we headed to the next ruin!

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

The next stop was another castle ruin nearby called Duffus castle.  I thought this funny because i used to call my sister Dinkus Dorkus Dufus John and so this was her castle.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

We walked around this castle for a bit and enjoyed the ruins and then headed to our next stop, which actually ended up being a bonus stop that we basically just followed the signs to.

It was called Brodie castle and was more like a giant mansion than a castle.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

we explored the grounds for a bit and then headed to the next stop for sunset.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

We then headed to the next stop which was one of my favorite ruins.  It was called Rait castle and we watched the sunset from it.  It was very remote and we were the only ones there.  We climbed up to the second floor and watched from the window.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

We had a really chill sunset experience and then headed back to the hostel for a decently chill night of live music and a bit of beer.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos
New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

The next morning it was time for me to go to the airport for my flight to Northern Ireland.  I returned the car at the airport and then jumped on my quick flight to Belfast.  I wrote a whole bunch of postcards in the Inverness airport lounge and then somehow lost them in the shuffle.  Very unfortunate.

New item by Michael Seliske / Google Photos

 

 

Edinburgh Scotland - Old stuff and tourists

Belfast Northern Ireland - an extension of the UK

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About Me!

Hello!!! My name is Mike and a few days after my 30th birthday, I quite my job, sold most of my possessions and strapped a backpack on my back.  By the end of my 30th year I hope to have experienced 30 countries.  Other than that, I have no solid plans!

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