Dornoch to Loch Ness

After setting off the fire alarm cooking breakfast and waking up the campsite, we started off the day with a mooch around Dornoch village. It's a quaint little village, reminiscent of the Cotswolds with lots of lovely little shops. The star of the show was definately the general store which had all kinds of amazing food supplies and a very impressive selection of gins.

Back in the van, we headed back North up the NC500 to Dunrobin Castle as we had run out of time on our way down yesterday. As we purchased our tickets, they advised us there was a falconry display in 10 minutes so we headed out to the gardens to watch. The falconer Andy was great and we got to see and learn about a falcon (the type I have forgotten), harris hawk and perigrine falcon. After the display we mooched around the beautiful gardens before heading to the cafe for some lunch which we ate outside in the glorious sunshine. We then had a look around the inside of the castle, once home to the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland.

Today is actually our last day on the NC500 as we make our way slowly back to Edinburgh over the next few days however there were still a few sights to see. The landscape of the east coast is not as impressive as the west and there are fewer single track roads however there are still luscious green fields as far as the eyes can see filled with sheep, lambs, cows, calves and more sheep (there are so many sheep!) The road also hugs the coastline and with this glorious weather you can see where the crystal blue waters meet the horizon.

Our next couple of stops did involve a slight detour off the NC500 in an attempt to see some salmon leaping up the river, Falls of Shin and Rogie Falls. We stopped at Falls of Shin first and after reading some of the signs we realised that the salmon don't actually travel back up the river until late summer. As we were there though we wandered down to have a look at the waterfall and within a few minutes we saw a huge salmon trying to jump up the rocks. There were also a couple of smaller fish trying to do the same. The water was really fast and I don't think any of them actually made it to the top but we were chuffed we got to see a few failed attempts. Rogie Falls was not as fruitful but the falls were pretty and there was a cool suspension bridge which made up for the lack of salmon sightings.

After a quick pit stop at a local shop to grab an icecream we said goodbye to the NC500 and headed down to our campsite for the night, on the shores of Loch Ness. We did run out of time to do Inverness which was a shame however with direct flights from Bristol, we can always come back another time.

Campsite: Loch Ness Shores
Number of nights: 1
Price: £34.95Read more