Scottish highlands tour - day 1

So, I'm spending the next 5 days on tour with Mac backpackers exploring the Scottish highlands and Isle of Skye. I'm not sure what to expect, but am really looking forward to it.

I arrived in Edinburgh last night with an hour left of sunlight and rain, so I headed to my hostel and chilled. But headed out later in search of food and drink.

What I learn as the week goes on is that MacBackpackers own all of the hostels we stay in, including this one. On reflection I suspect our hostel was some kind of castle back in the day. It's massive and each room is oddly shaped with no consistency.

There are 5 function rooms here, the groovey lounge were guitars lay around and all techno gadgets are banned. The posh room, which is semi quiet with a piano in the corner and fancy lounge chairs - lots of people are watching movies on their laptops here. There is the small literary room, which hosts 2 share computers and high backed wooden chairs that look regal.

Next is the giant living space with a pool table, lounge chairs and a second storey. It also has a giant table in the middle, like Royal times. Then there is the movie room where films are played continually from 6pm and finally the double kitchen.

I kicked around here until it was a reasonable time for bed.

We left Edinburgh at around 8am on Monday morning. There are 9 of us in total, 7Aussies, 1 Thai / American, 1 Canadian, and our Scottish bus driver Richard. We leave Edinburgh with Rich giving us an interesting history of the town, plus some misleading directions to J.K. Rowling's house.

Apparently it takes 3.5 hours drive to our destination, but it will take us 7, an insight to all the places we stop at.

Our first port of call is at Pitlochry, a small village where we roam around getting some lunch, while some have a need to buy waterproof gear. We were due for rain and snow! I bought a lovely chicken pie from a local butchers - Ł1.42!!!

We drive along towards an old battle ground which is now a bridge / hike area. But first off we stop to take some pictures as we've sighted the first snow and its agri at dime glorious mountains.

Once the pics are snapped we head along to Pass of killiekranine where we take a 30 min walk through the forest.

Afterwards we drive along further into the national park, Rich is taking us to Loch morlich, which looks like the beach. It is super cold out side and I feel like it's sleeting or snowing on us in patchs. However, there is sand and a lone duck to keep us company. After using 5 of our allocated 10 minutes were all back in the bus, aside from the Canadian who is loving it.

We the head towards Balnuran clava kernes and learn about "Clava Cairns or the Prehistoric Burial Cairns of Bulnuaran of Clava are a group of three Bronze Age cairns located near Inverness. A hugely significant and exceptionally well preserved prehistoric site, Clava Cairns is a fantastic example of the distant history of Highland Scotland, dating back about 4,000 years.

The cemetery was used in two periods. At around 2000 BC a row of large cairns was built, three of which can still be seen today. A thousand years later the cemetery was reused and new burials were placed in some of the existing cairns and three smaller monuments were built including a 'kerb cairn'.

Traces of a smaller cemetery can also be seen at Milton of Clava, a short distance up the valley to the west. The cairns at Balnuaran of Clava extended along a gravel terrace raised above the River Nairn. Our guide also spoke about how the sun shadows line up to each of the stones and there is this intricate design .. but I can't remember it all haha."

After this prehistoric adventure we headed off to see Nessy!

Tonight we are staying in a town called Inverness. Our hostel over looks the town. We take a walk before dinner and spot a pub on fire, which turns out to get the place we were going to see music at later on.

For dinner we visit the local pub and we all try a bit of haggis. While pretending not to know what was in it, I thought it tasted pretty good.

I bale on the new live music venue in favour of acetal along the river. Important grudges and monuments are lit up in the French colours. Friday's events are never far from mind.

I return to the hostel for sleep.

Tour
http://macbackpackers.com/tour/5_day_skye_and_h…
Uu
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/clava…

Where I stayed
Inverness Student Hotel - 8 Culduthel Road, Inverness, United Kingdom

Hostel feels like the classic backpackers style one, where the staff live there. There is a lovely lounge room with a fire, a smaller lounge room no fire, a dining area and a fully equipped kitchen. The rooms are a bit small, but comfortable and the showers and toilets are shared by both sexes. The staff were really friendly. We were in the center of town and easily walked to the local pubs and stuff. The village is quite big and there is a lovely walk along the river.Read more