Exploring the NC500: Waterfalls & Gardens

 Today was the day when we left Kingussie and headed NW to begin our travels along the Scottish Highlands NC500!

For those unaware, it is NOT a raceway, but rather, a stretch of road in Scotland located in the northwest section of the mainland.  The suggested route is a circular section of approximately 500 miles, with a good part of it running along the coast, thereby giving it the acronym of NC500.  But rather than stick to a strict road schedule, we will be visiting various places of interest that one can find easily from the route. 

Technically, the starting (and ending) points are in Inverness.  But we visited that fair city several years ago on one of our adventures, so we chose to just bypass that and head first thing to Rokie Falls.  

We had no problem finding the parking lot, as it is easily marked on the roadway.  It just so happens that we had an early start, so we arrived when the lot was still relatively empty.  We headed on the "Salmon Trail" to see exactly what these falls had to offer. 

The trail was easy to maneuver for the most part, but I was glad that I had brought my walking sticks as there were some steep areas as well as rocky steps where they came in handy.  

It wasn't far until we came to a wooden viewing station where there is a placard explaining the life cycle of a Salmon.  Seemed appropriate considering we were on the trail by that name. 

The trail continued down some steep steps to a suspension bridge over the water. 

 I will admit that I had been skeptical about transversing it,

but I actually found it to be quite stable, and even managed to get some photos from the middle,

including a selfie by Marty.

And here's a view in the opposite direction.

A short walk along river on the opposite side highlighted much of the beauty. 

Marty had spied an older gentleman who was attempting to fly fish for Salmon near the bridge, and the two of them struck up a conversation.  (Do you find that to be surprising?) 

We were headed back over the bridge to return from whence we came, when I looked over and spotted that same gentleman crawled out on a rock, flicking his fly rod back and forth relatively close to the falls. 

I'll admit that my heart might have skipped a beat seeing him precariously perched so close to the falls.  But as I watched his fly touch the water, I saw a Salmon leap about 3 feet or more into the air!  It was pretty amazing.  Marty spotted them as well, and soon we were watching the random fish attempting to make his way up the falls.  Marty did try to get a video of the moment, but that didn't pan out, and more people were showing up to walk across the bridge, so we decided to head on.  We'll have to be content with our memories, I guess. 

We headed back out on the road west, and I was actually surprised to see that it was easy to drive still at this point.  I had expected narrower roadways, although I'm sure we will be experiencing that tomorrow. 

We stopped in Kinlochewe at the Beinn Eighe Visitor Center.   The center itself appears to be an old crofting house.

Inside there is a lot of information about the protected area as well as suggested walks to take.  I spotted the description for the Buzzard Trail, and it appeared to be perfect for what we felt up to seeing today. 

It claimed to be a relatively short walk that would result in some spectacular views.  I can say that it satisfied both of those criteria. 

This time I actually needed the hiking poles as the ascent to the top was rather steep in spots.  They're not the easiest items to travel with, as they must go into checked baggage, but they sure do come in handy when you need them!

From here, we once again hopped in the car, this time heading northwest to the Inverewe Gardens.  This is a National Trust of Scotland site, and since we have free entrance with our Royal Oak membership, why not check it out?

The gardens are located right alongside Loch Inver, thereby accounting for the name. 

In 1863, the grounds were purchased for  Osgood Mackenzie as a gift from his mother. He used the opportunity to plan and develop gardens, as well as historically preserving the wooded area nearby.  

Due to the gulf stream that heads along the coast, this particular area has thriving tropical plants that one would never expect to see in Scotland!

It truly was amazing.  And, you must admit, we are so lucky to have once again had such a brilliant day of sunshine and blue skies!

The walled garden featured many different types of flowers which one would expect to find in a garden.

But views unlike any other!

Add to that some entertainment offered by sunbathing seals, and I'd say that we had one awesome day!

We spent a couple of hours walking through the preserved woodlands, enjoying the scenery, and trying to decipher the map handout.  I had to laugh when I spotted another couple seemingly having the same issue of trying to determine just where we were on the map.  We both decided that the map was falsely misrepresented, and it had nothing to do with our map reading skills.  That was a relief!

It was time to head to our B&B, located in Gairloch.  I must say, the view from this place is outstanding!

I knew Marty would like it here when I spotted this very entertaining sculpture on the lawn.

That's one happy guy!

After checking into our comfy room, we chose to walk to dinner, as the place is only half a mile away.  As you can see, the views are breathtaking.

I'm not sure that it gets much better than that, but I'll be able to confirm that opinion tomorrow.

Thanks for following along!  Until tomorrow...

Destination: Kingussie

As many of you blog readers know, Marty and I love gallivanting in Scotland and so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to learn that we left Newark last night and 6 1/2 hours later, we were in Edinburgh.  One might think that should be enough time to sleep, but, in reality, it's only about 2 or 3 hours straight, at best, since the airlines feel obliged to serve dinner an hour or so after departing, then breakfast, an hour or so before landing.  

But, I've learned to make travel day relatively easy and we had the luck of absolutely glorious weather on our side, so once we picked up the rental car, we headed about 2 hours north to Drummond Castle Gardens.

I had read that these gardens were pretty spectacular and they had actually been featured in the Starz production of Outlander representing the Gardens of Versailles in Season 3.  So, today was the perfect day to check it out.

One turns off the road then heads down a tree lined lane for 1 3/4 miles.  

The drive actually seemed much longer as we waited for a break in the horizon.  But certainly spectacular, don't you think?

Finally, we arrived at the parking lot and made our way to the castle. 

The building itself isn't open for touring, but a brief history tells us that the keep was built in 1491 by John, the 1st Lord of Drummond by Charter granted by King James IV of Scotland.  We were able to take a quick peek inside the keep, which pretty much just had display boards explaining the history.

The castle was built in the early 1600's, and in 1630, John Drummond, the 2nd earl of Perth, laid out the plans for a formal Renaissance Garden.

How amazing is that?  And as we walked around, we found way too many photo opportunities on this spectacular day.

It's obvious to me that Marty and I entertain easily as we found these electric lawn mowers to be quite fascinating.

They looked like little cars driving here and there, mowing the grass on the very steep hill. 

Once again, how clever is that?

Here are a few more photos of the beauty surrounding us.

There was a beech tree planted by Queen Victoria on the grounds, but you'll have to take my word for that as it was way too high to manage to photograph. 

In the center of the garden stands a very unique sundial that was built in 1630 by the master mason John Mylne.

It is a stone obelisk with geometric arrangements of dials on various panels and within several hollows. 

The lines on the dials cover the whole of Sundial mathematics from Britain, Germany, France and Italy. 

Now, I'll admit, that I had no idea that there was such a thing as "sundial Mathematics", so if you find yourself questioning that subject matter, you are not alone.  (And I'd certainly welcome feedback verifying that I'm not alone in that regards.)

In the long run, the obelisk features 61 dials that present 13 ways to read the time:  Common hours, Babylonean hours, Italian hours and Judaean hours.  

I never cease to be amazed by some of the interesting facts that I learn while traveling through this glorious country.

Strolling through the grounds, we passed ornate arches, 

and this unique waterfall.  It is difficult to capture in a photo, but if you look closely, you will see water falling from the arch.  It looked like rain dripping from a roof, but as you can see, there was no precipitation.  The effect was stunning. 

A hot house held a variety of colorful plants

and various types of flowers adorned the grounds

We were lucky that there was very low attendance and we could peruse the grounds at our leisure.  But we soon realized that it would be in our best interest to head to our destination for the night while we still had our wits about us. 

Two more hours of driving, and we were settled in the village of Kingussie.  This is a charming village, and Marty and I have stayed here several times, one with Amy included on a trip as well.  Unfortunately, the B&B that we had treasured had changed owners, and has since been closed.  So we are staying in the Duke of Gordon Hotel.  

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it is surprisingly quite comfortable.   We enjoyed dinner at a nearby restaurant, where we were treated as special guests.  One of the reasons that I love this country so much.  The hospitality is to be treasured. 

Dinner revitalized us, so we decided to take a brief walk around town.  Directly across from the hotel stands a lovely park with a World War II monument in the middle.

The beauty of the flowers really enhanced the view.

And this is the opposite shot, with the hotel in the background.  Picture Perfect, for sure!

The evening offered some other delights as well.

The perfect ending to our first day! 

Tomorrow we head towards Inverness and west to explore the North Coast 500.  We'll see just what adventures await us!