Scotland - The North

We left Edinburgh on another blue sky day. The drive north was uneventful and quite scenic. The A9 follows the coast pretty well and there were nice views out along the shore. Inland were hills covered in heathers, all brown at this season, but soon to be blooming.

It was quite surprising, given our previous experience further south, how fast we were able to get up nearly to the top of Scotland. In about 3 hours, we drove from Edinburgh to Inverness and in another 2 ½ hours we were in Wick, where we found a nice campground for the night. Arriving in Wick initiated a brief discussion about how to pronounce the name of this small town. One option would be “Wick” and the other could be “ick”. We think that dropping the “w” is a propensity of the English (note: Keswick is pronounced Kessick”….) but we’re not sure what they do in “Auld Reekie”. We’re not sure if we should ask someone or not ;-)

The campgorund was a 10-minute walk from town along the Wick River. It’s all very pretty.

In the morning, we had a relatively short drive to the northern-most part of mainland Scotland – John O’Groats. It was early in the morning and we were the first ones there walking around, enjoying the views of the sea stacks along the coast.

We decided to see if a quick trip to the Orkneys would work, so we hustled the few miles over to Thurso and it’s port of Scrabster and found we had time to get a campsite, set up camp and get somewhat organized. The ferry ride was about 90 minutes, from Scrabster to Stromness, passing the Old Man of Hoy. We had about 90 minutes to walk around Stromness before boarding the ferry for the return trip. Our campsite had a great view out over the bay and off to the islands only a few miles away. I should mention that we also had time in the morning to see some of the Royal Wedding festivities. The woman who ran the campground was originally from Amarillo, TX, so we all had a good chuckle at the pomp and ceremony of the wedding.

The next day, we drove along the north part of Scotland towards the west. Most scenic with the highland heather fields coming down almost to the sea. Some of the nicest beaches we’ve seen on this trip were along this coast as well.

The next day’s travel was more inland, along lochs and streams. By Sunday night, we had passed by Ben Nevis (a bad case of shin splints negated any chance of hiking to the top of that one…) and on to a beautiful campground on the shores of Loch Levin, just outside of Glencoe. It’s almost sounding repetitious to mention it, but the weather, once again, was sunny, clear and warm.

We’re on the countdown to leaving so we’re trying to fit in the last few essentials. The next day’s travels will likely be down to the Mull of Kintyre. Tuesday we head back south into England and the last few days of our visit.