Scotland Road Trip – part 4

Dornie to Inverness

On this day our road trip would take us from Dornie to Inverness. A perfect country drive winding along rivers and lochs and through forests, eventually spending the majority of the time hugging the bank of the mighty River Ness. Nessie was nowhere to be seen, but there was plenty to tempt our imagination.

Inverness

Arriving in Inverness we lucked out in finding an affordable hotel right on the river Ness that moves at a brisk pace through the middle of town. A quick change and freshen up and we headed across the bridge into the old town for a walk about and a cup of coffee. A recommendation put us at So Coco, a very commercialized coffee and pastry shop. Place your order at the counter, put the number on your table and someone will bring you your order. Ten minutes later what looked like a 13 year old girl wearing what could only be described as methadone clinic chic, a slightly dirty and disheveled uniform and a pair of oversized bright blue latex gloves, delivered our americanos. 

Award winning haggis

Downtown Inverness is small but offers some shopping, some historical sites and a bevy of pubs. We walked up to Inverness Castle and down again in the historic quarter, nothing too fancy.
We had decided to go out for a serious pub dinner and I was determined to have the best haggis I could find. The Castle Tavern sits on the point of a sharp corner and is one of the oldest and most authentic Scottish pubs in town. They have award winning haggis made by Cockburn and Son from Dingwall on their menu. Luck would have us get one of the last tables of the night and it was on!
Haggis is a sheep’s stomach stuffed with seasoned ground offal like lungs, heart and kidneys. It’s also mixed with oatmeal and then cooked slowly until it turns to an almost pudding like consistency.
It is as Scottish a dish as you could ever eat and I wanted to try the best. It came piping hot served on a bed of clapshot (turnips, potatoes and chives), with a whiskey cream sauce on the side. Fantastic! A perfect Sunday dinner, washed down with a couple of pints of Tennents.

Dallas Dhu 

The next day I woke up with a brain shattering headache rooted in my sinus. It was blinding at times and the best we could surmise was that I was developing a sinus infection.
It was bitter cold and snow flurries were falling all around Inverness but that wasn’t going to stop us from venturing out to take in the Dallas Dhu distillery, with a quick stop at Brodie Castle on the way.

A half hour drive from Inverness we arrived at Dallas Dhu, a special place that sits like a time capsule from when it stopped production in 1983. For a nominal fee, you can take a fantastic self guided tour of the complete facility.

Vintage 1983

Starting out in the malting rooms you walk your way through the entire distilling process getting close up to all the remaining original equipment. Walking and looking in places that are closed to the public in all working distilleries is incredible. We looked into the huge drying furnaces where they burned peat to add flavour to the malt, into the massive copper stills and continued, ending up in the bonded warehouse. A tour like no other that walks you through every step of whiskey production and the pre tour dram of Dallas Dhu blended whiskey helped take the chill off. With just sixty bottles left of the last vintage of 1983 Dallas Dhu in the £3000 a bottle range there would not be one in my suitcase this time.

Elgin Cathedral

Still early, we continued on to have a look at the ruins of Elgin Cathedral in Elgin Moray. The sun was shining brightly but it was still frigid.
After suffering two damaging fires, one in 1270 and the other in 1402, the cathedral underwent renovations and an enlargement. By the time of the Scottish Reformation in 1560, the cathedral was abandoned, its services transferred to Elgin’s parish church of St Giles. After the waterproofing lead was removed from the roof the cathedral fell into decay. At one time it was a massive structure that could keep up with any cathedral of it’s time in its architectural glory, but now is a series of incredible pieces of the remaining structure that stand eerily against the sky. The entry fee being a little over budget, we walked the perimeter peering in at the remaining skeleton of what would have been something incredible in its day.

 

Pitlochry

Our sojourn in Inverness had come to an end and it was time to move down to a quaint and gorgeous little town called Pitlochry. My sinus was hurting me more than ever and I was not looking forward to driving in severe pain.

 

River Tay

We were told that the road would be snowy, but were not prepared for just how snowy, with barely any tire tracks showing in some areas. Passing mountains that seemed as high as the Rockies, we trudged on crossing the mountain range. Arriving on the other side, the snow slowly disappeared except for what was visible on the peaks. Our accommodations for the night were quite special, in an old stone house that, from the dining room, looked out across the River Tay, famous for salmon fishing. The view was inspiring and our very quiet stay there helped me work through most of what I still thought was a bad sinus problem.

 

Monty Python

Unfortunately, we did not explore Pitlochry as thoroughly as we wanted because I was ill and the next morning we would continue our road trip bright and early to end up, once more in Glasgow, having just scratched the surface the first time around, we decided to return and dig deeper. And after another quick castle stop, this time it was Castle Doune, known as one of the castles in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we were on our way.

Postscript: After returning to Canada we found out that Tim wasn’t suffering from a sinus infection at all. It was a fractured tooth that was causing his excruciating pain and after a bit of surgery he was as good as new.