Overseas Adventure Travel
Idyllic Great Britain: England’s Lake District, the Scottish Highlands & Orkney Archipelago
6/6/2025 to 6/27/2025
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Page 1 – Days 1-2 in Chester
Page 2 – Days 3-5 Wales & Lake District
Page 3 – Days 6-8 Lake District & Edinburgh
Page 4 – Days 9-11 Edinburgh & Orkney Islands
Page 5 – Days 11-13 Orkney Islands & Inverness
Page 6 – Days 14-16 Inverness
Tour Day 12 - Ferry ride to Scottish mainland
We left the hotel at 9:30 AM to go to the ferry terminal. We had an 11:00 AM ferry ride to the Scottish mainland. Tom warned us that due to the high winds, our ferry could be delayed, or we might have to go a different way through the Scapa Flow that would take much longer. I wanted the original way since it would go along the Orkney coastline and a unique rock formation. When we arrived, Tom found out that we would have at least a 45-minute delay since the ferry hadn’t arrived yet. We finally boarded around noon. It was a very large ferry. As I watching cars leave the ferry, I was surprised to see an 18-wheeler driving off.
The ferry was very comfortable with lots of seating and comfortable chairs. Knowing that I can get seasick in very rough seas, I took a couple ginger pills. They have always worked for me. I was very glad I did, since it would be a rough ride at times.
The scenery was quite nice along the coast. The steep cliffs with waterfalls were a real treat. Nothing like Florida!
At one place, the wind was totally dissipating the waterfall into the air.
Tom told us to watch for the Old Man of Hoy, a 449-foot-tall sea stack. It is possible with climbers, but they also believe that it may soon collapse into the sea. I was thrilled when it came into view.
We were supposed to go someplace for lunch after we docked. But since we were going to be an hour and a half late, Tom got permission to give everyone a £15 allowance at the ferry restaurant. With the ship swaying, we chose not to put any food into our stomachs in case we had seasickness issues. With the chairs being so comfortable, I slept most of the way once we left the Orkney coastal area and went into the open sea. Tom told us that the ferry’s normally don’t operate when the seas are over 5-feet. We had 10-foot seas.
As we approached the port, I walked out to the back deck to see the ferry backing into the dock. We were glad to be able to get back on land.
We boarded the bus to make our way to Inverness, our location for the last four days of the tour. The scenery in northern Scotland was so pretty. Tom pointed out that rather than the type of dry stone walls we saw in Yorkshire Dales, they use flat sheets of stone for their walls. Quite different.
Since many of us decided not to have lunch on the ferry, Tom stopped to get a few sandwiches for those who wanted them and some assorted types of chips. We appreciated it.
Our destination was Dunrobin Castle. It is the family seat of the Earl of Sutherland. It is a very impressive castle.
The interior is quite beautiful and must have been a most comfortable residence.
In a few of the rooms, I could look down into the luscious gardens that look out to the North Sea.
I continued through additional gorgeous rooms.
I liked the children’s rooms.
There was also a military museum in the castle.
The castle elevator reminded me of the one in our Kirkwall hotel.
After leaving the castle, I walked around to the back to get photos of the gardens.
I was also able to walk down a bit and get a nice view of the back of the castle.
As we left a light rain began. We had been lucky again by having clear weather while touring but some rain while in the bus. We saw the 100-foot-tall statue of the first Duke of Sutherland that sat at a 1302-foot elevation. It has wording that says what a good person he was and how good he was to his tenants, which was totally false. Tom told us about how ruthless the duke was with the landowners and his part in the Highland clearance. Many efforts have been made to remove the statue. It has also been regularly vandalized.
The ride back, even with the clouds looked lovely.
We were staying at the Best Western Palace and Spa hotel. It is a very nice hotel in a great location.
We were very happy with the room, especially the king size bed. They didn’t have any AC, but the windows allowed enough cool air in to keep us very comfortable.
The bathroom was very nice also. We liked this hotel.
We previously made reservations at a popular restaurant called the Mustard Seed (www.mustardseedrestaurant.co.uk). It was across the river and close.
On the way we had a nice view of the Inverness Castle across from the hotel.
It was a stylish interior with a second level with a great view of the River Ness.
This is the view from our table.
The meal was so good. We made another good restaurant choice.
On the way back to our hotel I got a photo of the restaurant we would be going to the next night, Rocpool.
Tour Day 13 - Culloden Battlefield
Our tour for the day was a visit to the Culloden Battlefield. Tom was our guide for the morning. Since he is a history buff, he was able to provide lots of background of what happened there. We first had a surprise stop that wasn’t on the itinerary, the Balnuarva Cairns. These are Bronze Age circular tomb cairns. I’ve never seen anything like them.
Everyone wanted to get inside of the cairn and have their photos taken. It was a nice photo opp.
As we walked around the property, we came to a second one, but it didn’t have an entrance. There had been an underground entrance.
Continuing on we came to third and last one. This one was just right with few people to contend with.
A member of our group took our photo. What we didn’t realize was that Stuart from our group was taking our photo from outside the cairn. That was a very cool shot.
We headed down the road about fifteen minutes and came to the Culloden Battlefield visitor center. They had a nice facility with a good size dining area.
This battlefield is where in 1746 the Jacobite uprising of 1745 ended. It is a fascinating story of why it started and how it ended, but more than I want to put in this review. It is worth reading about. The Jacobites were soundly defeated which ended the rebellion to claim the British throne for Bonnie Prince Charlie. The British army had 50 soldiers killed and 259 wounded. The Jacobites had 1,500 killed, 2,000 wounded and 376 captured. Many of the Jacobites that escaped were later killed when they were found by the British troops.
With there being a light rain, we didn’t go out on the battlefield. We did go up to the top of the welcome center to take some photos. It was a large area, but the two sides were very close together. It is difficult to see in the photo, but the red flag indicates the British line, and the blue is the Jacobite line.
The cute, thatched roof house is the only building still remaining from the 1746 battle.
To get out of the rain, we went into the very nice museum. There was video in one room showing the battle on all four walls. It was effective.
When we returned to Inverness, the rain had stopped. Tom offered to take us on a walk back to the hotel along a pretty path beside the Ness River. It was quite enjoyable.
We got a kick out of a fallen tree that had been made to look like the Loch Ness Monster. With the river coming out of Loch Ness, a monster could reach Inverness.
We came to a war memorial along the river.
During our travels in Scotland, we saw some colorful heart statues. Normally while driving by them, so I couldn't take photos. This one with the Inverness Castle and Loch Ness Monster was along our path.
I also got a different angle on our hotel.
For lunch, we had a combination light lunch, Scotch tasting and music. We were going to MacGregor’s Bar. Tom told us that it was once considered the best bar in Scotland by TripAdvisor .
We first sat down at tables where we were served a delicious tomato basil soup. Then trays of sandwiches were brought out, once again they were tuna salad, egg salad and cheese salad. I didn’t take the photo fast enough to show the full plate. Most of them disappeared quickly.
After lunch, we went downstairs for a Highland Malt Whiskey Experience. The experience was led by Stuart Macintosh. He was very knowledgeable about Scotch. We learned a lot about how it is made and where it comes from. We had two small tasting glasses in front of each person to try. As would be expected, we liked one of them better than the other.
Stuart is also a musician. He played the accordion and sang some Scottish music for us.
After lunch, we had free time for the rest of the day. Since there was a very light drizzle, Tom recommended that people go to the Victorian Market that is on the way back to the hotel.
Once inside, it was a much larger place than it appeared from the entrance.
We saw an artistic piece in the street utilizing the shale that was used in so much of the construction and field walls we had seen.
We liked the city hall building with the pointed towers.
This evening we were on our own for dinner. We booked the Michelin starred Rocpool Restaurant (https://www.rocpoolrestaurant.com). It is very highly rated and very popular requiring advance bookings.
We were seated next to two other couples from our group, Gary & Donna and Peter & Linda. It worked out well in that we could discuss each other’s dinner items the next day. The food and presentation were wonderful. Cathy and I shared the Spiced Crab and Sweet Corn Soup. For our mains Cathy ordered a special for the night, Calves Liver Venezia. She said it was the best calves liver she ever had. I had the Roast Shetland Monkfish. For dessert we had the White Chocolate & Coconut Cheesecake. It was just a great meal and very reasonably priced for a Michelin starred restaurant.
Tom told us that there was going to be a bagpipe band playing in front of the city hall later that night. Our meal took longer than we thought due to the dessert. It was worth it! When we left the restaurant, we could hear bagpipes in the distance. We arrived in time to see a few songs. They also had two young girls doing Scottish dancing along with the music. They were quite serious and never smiled. We were so glad we made it there to at least get a taste of the performance. I have also included a video below.
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