Welcome to Scotland

Monday, March 17, 2025

A travel day today – and the longest mileage day we have planned. With plenty of miles, though, comes plenty of scenery changes and, other than the murky bits around the border, most of it is lovely.

While we’ve headed south on this road before, we’ve never headed north, and the border marker is underwhelming to say the least… and whizzes by.

Even though it’s ridiculously touristy (and becomes more so every time we stop here), we call in at Gretna Green for a toilet stop and leg stretch. They have a fantastic range of Scottish products and (rubs hands together) Scottish cookbooks. Conscious of having to carry whatever I buy home, I restrain myself and choose just one: Sue Lawrence’s Scottish Baking.

Our lunch stop is at the House of Bruar – known as the Harrods of the North – just outside Pitlochry and Blair Atholl. (Side note from previous visits to this part of the world – Pitlochry is well worth a stop and mooch about, but we still had a lot of miles to cover. Blair Atholl is also worth a stop, but was still closed for the winter season…)

Anyways, House of Bruar is massive, and their food hall is amazing.

We had lunch in the cafeteria – mac cheese for me, zucchini soup for Grant. I had food envy and declared I had to make zucchini soup when we got home. (Side note – I’ve made this version by Recipe Tin Eats a few times since being home…) Spent some time in the whisky shop (of course) and the clan museum before hitting the road again for the push through the Cairngorms.

The last time we came through here (November 2015), it was snowing and stunning.

Today, the skies are blue, and it’s beautiful in a different way, the occasional waft of smoke across the moors coming from underground peat fires.

We’ve never actually stayed in Inverness before. The last couple of times we’ve been this far north, we’ve chosen to base ourselves a little east of here, close to Nairn, with brief visits to Inverness. This time, though, we have long day trips planned – one north, one west – so it makes sense to be in Inverness itself, even though it’s not a town either of us is particularly drawn to.

Having said that, some of the Georgian buildings are lovely, and I like the “feel” of the highlands. I love the patriotism up here, and that creative edge that comes from the harshness of the weather and the rich cultural history. There’s a grimy undertow, though, that makes me feel a tad wary, and even though we’re tourists ourselves, I find the city to be ridiculously touristy.

We’re craving something fresh for dinner, but don’t want to spend a fortune, so we end up at Bella Italia. We shared a bruschetta, and to follow, I had the sea bass with new potatoes, peppers, and beans, and Grant had Chicken Milanese with salad.

We’re spending the next few nights at the Mercure in Inverness. It’s right in the centre of town and, importantly, has parking.

The room is a decent size (the bathroom is tiny), but it has no bar fridge, so we keep our drinks on the windowsill. (We also can’t turn off the radiators, so thankfully the nights are cold enough to cool the room sufficiently so we can sleep – although this means we get the street noise. It is, however, what it is.

The stats…

Temperature: 1-8

Miles travelled: 310*

*Even though we work in kms in Australia, all signage in the UK is in miles, so that’s what I’m going with.

These posts are taken directly from my travel journal … you can find the series here.