Inverness and Beyond …

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Aaaah the bliss of a shower that:

• Has enough water pressure that I can wash my hair
• Has enough water pressure whereby one doesn’t need to decide between water pressure or hot water
• Doesn’t require you to pull a cord elsewhere in the bathroom to “switch” the shower on
• Doesn’t require you to turn the shower on, then turn the hot water tap in the sink on, then turn the knob to hot in the shower, then turn the tap in the sink off (or some other variation on this).

It’s the simple things.

Although icy cold, it’s a beautiful, blue morning, so I go for a walk around town and over the river. The frost on the bridge is quite thick, and I’m glad of the tread on my boots.

Showered and dressed, we head over the road to the bakery for tea and square sausage and bacon baps. The breakfast of champions.

After yesterday’s long drive – and with another long one planned for tomorrow – today is about taking it easy-ish (mileage-wise) and revisiting previous favourites.

First up is Elgin and Johnston’s of Elgin – purveyors of fine Scottish wool and cashmere.

Dating back to 1797, Johnston’s of Elgin is renowned for being the only mill in Scotland that is vertically integrated, with all stages of the process handled on-site: carding, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and finishing. The quality is amazing, and that is (sadly for my credit card) reflected in the price.

We first visited here in 1995. Even though Sarah wasn’t even thought of, we bought a teddy bear for the baby we hoped to have and named it Elgin. Sarah still has it. When we visited in 2015, I splashed out on a plaid beanie and scarf (which I still wear). This time, I used the birthday money my parents had given me before we left to buy a light-as-air cashmere scarf that I’ll probably be too scared to wear in case I damage it.

After a disappointing scone (the clotted cream was solid) in the usually very good on-site café …

… we headed south to Dufftown and the Glenfiddich distillery. (As an aside, Grant reckons I’ve drunk so much of their whisky over the years, I must have shares in the joint. I’d like to argue with him, but he could have a point.)

We’d had an incredible lunch here in 2015 and, after finding the menu on their website, were happy to see that the haggis Grant had loved on that visit, and the Cullen Skink I’d enjoyed were still listed.

The first sign that this might not be the case was the empty car park at the visitor centre. We headed inside to be told that they hadn’t served lunch since the COVID pandemic. When I pointed out that perhaps they should remove the menu from their website, she assured me (quite tetchily) that they had, and the menu I’d found was from TripAdvisor. This naturally made me determined to prove her wrong, so I showed her how easily I’d navigated to the menu and reiterated that it might be a good idea to fix the situation so other travellers with less patience than me (although by now, mine was wearing thin) might not greet the news so calmly. She shrugged and told me to send an email. Whatever.

Whisky and haggis hopes now dashed, we drove a little way down the road to Sidings, a café in some old railway carriages. We each had lentil and bacon soup and sandwiches, and they were, despite being laced with bitter disappointment (oh, the drama), very good.

On the way back into Inverness, we stopped at Culloden. The last time we were here, it was misty and atmospheric; today, the sky was blue, but it was just as atmospheric as it had been then.

We got chatting to an Australian woman who had been travelling around the UK for a year searching for her ancestors and also (reading between the lines) what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She said she thought it might now be time to go home.

She asked if we had ancestors involved in the ’45 (the major battle). We didn’t think Grant would have (although he was born in Scotland, his ancestry is firmly in the northeast of England), but it made me wonder which side the Hamiltons (I come from a long line of Hamiltons – most of whom were named Alexander) would have been on.

(Update: The Hamiltons as a clan didn’t participate in Culloden. They were, however, closely tied to the Scottish monarchy, so some did fight alongside the Jacobite army at Culloden. On the whole they were more concerned with Lowland politics and affairs…)

Back in Inverness, I went for another walk.

With Grant resting at the hotel, I took the opportunity for a good, long browse in Leakey’s, Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop.

I also did a whisky flight at The Malt Room – if you’re ever there, this is a great one to do.

We’d been craving Asian food for the last week or so but hadn’t been able to find it, so were very happy to find Thai Dining a block or so away from the hotel. Not fantastic, but certainly okay enough to quell the spice cravings… for now.

The stats…

Temperature: -1-9

Miles travelled: 113*

*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.

Side note: While we didn’t call in there this trip, Fort George (just outside Inverness) is well worth a visit … so if you get the chance…

Also up this way is Cawdor Castle (associated with Macbeth, “Thane of Cawdor”) and, if you want to head a tad further east but stop before you get to Aberdeen, Cullen, where my fave soup, Cullen Skink, comes from.