Introduction

The year is 2007. And once again, demm42 and clan head off to Scotland for our holidays. Our destination this year, the Orkney Islands (well sort of. Read on for details).

The Journey Up

At the time of writing, RyanAir were still flying to Inverness from Liverpool, although their flights were only 3 days a week - Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Ryanair discontinued the Liverpool to Inverness service at the end of October 2007, making this lovely part of the world more inaccessible to us again. However word on the grapevine says that FlyBe will be flying from Manchester to Inverness during the summer of 2008. So a quick call to all the people in the North West of England and the highlands of Scotland. Please use the service so that this link isn't lost again!! Anyway, back to 2007. With RyanAir only flying on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this made a Saturday to Saturday holiday a little awkward to plan. In the end we opted for a Monday to Monday holiday.

The other problem with a 7 day holiday is the fact that ideally you should allow 2 days for travel to and from the Orkneys (unless you fly on from Inverness to Kirkwall. However, the flight from Inverness to Kirkwall would have cost us 3 times the flight from Liverpool to Inverness).

So we opted for the ferry across to and from the Orkneys which is where the 2 days come in. To be sure that you make all the connections okay, you have to allow 2 days for the travel, so if the flight or ferry gets cancelled, you still have a day to make other arrangements. Anyhow, the flight from Liverpool to Inverness arrived okay if a little late.

Next we collected the hire car from Hertz. Interesting. Have you ever seen a Peugeot 1007? I hadnt. It has sliding doors ('Cool' or 'Wicked' as someone with street cred might say!). In fact, it was quite funky really. But I really dont think bright yellow is a colour of car that suits me. Still, youre never going to lose it on a dark night!! In fact you won't need lights at night!!

When we set off from Inverness Airport, the rain started to set in. Not a heavy type of rain, but the drizzly light stuff that gets you wet through.

First stop was a quick shop at the big Tesco extra store in Inverness. I mean we were heading for the Orkneys, and this would be the last time wed have chance to get provisions at supermarket prices (we figured).

After this we started to make a slow tour up to our accommodation for the first night. Just north of the Kessock bridge on the A9 North is the seal and dolphin visitor centre overlooking the Moray and Beauly Firth. It was still raining (rain will feature a lot this holiday) so we decided to have a little look around. As usual, there were no dolphins in the firth when we were there. Apparently they had been spotted the day before, but they never seem to appear when we go to see them (maybe they know my daughter). But we were heading for the Orkneys, with a ferry ride both ways, we were bound to see some werent we?

We then followed an unclassified road along the Beauly Firth (dolphins! You never know) to the small town of Beauly where our next stop was the Made in Scotland visitor centre. We hadnt been here before so we didnt know what to expect. When we went in we felt a little uneasy as the feel of the place makes it seem a sort of snobby Scottish tourist trap with overpriced gifts that only the big spenders can afford. The food section was good though with a varied selection of the usual Scottish fare. After treating ourselves to some goodies, we carried on up through Dingwall to the The Storehouse Restaurant & Farm Shop, just past the spot where seals can usually be seen (depending on status of the tide) on the Cromarty Firth. After a coffee in the tearoom (it was an early start to get to the Airport for the flight), we went back to have a look at the seals, although theyd actually moved on by this time. So to the accommodation it was.

We'd chosen to stay at the Crask Inn (on the A836) 12 miles north of the lovely village of Lairg.

Actually, while Im on about this area, I thought Id just mention the Falls of Shin, a waterfall with a gift shop (selling gift and a selection of scottish fare. You're not short of places selling scottish fare in this part of the world), tearoom and childrens play area close by (well just across the road from the Falls actually). Well worth a visit.

Anyway, back to the Crask Inn. We had driven past the Inn once before, so we already knew how remote it was. In fact, you wont believe how remote it is until you drive past it. When we had driven past it we did wonder if it was open? But it was open. And in fact quite busy. The bar consists of 3 tables each with up to 3 chairs in one room. Quaint. You could also sit outside, but being so remote in the hills you'd probably not get the weather for this. The other problem with this would be the midges. While we weren't too bothered by them in the evening, the following morning was feast time for these annoying little flies. I never known so many midges make a meal of me before. I ended up covered in them while taking the photograph of the pub and the milepost outside.

The accommodation itself was a little basic, but it did us. The host seemed to be a farmer who was a little uncomfortable with running a pub and accommodation. However, we didn't feel unwelcome. Just don't expect 4-star treatment if you stay here.

The Inn itself seemed to appeal to walkers, fishermen and hunters. Yes, there was a couple of people who were up to deer stalk. While demm42 doesnt condone this, it has to be realised that many of the estates rely on people like this visiting to enable them to get a income.

Evening meal choices included salmon, rabbit, haggis. Not really a place for vegetarians. We opted for a bowl of soup (which was homemade and lovely, just like my wifes cards. Be sure to pay her website a visit. Sorry, couldnt resist the advert) and a toastie.

The breakfast the the following morning was fine and we paid up and got on the road to Tongue (after stopping numerous times to rid ourselves of the midges on us and in the car).

We made brief stops at Altnaharra to look at the deer and Tongue, but obviously we didn't want to miss the ferry from Scrabster.

From Tongue we heading across the top of Scotland still on the A836 via Melvich and Dounray to Scrabster (just west of Thurso), where we caught the Northlink Ferry across to Stromness on Orkney. However we did make a note that this area was one we should come back to and visit again.

Well join me for Part 2 of the trip when we'll arrive in Orkney. Will we see dolphins? Will Orkney be like the Isles of Harris and Lewis? Find out in the next few weeks.

 
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