Inverness to John O'Groats

We left Inverness to drive further north; we were going to the very northern tip of Scotland. On the way we stopped at the Tarbat Ness lighthouse. Many of you know that I have an interest in lighthouses, so I had a chance to see some on the east coast of Scotland. Apparently, a storm in the Moray Firth in November 1826 caused the loss of 16 vessels and thus the application for a light at Tarbat Ness. The light was built in 1830 by Robert Stevenson and it boasts 203 steps up to the top. Even more interesting is the fact that earthquake shocks have sometimes been reported here and the lighthouse once shook enough that the shades and lamp glasses rattled.
The only rattling that we experienced while we were out there was the repeated sound waves generated by fighter planes going by overhead. I think that about 10 0f these things flew by in regular, measured amounts of time. Who knows what they were doing, but they certainly made a racket! It was a weird sensation to see them coming and then hear them several seconds afterwards as the sound followed them.

There was a solitary individual out there on the point with us--a local birdwatcher. He was very friendly, though the wind was blowing the wrong direction and he wasn't having much luck seeing any birds. I had been hoping to see some dolphins, since they are reportedly in this area, but no luck. Tarbat Ness is a lovely spot, in spite of the lack of dolphins, and we enjoyed beautiful weather on our visit. Our next stop was Dunrobin Castle.

Wouldn't you like to live here? As long as someone else paid the bills, I'd be quite happy to have a room in this castle. It was probably my favorite castle of the whole trip.

As you can see, the gardens are extensive and well-kept. I can't imagine the number of gardners it would take to keep this place up, but they do a good job however many there are.


While we were there, we attended a 'hawking' exhibition. A man demonstrated the talents of a bunch of highly trained hunting birds: a falcon, a peregrine falcon, and an Eagle Owl. Below you see a picture of the Eagle Owl; named Bonzai. He kept making this hissing sort of a sound as he showed us his abilities. Naturally, everyone was charmed and wanted a picture taken next to him.

After leaving Dunrobin Castle, we stopped by the Noss Head Lighthouse. It was a bit of a disappointment, really, because it was privately owned and we couldn't get close to it. The name Noss Head comes from the Old Norse word, Snos, a nose, the peak of nose-shaped headland.
The lighthouse was completed in 1849 by Mr Robert Arnot of Inverness.

Our final stop for this day was at John O' Groats; the northernmost town in Scotland. There is rugged beauty up in this part of Scotland and I was, once again, charmed by it. (I came to appreciate it's beauty in 2006 when I first visited the Isle of Skye). John o' Groats is named after a Dutchman, Jan de Groot.
The Orkney Islands are not far from this spot and in 1496 King James IV granted De Groot the ferry franchise between this harbour and Orkney, which, at that time was still a relatively new acquisition by Scotland. We did not have time to take a ferry over to the Orkney Isles, unfortunately.

This little gift shop claims to be 'The Last Home in Scotland', so I had to have a picture by it to prove I was there. We did more in John O' Groats than sit on the beach, but you will have to wait for the next blog posting to learn about that!