Day 9 - Inverness

14 April 2023

After 12 hours of walking, and 28,000 steps later, I think Rog and I can say that we have had a full day of exploring Inverness. After walking into the city centre, we joined the hop-on-hop-off bus to get an overview of the places of interest. We found Inverness to be very different to Edinburgh or Stirling – less ‘in your face’ history, more natural beauty. Wandering along the fast flowing (second fastest flowing in Scotland) Ness River was stunning, with lovely old buildings, street food, friendly puppies, and sculptures. We managed to sneak into the St Andrew’s Cathedral before it closed for a wedding. It had been suggested that we visit Leakey’s Bookshop and it didn’t disappoint. Multi-floors of floor to ceiling book shelves chocka block full of books – plus a warming fire in the middle of it all. Thought this might be where I could find a book of poems by Robert Gilfillan but apparently not (or maybe there was but it was buried!).

 

We also walked up to the Highland Archives Records office to investigate Roger’s Ross family from Braelangwell. We were able to look at a map of the Braelangwell estate, plus got to look through some original poor relief records – fascinating and so detailed.

This evening we had dinner at McGregors, a traditional Scottish pub with amazing food and live music. It was lots of fun and the musicians were so talented. A great way to top off an excellent day. Looking forward to taking a road trip tomorrow. Should be another big day.