Our Scotland Holiday

We're just back from the most amazing week in the Highlands. Our lovely friend, Rosalind, let us stay in her house while she went away! That was such a blessing, as we wouldn't otherwise have been able to get away: because of Covid, everyone and his dog now wants to staycation in the UK and prices have gone up accordingly!

Thankfully we didn't have to drive all that way in one day, we stopped at Mr.'s aunt's house in Manchester for a night. Auntie has four dogs, which were an absolute highlight for the kids.

Not going to lie, the journey was long and arduous and isn't something I would like to do again soon. The kids were fed up with it pretty quickly and I was fed up with "How many more minutes?" quickly too.... but when we eventually got there they made themselves at home quickly, found some balls and the holiday started for real.

Rosalind had left us with several documents full of local information, things we could do. To our surprise, the weather was more than just pleasant: every day, we had the most glorious sunshine and I even managed to get a bit of sunburn on my nose! The first day, we went to a place close by called the Ness Islands, where we found a big playground and a little model railway.

The next day looked a bit dull, so we decided for the morning to not venture out too far and seek out indoor fun (as far as that was possible with Covid restrictions), so we went into Inverness city centre to visit a vintage bookshop and went for pancakes afterwards...

It really brightened up after that though, so after lunch we took a bit of a drive to a whisky shop in the middle of nowhere. Sadly all the distilleries are still closed, so Mr. didn't get a chance to do any tastings, but this place was in spectacular surroundings and we spent a happy afternoon by the peaty river. And Mr. got his whisky.

There is of course no way to visit Inverness and miss Loch Ness. We spent a day there, driving to a few beauty spots - the day again started a bit dull and cool, but warmed up so much they spent much of the afternoon completely naked by the water!

Our final full day was everyone's highlight - we had booked a short riding session for the kids, as they have been asking almost daily since we had a taster session a few weeks ago... and we thought that would be the main attraction of the day, but afterwards we decided to go to a nearby sandy beach and they had the best time ever there! Going totally native, into the water, while I sat wrapped in a shawl on the beach: it's warm for Scotland but that's not saying much....!

Everyone was sad to leave - our holiday was truly wonderful, a recharging and bonding time for everyone. We stopped at auntie's again for a night, enjoying the dogs, and now we're home and shattered and happy.

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