Lairg Auction Maaart!

It was my husband's turn to choose the location for today's outing, so we headed north of Inverness, along the shores of the Beauly Firth and the Cromarty Firth, then cross country to Bonar Bridge and Lairg at the foot of Loch Shin. A fairly long drive and all to see - salmon!! There are famous Falls at Loch Shin where the salmon can be seen leaping, as they try to swim upstream. (Much the same as they do at The Hermitage, near Dunkeld, a short drive from where we live!)

Unfortunately, the river was in such spate that the poor fish had no chance at all of getting over the Falls, although we did manage to spot a couple of small ones having a go. The Visitors' Centre, where we'd planned to have lunch, looked like it had suffered a recent fire and was closed. However, the scenery was lovely, so it wasn't a wasted trip!

We headed back to Lairg and had lunch in the Visitors' Centre there instead and spotted this flock of very patient sheep in the garden outside! After lunch, we headed for the coast and drove south via Dornoch and Tain, before crossing on to the Black Isle again and heading for Cromarty (radio listeners might recognise this name from the Shipping Forecasts!) A wrong turning took us by luck up to a high viewing point, with wonderful views over the Moray Firth on one side and the Cromarty Firth on the other. As we drove down past the harbour, what should appear sleekly out of the glass-like water, but a couple of dolphins!! They quite made our day:-)

On our return to Inverness and our cottage, we drove on up the hill behind the house to discover fabulous views on both sides and a glorious sunset over the Moray Firth. We also realised we'd driven over 200 miles, so it was hardly surprising we were tired:-)