Scottish Highlands, Inverness.  (May, 2022).

Cawdor Castle sits several miles east of Inverness, and is the next stop on our Highlands tour.  We arrived early afternoon on a Saturday and, once again, got lucky as only a few other tourists were there. 

A relatively empty parking lot also made it easier for Stephanie to park.

I approached the ticket booth, paid for our tickets (£13.50 each), and started to walk in.  The lady working the booth cried out “Wait, I’m trying to give you stuff”.  Out came brochures and audio guides.  I politely replied that my only job is to pay for the tickets. 

After Stephanie declined the audio guides and listened to the entrance spiel (don’t miss the gardens, you’ll love the café, etc), we headed into the castle and grounds.

Cawdor Castle, like many in Scotland, is privately owned.  Funds to maintain the property (and perhaps a decent income stream) are generated by opening up all or part of the castle and grounds to tours.  Apparently the current owner of Cawdor Castle still lives in a portion of it.

While we enjoyed our tour of the castle, at times it was jarring.  The interior design is best described as the 1790s meets the 1970s.  Ancient tapestries and furniture pieces are mixed in with stereos, books, couches, lamps, and 5 x 7 framed family photos that are, at best, decades old.

The building itself dates to the 1300s and is a pleasure to walk through (contents excepted).  My recommendation to the current owners – not that they care or will ever read this – is to ditch the 1970s and restore the interior to a uniform look more appropriate to the 18^th or 19^th centuries.

The flower garden is beautiful and a river runs nearby.  We enjoyed our time outside in the gardens more than inside the castle. 

At the end of our visit we stopped in the Cawdor Castle café for cokes and pastries.  The frequency with which we get cokes and pastries is starting to infringe on the beer budget.

On the drive to Inverness we detoured to the site of the Battle of Culloden.  This is an important battle in the history of Scotland.  Short story: in 1745 the Jacobites, led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, rose up and sought to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British thrones.  The Jacobites fought the Duke of Cumberland’s government troops and lost in a bloody battle.

The battlefield is just that.  A large field.  Rows of colored flags mark the lines held by the Jacobites and the government troops.  Monuments to clans that fought in the battle are throughout.  Signs remind visitors that this is a military cemetery and to behave accordingly.

The visitor center houses a small museum, gift shop, and café.  We skipped the museum (not interested enough to pay £14 each to enter), bypassed the gift shop and café, and spent maybe twenty minutes walking a portion of the battlefield.  It was overcast, cold, and too windy to stay outside for long. 

For dinner Saturday night in Inverness we ventured over to Esco Bar, a Tex-Mex restaurant across the street from our Airbnb.  Why not name a Tex-Mex restaurant after a Columbian drug lord?  Anyway, for the first time we encountered a Scottish accent we just could not understand.

Apparently we walked in the rear exit door.  In our defense, it was decorated the same as the front door.  Immediately a waitress walked up and started asking questions.  I basically stared at her blankly because I had absolutely no clue what she was saying. Maybe she was speaking Scots, not English?  We finally figured out that we needed to go up front to get seated.

Stephanie read a review of this place indicating that the food tastes neither Tex nor Mex.  We agree wholeheartedly.  It was actually quite good, just different.  If you want a typical Tex-Mex flavor profile, do not go here as you will be disappointed.

On Sunday we drove an hour or so up the coast to Golspie, Scotland for a visit to Dunrobin Castle.  Dunrobin Castle sits on a hill above the North Sea.  Its gardens are situated below next to the sea.  The view from the castle balcony is outstanding.

The oldest parts of the castle date to the late 1200s.  It was periodically expanded over the centuries, and now resembles a French château style palace more than a typical castle.  It is the spiritual home of Clan Sutherland, and remains a family home to this day.

Upon purchasing tickets (£13.50 each, for us the best castle value in the Highlands by far), we were told that the twice daily falconry display was starting in the garden in about half an hour.  As with everyone else around that time, we headed to the gardens and made our way over to the show. 

The falconer explained the differences between hawks and falcons, first having a hawk demonstrate its hunting abilities.  Hawks have powerful feet and claws, which are used to grab and hold onto prey, typically small ground animals (mice, squirrels, lizards, birds, and so on).

Next up was the star of the show, a peregrine falcon.  Falcons swoop through the air, diving at speeds up to and over 200 miles per hour, striking their prey (smaller birds) and literally knocking them out of the sky.

Here the falconer used a line with a lure on the end, swinging it around to the side and overhead.  The falcon repeatedly swooped past the falconer to strike the lure.  The audience was warned in advance not to move around during this part of the show.  Sometimes the falcon flew high into the sky; other times it flew several feet off the ground down through the crowd towards the lure.

You can find videos of the Dunrobin Castle falconry display on You Tube, if interested.

After the falconry display, we wandered through the gardens before making our way back into the castle for the self-guided tour.  The rooms are done right, with period appropriate furnishings and display cases.  The library was most impressive, though it only contains a portion of the 10,000 or so books in the castle.

Naturally the tour ends at a gift shop and café.  As it was early afternoon we opted for lunch, sharing a beef and ale pie with a flaky puff pastry on top.  The beef was delicious, but the pastry so flaky it made a mess.

Dunrobin Castle was easily one of our favorite places in Scotland, and should not be missed.  We thought Cawdor Castle was pretty nice, but Dunrobin Castle puts it to shame.

Dinner was at Johnny Foxes, a nice restaurant but really only notable because I had a wild boar and chorizo burger with avocado, lettuce, tomato, and mozzarella cheese.  It was so good that I didn’t put ketchup on it.  I reckon this is the only burger in my life I’ve eaten without ketchup.

I almost didn’t order the burger, until our vegan waitress mentioned that she contemplated cheating to eat one because it smelled so delicious.

We spent two nights in Inverness.  It is a nice town, albeit without a lot of things to do.  I get the impression that Inverness essentially serves as a jumping off point to explore various other places in the Highlands.  For us, that meant heading over to the Isle of Skye.

Garrett and Stephanie

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