20-04-2012

  Lets start with Loch Ness, and a pair of intrepid monster hunters on the banks.

At the southern end of Loch Ness there are locks which are part of the Caledonian Canal, which links up rivers and lochs from Inverness to Fort William.

About midway along Loch Ness is Urquhart Castle, just visible across the loch.

Just off the back road along the eastern side of the Loch are the Monadliath Mountains, I was driving along and just stopped and took this view, there were mountains in every directions you looked.

Inverness is at the mouth of the River Ness, here's a few views starting with the Ness Islands.

You can walk along the riverbank or the pathways and bridges through the Ness Islands from Bught Park (caravan parks, swimming pool, ice rink etc) into the centre of the city.  These next two are the castle and a view down the river.

There are boat trips to see the dolphins in the Moray Firth from Inverness, it's the luck of the draw if you see any - best chance is when the tide is coming in.  I've been lucky once, unlucky once.  When I did see them I was to captivated by them to take many photos but here's this one.

Near to Inverness is the little seaside town of Nairn, there's a café by the harbour that my youngest thinks does the best milkshakes in the world !

A bit further east is Findhorn where these reflections caught my eye, near here I saw an Osprey through an already focused telescope.

Heading back south are the Cairngorms,  which include Britain's second highest mountain.  This section concludes with a selection of views of Cairngorm itself.  You can drive up to 2,000+ feet, from whence there is now a funicular railway to the summit, these views were taken at about that level.

The last photo shows the weights that hold down some Portacabins up there, the wind is above 35 mph for over 50% of the time here and a recent storm saw them reach 141 mph so those weights are needed !

A last view of the Cairngorms and indeed the Highlands, the range seen from the station footbridge at Aviemore.

Bracklinn Falls are near Callandar, here's a few photos of them in full flow after some days of rain