Scotland - Edinburgh to Highland (Part 2)

.... Continue with our trip.
Day 7, we had a wonderful breakfast, made fresh at our guesthouse.  This Scottish breakfast was created to fuel up.

After leaving the guesthouse (we should have stayed longer), we set our GPS to Fort William.  It would be our half way stop or maybe one-third way stop for today.  From Oban, it took about an hour to get to Fort Williams which is a small town on the shores of Loch Linnhe.  There, we parked and took a walk in the center of the town.  Also, did some browsing of some shops and sampled local biscuit.  They were buttery and really good. 
From there, our destination was Eilean Donan Castle.  This castle was the highlight of my trip to Scotland.  I have read about it in quite a few highland novels and would love to see the real thing.  It was quite a long drive but, it is on the way to our tonight's stop at Isle of Skye.  By the time we got to the castle, it was already early afternoon.  Once we purchased our tickets, we had to stop for lunch at the castle's coffee shop. 


Eilean Donan Castle was originally built back in mid 13th century.  The island is in the middle of three lochs.  The originally castle was partially destroyed and the current one is the result of restoration, it still is such an iconic castle and hold so much charm.  Some of my friends mentioned that I should time my visiting to Eilean Donan Castle during high tide but, it was hard to control as we had somewhat fix schedule.  Unfortunately, we were there during low tide. 

Still, the view of Eilean Donan was breathtaking.  Maybe it is the combination of background of the three lochs, the bridge to the castle and the castle itself, I couldn't get enough looking at it.  The view from the courtyard of the castle was really beautiful. 



The interior of the castle is quite small and it displays current owner family possessions and some historical artifacts.  Honestly, it was the outside, the castle and the view, that truly awesome. 




I wanted more time to hang around the castle and soaked in the sites but, we still had more travelling to do today.  From the castle, we continued on A87 and crossed to Isle of Skye at Skye Bridge.  We drove up until we reached Portree which is the largest town on the island.  We were only there to walk around, explore the town a bit and stretch our legs. 


We didn't stay in Portree because we had changed our plan and routing very close to the trip and, by that time, the accommodation selections were limited.  So, I widened my search and found a lodge on another side of the island in a small town called Uig.  It located on Uig Bay and on the western side of the island.  Really, I couldn't and still cannot pronounce the name of the town.  When we reached the town and the lodge, we knew that we made the right decision to drive all the way here.  It was so peaceful and the view of Uig Bay was wonderful.

Our accommodation, Uig Lodge as well as Uig Hotel situated just off the main road that runs along the bay.  Uig Lodge is just behind the building of Uig Hotel and shares the facility of lobby and restaurant.  We checked in at the hotel. 
Our room, family room, consisted of two bedrooms with connecting corridor.  Each of the bedroom had en suite bathroom so, it was a very comfortable stay. 
It was late evening by that time, so we only got settled and freshened up before walking back to the hotel for dinner.  The restaurant was simple and spacious.  The menu selection looked pretty good. 
We shared appetizers of steamed mussel with white wine cream sauce (again) and grilled scallop with chorizo sausages.  Both of them were delicious.  For the main course, since I love seafood so much, I ordered mixed seafood platter.

There were crab craw, oysters, scampi and monk fish and they were all mine hahaha.  They were fresh and tasty.  Had to spend lots of time cracking craw and shells though.  Since there were not much around, we were only outside to enjoy the view sunset then, returned to our room to rest.

Day 8.  In the morning, we had our breakfast at the same restaurant in the hotel.  It was my opportunity to try another local breakfast dish... smoke kippers.

It had strong smoky taste and quite salty.  Maybe I didn't research ahead of time but, I thought it would come with, at least, some vegetable but no, just fish. 
Then we headed out for sightseeing around Isle of Skye.  First stop, at my request and because it was so close to our hotel, Fairy Glen.  It was, of course, another result from my book addiction.  It was unique.  It did have kind of magical, fairy-ish kind of feel.



From here, we drove to Kilt Rock & Mealt Falls.  The coastal road was really beautiful.  We had to take several road side stop to enjoy and take pictures of the view.  At the falls, it was very windy so, be prepared.  Windbreaker is a must and be careful with things that can be blown away. 

It was kind of crowded with people tried to get a good look and pictures of the fall.  After that, we arrived back in Portree for a lunch break.  There, we drove down to the pier as we already decided to have fish n' chips for lunch.  We spotted this restaurant, The Lower Deck Seafood Restaurant, when we visited the day before.
The fish n' chips was delicious, very light and not greasy.  It was even better with ginger beer but, that was just me.  After lunch, it was time to leave Isle of Skye.  Honestly, one night on the island was not nearly enough.  This would be one of my regrets for this trip.  There were other attractions and sights that I wanted to see and visit.
We drove back exact the way that we came and, once again, passed Eilean Donan.  Our next destination was another iconic castle with famous lake.  At the end of A887, we took A82, heading to Inverness.  After a sometimes along Loch Ness, we arrived at Urquhart Castle just in time.  At the ticket office, staff informed us that we only had about half an hour to see the castle.  Since we were already there and would not have time to double back, we took the chance.  We would just have to speed up.  At the entrance, we were told the direction we should take because they would close one section at a time.




Urquhart Castle, situated on the famous Loch Ness, was found in 13th Century.  Now, it is ruined but, there is still remnant of how grand the fortification was.  We were forced to leave early than we liked.  By the way, we didn't see Nessie, though.  I did look : )
From the castle, we headed to Inverness and our stop tonight.  I tried to look for accommodation close to the center, shops and restaurants and settled with Pitfaranne Guesthouse which was on Crown St, about 2 street away from Inverness Castle.  We were quite tired from the all day drive.  The guest house was quite cute and the owner was very friendly.  However, I didn't think that the room could be kind of small for three of us.  What's more, the bathroom was extremely narrow and small.  In my defense, there was no picture of bathroom to give me any idea.
For dinner, we walked from the guest house, we walked to Ardconnel St. and took a right.  From there, we went straight for less than 5 mins, then we found a stair to get to Eastgate where there are shops and restaurants.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there, shops already closed so, we just looked for place to dine.  I have to admit that we didn't really visit Inverness.  I mean we slept there but, that was just about it.
Day 9.  The next morning, we had full Scottish breakfast that the owner prepared for us.  I was hoping to have hagus but, instead she serve the veggie version of it.  I didn't really like it.
After breakfast, we set off for Edinburgh.  We took A9 and then M90 directly to Edinburgh.  We wasn't going to stay in Edinburgh this time but, I had another seafood restaurant in mind and I thought we could stop there before heading to the hotel.  The restaurant was called Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill Restaurant.  It's located at Pier Place, New Heaven Habor.  The restaurant was very airy and has very nice ambience.

The menu consists of the usual like fish n' chips as well as international inspired dish such as curry and Portuguese stew.  We shared an order of chili prawn and it was so delicious that we had to have the 2nd order.


I did ordered the Portuguese seafood stew and it was really good with lots of seafood. 
After lunch, we drove to Eddleston for our last night stay at Mercure Barony Castle Hotel.  I didn't want to stay in Edinburgh since we had already been there many nights.  So, I was searching for something different and found this place, a 16th century castle. 


When we arrived, the room we got, though it was triple room as booked, had just been re-painted.  So, the paint smell was very strong, too strong actually.  When we asked the hotel to change the room, because the hotel was hosting a wedding, we didn't have many choices.  We ended up staying in two separate room but, for the same total price as earlier booked which was not bad at all.
For dinner, the staff informed us that the dinning room was fully booked so, we had to either go out or have dinner in the bar.  We were so tired from a long drive already so, bar food was find.
Day 10 (our last day), we had to, once again, visited Edinburgh airport as we had to drop off one of the friend.  Then, we drove to Glasgow.  We had a few hours to kill there so, since this was going to be our last lunch, what else we should have other than MUSSELS!!  For this very important last meal, we decided on Mussels Inn, very appropriate.  It was only a few blocks away from Glasgow Central. 

As usual, we shared a pot of mussels, this time was Moroccan style and I had grilled scallops which was light and very yummy.  After lunch, we did a bit of walk around and last minute souvenir shopping before going back to Glasgow airport and the end of our trip.