After saying farewell to Jo’s cousin and family on Monday morning (April 14), we continued our way and rejoined the North Coast 500 (known as the NC500). It’s a circular tour of the highlands that’s just over 500 miles long. We had already done some of it on the west coast but time prevented us from going right to the top of Scotland so we were happy to rejoin the route on the east coast. Our first stop was Dunrobin Castle, home of the Duke of Sutherland. It was a pretty big stately home with manicured gardens but the piece de resistance was the falconry display. 30 mins of watching these magnificent a Gyr Falcon and a Harris Hawk go through their paces as well as learning how different their attacking styles were.

After that, onwards south via the lovely town of Dornoch with a great cathedral.

Then we popped into the Glenmorangie Distillery and refrained from buying anything but we did find out that the distillery had a hotel and restaurant in nearby Cadboll with table places available for two at 7pm!

As it was only 14.00 we meandered around the area taking in Tain Harbour, Shandwick Beach and the Pictish Shandwich Stone (over 2,000 years old) before spending a delightful hour at Portmahomack Harbour.

We arrived at Glenmorangie House, Cadboll, around 18.00 and asked if we could stay the night. The manager said of course as long as you buy breakfast from us. Sounded good to us.

We had a lovely four course dinner with canapés served with our aperitifs (a couple of drams of Glenmorangie whisky of course!). There were eight of us sat around a large dining table which made for a convivial evening. We had all sorts of people, golfers, horse breeders, others doing the NC500. We even had someone who bought casks of whisky as a hobby!

A restful night’s sleep followed by a very full Scottish breakfast!

Miles since last blog: 75

Miles this trip: 1,124