Scotland wrap-up

Inverness Castle

 Inverness - sabbatical 2, week 5

Some other miscellany about Inverness.  On one night Yolanda and Craig, and on the next night all 4 of us, took a stroll along the River Ness.  It has a very nice river walk, with a variety of sites like Inverness Castle, churches, pubs, guest houses, etc. in the downtown area.  Further down (which we saw on the bus tour) is the sport complex (pool, skating rink, etc. - yes, a skating rink!) and eventually the point where the River Ness joins Loch Ness, but we didn't get down that far.  Incidentally, in Gaelic the city's name is Inbhir Ness, which means "mouth of the Ness", i.e. where the river opens into the sea.  Thus, it has a sturdy population of ducks and seagulls (they grow them big here!) who appear to stay up all night yapping at each other.  There are boat tours for whale watching (bottlenose dolphins), and our landlady said she often sees otters at the estuary zone (just north of town) where the sea water and river water meet.

Andrew on bus, along the River Ness

We did not get the chance to see Inverness castle because it is closed for extensive restoration.  We also
did not see any otters.  Lots of ducks and seagulls though.