Highland Holiday attractions

My Mum and Dad have been visiting us since Wednesday, so we have been going out visiting some local sights in the Caithness and Sutherland area. Yesterday we visited Dunrobin Castle. The castle itself is open to the public as well as their beautiful gardens and they also do a falconry display twice a day. Here are some pics:

The Castle
The gardens

These two are from the falconry display. The Owl in an Eagle Owl and the Hawk is a Harris Hawk. They have inspired me to attempt a bird of prey at some point.

Today we visited Bettyhill along the North Coast then went in a circle via Kinbrace and back up to Melvich. We then went to Duncansby Stacks and visited Seal Beach. Can you guess how it got it's name??

Cottage number two

Here's the second cottage we stopped and looked at yesterday:

This one's got it's own driveway

Just look at the view

This one's got an aga as well....

... and an upstairs, though Steve wouldn't let me up there.

It's also got a proper Bathroom, so we assume it's got a septic tank or did have ...

... and it's got light switches and sockets, though there was no mains electric going to the house.

Here's the front room, complete with open fireplace and sheepskin rug (which is a very dead sheep - nice!)
But it has got a good roof and guttering

This one's got potential!

No pet portraits today, because I finally managed to get Steve to take me out! We went up a glen called Glen Loth and then to Kinbrace, along to Strathnaver, then Bettyhill then home again. It was a gorgeous drive, even though it was a bit grey. One of the reasons Steve took me out where he did was to show me a house he'd found that he thinks we should buy. It's not habitable, but it's in a beautiful location. Both of us would really love to buy an old cottage in the middle of no-where and either renovate it or re-build one in a traditional style, depending on the state of it. Whenever we go out and see an old ruin, it's like, 'that one's got potential!' I will show you photos of the one Steve likes at a later date, but here's one i've fallen in love with at Glen Loth:

Here's a close up - I think it might need a new roof and some windows!

It's got a kitchen sink...

....and an open fire. One at either end actually.

There's even a second house in the back garden

With a rayburn....

... and a sofa included!

Shell Beach

My parents-in-law are staying with us at the moment so we are showing them a few of the sights. We had an absoloutely beautiful day today - blue skies, hardly any wind and lovely and warm, so we went to Shell Beach after tea to walk the dogs. Shell Beach is between John O' Groats and Duncansby Head and is so called beacuse the sand is made up of broken shells. It's amazing, i've never seen anything like it. I took loads of photographs, here is just a few. Enjoy!

This one is on Macro setting on my camera, and is a close-up of the shells.

Footsteps in the sand: I likes the footprints the dogs and us and the birds had made in the sand. Another one playing around with the macro setting.

This one I just liked the angle of the rocks - just playing with diagonal lead-in lines.

This is Jerry, my Springer Spaniel. I thought it was a nice arty-farty shot of the dog!

And this last one, I just loved the shape and smoothness of the rocks, again playing with diagonal lines.

Day out in the Highlands

I'm always moaning on at Steve that he never takes me out at the weekend because he never feels like driving after driving miles during the week for his job, so today he took me to work with him. We went to Kinbrace first, which is a small village - it has a village school that has 3 pupils! Here are some photographs

I liked the look of this house - Steve wasn't too impressed because of the tin roof - but I am a bit fascinated with disused old buildings. I peered in the windows of this one and it was full of old bicycles and hay bales and in what was once the kitchen there were dozens of empty jam jars and an old ketchup bottle!

But what really made me fall in love with it was the garden was right nect to the river which had a lovely shingle beach sloping down to the water. I love rivers - I find them so peaceful and relaxing, I could sit next to a river and watch the world go by all day, especially on a day like today when it was warm and still, heaven!

After Kinbrace we went up to the north coast to Bettyhill and Melvich, then headed on home. After a lovely trip out we arrived home to this:

Yes - the dogs emptied the bin while we were out and threw the contents all over the kitchen and hall floors. Bless 'em. Steve's Boxers did this regularly when they were puppies. I can imagine the conversation between our dogs when they realised we'd been out for longer than usual:
Boys - they've been out for a while, we're bored, what can we do?
Girls - well we used to play with the bin when we were puppies.
Boys - play with the bin? how does that work then?
Girls - well you just tip it over and spread the contents everywhere, eat anything edible and chew up anything that isn't.
Boys - that sounds like fun - lets do it!

Anyway we'd had a lovely day and I couldn't be cross with them - I was just so amazed that they'd done - the little monsters!