Scotland 2025 - Sept 24 - Bye Bye Skye, Hello Inverness

The sun came out and we had an early morning walk to the harbour in Portree. Such a cute little harbour, offering cruises, seafood restaurants and fish & chips. 

We were happy to have a wee walk before we had our car transfer off the island. 

Driving south we saw the Sligachan Old Bridge, built in the early 1800's. The road doesn't go over it, only pedestrian traffic for it now.

And then we went over the main bridge connecting Skye to the mainland, and we were dropped at the train station at Kyle of Lochalsh. 

We had some good advice to get seats on the left side of the train, and the scenery was more beautiful west Scotland coastline and landscape. 

The blue sky with clouds made for great reflections on the still water of the Lochs.

And I edited my photos! 🤣 

It was just such a pretty train ride. 

We arrived at Inverness and we knew what we wanted to do. We wanted to see a Highland Cow (or Coo as they say here). Highland cows are all over the tourist shops - postcards, magnets, tea towels, T-shirts, mugs, art.... Everywhere, honestly, everywhere except nowhere. We have not seen any on any hike or train or car ride. 

So we were on a mission to see one. 

And we found Ness Farm, a 10 minute cab ride from our Bed & Breakfast so off we went. 

Did you think I took a lot of photos on the train?  🤣

A wonderful family run and family oriented farm. With hay bails to climb, goats and pigs, bunnies and alpaca's. 

But beyond all of these animals further down the path...were the cows ❤️

Included in admission was a bag of food. And the animals know you have it!  To protect everyone, the farm has a clever pipe system, you add the food to the top of the pipe and it slides down to the animals. Brilliant. And the animals know. Oh yes. They see you and then immediately make a beeline for the food chute, and a look of expectation. 

They have such great personalities. They are quite calm but somehow full of expression and curiosity.(and cool hair). 

And this is Hamish. He is just 3 weeks old and has not caught onto the food trough situation, but enjoyed some grass and a nap. 

We had so much fun feeding them and chatting with them. 

We gave out all our food and were then subjected to the evil eye and even a mooooo or two. 

As we went to leave, the young girl at the store asked if we had seen the baby. We said yes we had seen Hamish and she said no! A two day old and his mom had just been brought back to the field! So back we went. 

It was quite fascinating to watch as all of the cows, in all of the fields, stopped eating and watched the new mom and calf. And the cows in the same field sort of surrounded them and took turns smelling the baby. There was a lot of mooing going on too. It was like the whole herd was welcoming the little one. It was quite special to witness. 

We finally did use up most of our phone batteries on photos and bid the cows goodbye. 

We saved the cab fare and exercised our legs with an hour + walk back to Inverness. 

We found the Great Glenn Way and enjoyed the walk along the Caledonian Canal. 

There was a lovely portion of the walk through an old forest, on a small island in the Ness River. 

The walk had art, like this little monster made from a fallen tree. 

And bridges gave us access on and off the island. 

Dinner at the Castle Pub was a celebration of our cow adventure day! Drinks outside and then dinner in the warmth of the dining room, with a view to the castle. 

Another fun day on the Grand Tour of Scotland.