(Originally shared with friends and family on September 22, 2025. A note about the format of this travel journal: I’ve shared the original dates in the body of each journal entry. In order to make the journal chronological, I had ‘fudge’ the dates of the bottom of each post. Please ignore them. Also, I adopted the Scottish use of military time throughout my entries). The above photo is the beautiful Eilean Donan Castle at Dornie, Scotland. Additional photos can be found here.
22 September, 2025
0727, Kilmory, Arisaig
We’re moving on today. Taking the ferry to Isle of Skye and will stravaig to Drumnadrochit, where we’ll be for the next three nights. I don’t have anything on the agenda today besides stravaiging and dinner reservations at 1800 in Drumnadrochit. Tomorrow, I’d like to drive up to Inverness and explore that city along with Culloden. But today is all about adventure.
I’m quite pleased that we can take the rental on ferries. That’s not allowed in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Perhaps because the Highlands have so many beautiful islands they allow it. It looks like we’ll have a pretty day, too.
1036, Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry
We arrived to the ferry station in enough time to help the Scottish economy again. Because we were here early, our car (which still hasn’t told me its name!), is the first on and will be the first off. I was a bit nervous about the ferry but it’s been easy. Now, Tara and I are inside by a forward facing window having Mochas I’m excited to see how the day will unfold
1958, Tree Tops Bungalow, Drumnadrochit
The ferry ride was quite enjoyable and we sat by a couple from California, who had come from Inverness. We landed on the Isle of Skye around noon and Tara and I got our wires crossed. She wanted to go walking but I wanted to drive straight through, stopping at some points to see the scenery. We sort of did an hybrid of the two until I started to get nervous about the time, knowing that there still was about a two hour drive ahead of us, the need to check in, and our dinner reservations at 1800. In the end, we had a picnic lunch at a quiet cemetery and walked as far as we could on the beach in our inappropriate shoes (had we worn our hiking boots, we could have crossed the water and walked on the beach, but we both were wearing our dresses and cloaks, and pretty hats (Tara got a red and black hat like mine that looks great with her red cloak). We continued on to Drumnadrochit, stopped by a castle for a photo, and checked in around 1730
Our place is almost as nice as Kilmory. We again have separate bedrooms with separate bathrooms, a small kitchen and laundry facilities. It will be a good base for the next few days
We walked to the Fiddler’s Inn for dinner and had suggested whiskies paired with our food (a pre meal whisky which was quite nice, and I had venison stew paired with an amazing whisky, while Tara had salmon paired with a different whisky. For dessert I had whisky sponge with ice cream and the suggested paired whisky, and Tara had Lemon Posset with a ginger crumb and the suggested whisky). We walked back and decided to sit by the river and enjoy a local beer while listening to the water and the night birds. We will sleep well tonight!
Tomorrow we are headed up to Inverness and Colloden. Again, no real itinerary but hopefully Tara and I will do better about communicating our wants and desires for the day. It is really nice to have her with me
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