Today we headed north to Dunrobin Castle to see the raptor show. The drive was an hour or so and we got to see some coastline. Beautiful in the sun. I can imagine the winters are a bit dark. It’s light out till 10pm and the sun is up around 5am. Thank goodness for dark curtains! Â But first a pic of us at the pub for dinner last night.
The castle itself is quite amazing. Duke and Earl of Sutherland decided to outdo Balmoral castle (the Queen’s Scottish house) and he did. Â Of course there is no photography inside but outside was pretty too.
Formal gardens and everything.
For us the main part was the raptor show. Andy, the falconer, has a disabled bird sanctuary on the property and all his “show” birds are children of the disabled ones. We saw a dozen different hawks, eagles, and owls. The “show” was with Ebony a North American Hawk. She buzzed the crowd really really really close. We learned how they can be trained in two weeks! Smarter than they look indeed. He also had a peregrine falcon who swooped down from a tree and caught a piece of rabbit right out or the air. Last up was Cedar the owl. He is an Eagle Owl, looked about the size of our barn owls. He too buzzed the crowd. No sound at all from his wings though. He is also pretty tame around us. We got to go right up close after the show and he’d pose with his fans.
After the show Andy literally spray hosed them off so they could escape the heat.  Running through the sprinkler raptor style. 😀
On the way back to Inverness we dropped by the Glenmorangie Distillery. I tasted (for free no less) a 12 year old aged in port barrels. I must say I liked the 15 year old Dalwhinnie last night better. I did see a 25 year old for a measly £260 per bottle. Tastings of that are £15. I didn’t.
Right out front of our hotel, across the river Ness is Inverness Castle. Makes for for a nice view.
Even our hotel facade is nice.
We took the Ness Walk along the river after dinner.  Nice summer evening stroll down a pretty street and river.  The light was wrong for good photography of the Cathedral.  Will have to try again tomorrow.
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