Highlands and Islands, Day 6 - Eilean Donan Castle

Our last day! This was a really fun trip, but I think we were all ready to be finished driving. We started the day by driving across the Skye Bridge, a bridge linking the island with the mainland. This bridge was a really big deal when it was built, and I took several pictures hoping to have one to add to my collection of bridge photos.

Continuing down the road, we came to Eilean Donan Castle, the most photographed castle in Scotland and another must-see sight for me when we planned this trip. The weather was not cooperating too well with us, and the hills around the castle were shrouded in mist and clouds. As they say in Scotland, "the hills did not come out for us" on that day. But the castle itself was beautiful. We didn't go in the castle, because we were ready to head for home, but we stopped and walked around the grounds for a little while and had lunch in the car park (it was raining).

Our next stop was Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness. I visited this castle with my family when they were here in March, and Amie had also been there a couple of times, but it was a first for Laurie. Since this castle is a part of our Historic Scotland membership, Laurie and I went in to explore it for a little while. We climbed up to the tallest point of the castle for amazing views of Loch Ness and the whole castle ruins.

Our last stop on the road to home was the ruins of the Elgin Cathedral. For the second time, I arrived half an hour after the cathedral closed (this happened to my family back in March as well). But Amie had never seen the cathedral, so we walked around the ruins before heading to McDonalds for a treat and continuing our drive back to Aberdeen.

We finally made it home around 8:00 pm, tired but happy. We had a great vacation, with memories to last a lifetime, and fantastic photos as a bonus!