NC500 approaches
Cullen Bay
Cullen Bay is found in a gentle sweep of the Moray Firth and features a beautiful sandy beach, historic Telford viaduct and a rich maritime heritage.
It is also home to ‘cullen skink’, a hearty dish of smoked haddock, potatoes and cream. In fact, the hotel we were staying in claims to be the current world champion at making the dish!
To Nairn
Today we are entering the Highlands. In fact, after a week of travelling we are on the cusp of starting the NC500. But before that a 1 night ‘luxury’ stay at Cullen Bay Hotel Sunday night, we have a few of these treats around our route.
Cullen Bay was beautiful, framed by a viaduct, with a lovely sandy beach, and a golf course in front. Steve’s only criticism being that there was no fish & chip shop open as we drove through the village.
After a good nights sleep and breakfast we went for a stroll across the golf course to get to the beach. There was a very tricky 2nd hole, par 3 at only 118 yards, of which 70 yards were approaching the vertical! We watched 2 ladies attempt to play it, both took woods off the tee (!), both had at least 70 yards still to play after 1st, and in one case, 2nd shots had been played. We had been watching so long, it felt like the sun was beginning to set, so we left them to their travails, with no idea how many they actually took to complete the hole.
The beach at Cullen Bay was really beautiful and exactly what we expected to find on the coastal route we are travelling.
It was then a short hop to our first stop at Nairn. It may well have been a lovely town, but in the continuing Scottish rain (a little bit like English rain but lasts for longer) it was a bit bleak, and also we found that it was mainly closed Monday, including the pubs. In fact this was a day when many places on our journey, and in the evening, were closed, so it became known as ‘Closed Monday‘.
We did find a cafe open so had a coffee, and also a fish & chip shop so Steve could finally get the bag of chips he had been yearning for since Sunday.
Culloden Moor
Back in the van, we headed to our overnight site at Culloden Moor, the site of the famous battle where in 1746, the English finally defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie, the final confrontation of the Jacobite uprising. We had no idea that their ‘invasion’ of England reached as far as Derby. Nowadays locals are friendly !
Culloden Moor is very remote, so once Nikki had explained to Steve the concept of a public bus and timetable, we hopped on the number 27 and headed to Inverness to get some food.
After a bit of a wander, and quite inexplicably, we decided to go ‘Jamaican’ at the ‘Kool Running’s’ restaurant. It was interesting food, and an interesting crowd in there, including a homeless man picking up a takeaway who joined the party next to us for a chat.
We didn’t get to see much of Inverness, have we mentioned it’s raining, so we think we will need to return there one day as we understand it’s quite a beautiful town.
2 Responses
Thanks Nikki for a bit of history 👍
Glad you got some chips Steve ……. Hope in paper bag not a carton !
Can’t see what I’m typing as small font and green 🤣
thanks for that Rose, hopefully fixed now