One of my Tour guides had suggested that I should explore the "Black Isle" ehich connects by bridge to Inverness.
Apparently it gor its name from the rich black soil which had been brought over as ballast fro many years and dumped near the port. The island is very productive, unlike much of the Highlands.
The attraction was a Pictish Museum in one of the small towns, Rosemarkie, with a number of stones found in the general area.
It was an easy bus ride over - I checked the times to make sure it would leave enough time for another activity in the afternoon. I arrived at the museum just before 10am - usual opening time.
Sigh ... I didn't check - yes it would open, at 1pm.
So I went for a lovely walk to yet another Fairy spot (They really do like to label things as Fairy ..) This was the Fairy Glen walk, to two lovely waterfalls.
Then I thought I would visit the next town, Cromarty, which had a small museum. It really wasn't my day - that museum wasn't opening for the summer for another couple of weeks. Fortunately this was the end of the line for the bus, and after I saw the sign, I got back on and returned to Rosemarkie!
Lunch was calling and a friendly cafe on the beach was the perfect spot. The beach was filled with families - it was half-term week off in England, and clearly some families were enjoying some time away. It was a lovely warm day, but you wouldn't have got me swimming like they were.
Then into the Pictish Museum - small but delightful.
On my return to Inverness, I set out to walk to the top of 'Cemetery Hill' - a few kms SW of the city.
It has a local legend attached - more fairies, but this has a familiar ring to it:
"On the south-western edge of the City of Inverness, rises a steep hill – often likened to an upturned boat – which is now surrounded and topped by a cemetery first developed in the Victorian era. However, the shapely Tomnahurich (‘tom nuh HEW-rich’, the ‘ch’ as in loch) has a much more ancient heritage and, even today, it is reckoned to be one of the prime locations in northern Scotland where the Gaelic sìthichean ‘fairies’ made their home. A great tale of two fiddlers from Badenoch who played for the otherworldly dancers within the fairy hill is still told. They emerged after a single merry night to find that a century had elapsed in their absence."
It was an enjoyable climb, and the grave stones were interesting, but the view was mostly blocked by trees.
For the war dead
An interesting fact about Scottish Grave inscriptions - The woman's name is always her Maiden name, not her married name. It makes Genealogy so much easier!!
Looking toward the city
Looking down to the Caledonian Canal - where I was going to walk to head back into town
The famous Swing Bridge on the Caledonian Canal
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