Remembering our time in Moray Firth, Scotland on this Throwback Thursday Post!
Photo Courtesy of Mahbubur Rahman
Moray Firth is a triangular inlet of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, and the largest firth in Scotland. It lies north and east of Inverness and we chose to go there because it is home to 150 residential bottle nose dolphins and it is one of the most important places on the British coast for seeing both dolphins and whales!
One of my best friends was visiting from USA and Scotland was one of the places he wanted to visit. In retrospect, a very poorly planned trip on my part –a very long way from Sheffield for a 4 day trip, took us more than 8 hours to get there! It was end October and weather in Scotland is more erratic than England(if that’s possible!) We got a lot of rain and moments of ‘Are we there yet?’ even from the adults. BUT we managed to see some pretty cool stuff and had plenty of fun-filled memorable moments during our few days there.
Here are some of the highlights and why Moray Firth and Scotland in general is so beautiful! Pictures were taken by various people in our group which I borrowed from facebook 🙂
Cullen Beach and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society Centre – Great place to visit with families (particularly in the summer, not when we were there!) Unfortunately we did not get to see any dolphins this time, but we know they are there!
At least one of us got to enjoy being in the water!
On the shore of Cullen bay stands rock formations, of a rich reddish rock,called the “Three Kings” named after a battle fought there in the past.
Awesome coastal walk through jagged cliffs, cool rock formations, beautiful coastal views AND as an added unusual perk – a very touching pet cemetery, lovingly kept and maintained
Other castles, unusual symbols on rocks and ruins nearby Scotland is just full of them!
We also visited a whiskey distillery Glen Grant, where some of us did the whiskey tour and tasting. There was lovely gardens outside where Ashique and I walked around with the kids while they did the tour. We joined in for the tasting part 🙂
Don’t remember the details of how we found out places to stay, just looked online I think? 5 years on, today we do mainly Airbnb. You can read about our wonderful experiences with it in Italy. Highly recommended for staying somewhere homely, good price with lot of local knowledge, great for families! The local food we enjoyed here was Cullen Skink, a traditional Scottish dish made of haddock, potatoes and onion. And of course we enjoyed the traditional Scottish Whiskey!
Besides the memories jogged by the pictures, we also still laugh over two distinct memories –one from the long coastal walk where one person in our group becoming ‘hysteric’ about slipping and falling off the cliffs (!) And secondly we remember welcoming my friend’s Spanish partner Chris to the ‘colourful’ and whaky world of Bollywood romance! We made her watch the Hindi version of Romeo and Juliet, an 80s film on top of that! Have no idea why we were carrying that on a trip to Scotland.
Funny how you remember such random things when writing about old holiday trips 🙂
Had to thrown two pictures of the kids taken by my friend (and the two of us). Children grow up so fast, I am happy we get to travel with them now while they still want to travel with us! Visit Learning to Fly if you want to see other photography projects by Mahbubur Rahman
Stumble It! 
Thanks for expanding our coastal vocabulary with “firth”! We definitely can’t get enough of exploring rocky coastlines. Nothing better than a day spent peering in tide pools and clambering over rocks and outcroppings 🙂
I want to go to Scotland so badly, it hurts. And that pet cemetery is very sweet.
Really this is nice & informational blog. Thanks for sharing this.