Clan MacDonald of Glenside gathered at the kitchen table to eat a breakfast of kippers, cereal, and toast and to plan sightseeing for the day (weather forecast: 20 degrees, mostly cloudy, and chance of rain). After doing ablutions, chores, and lunch, we set out for Urquhart Castle on the shore of Loch Ness and beside Drumnadrochit-Lewiston. Lewiston and immediate area being where Laurel's forebears lived, we felt a faint claim to this being "our" Scottish Castle (who knows? ...perhaps our long-ago relatives had worked at the castle? ...in any case, it certainly was a landmark and familiar sight for them!). At the castle, we learned that, throughout its history, this castle had been fought over, raided, damaged, and rebuilt numerous times — it was even attacked centuries ago by MacDonald, Lord of the Isles and plundered by the infamous "Back Donald." Along with a zillion other tourists, we scrambled about the ruins while a bit of rain fell briefly. Our visit concluded with an entertaining and informative open-air presentation by an "Officer of the Jacobite Forces."
Next stop was the pub in the old Benlevan Hotel in Lewiston, on Kilmore Road (Kilmore Road being a family birthplace from the late 1700's). A very large shady tree with a hugely wide trunk, in front of the hotel, may have been a sapling when the MacDonalds lived here. We soaked up the local atmosphere while having a pint, then returned to Inverness, where we capped off our day out by tapping our toes to a live band performing traditional Scottish music in the Gellions Pub (was this turning into a pub crawl?—supper at the Caledonian Freehouse left no doubt!)
Back in our accommodation, the ladies enjoyed a water-colour painting session, thanks to our resident artist (Cheryl), who led us all in producing pretty pictures of Scottish flowers.
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