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Secret Scotland Visit www.secret-scotland.com for ideas and itineraries to help you plan self drive Scotland Tours.

26/04/2025

The Ship Inn, established 1665. The oldest, and in our opinion, the best pub in Perth. But happy to hear from Perth folk if you have any other places you recommend.

16/04/2025

If you followed our posts over the last week, you may have noticed that one of the places we visited was the Fyrish Monument which stands on a hill above Alness. It's a place that deserves a post of its own, so here's the story behind this unusual landmark.

The folly was constructed in 1782 and financed by a wealthy local landlord, Sir Hector Munro, who had risen to fame through his exploits with the British Army in India.

Sir Hector was serving in the British army at the time of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and after Culloden, he was active at hunting down Jacobite leaders who had evaded capture. He was also one of the landlords who evicted crofters from his land during the Clearances. So he's a bit of a controversial character in the Highlands.

Sir Hector made his fortune fighting in India where he commanded a Highland Regiment. Upon his return to the Highlands, he bought the Novar estate near Alness. The Fyrish Monument is built within this estate and was initiated as a project to give employment to the poverty stricken Crofters who had been driven off their land by the Clearances.

The monument is a representation of the Gate of Negapatam, which is a port in the Madras region of India that Sir Hector captured for the British. So, it's essentially something that Hector built to show the world how rich he was and to remind them about his military achievements.

I think the Highlanders would have preferred to keep their crofts and work the land than to be paid to build something to flatter the ego of the guy that probably was responsible for kicking them off their land.

So next time you're driving along the A9 between Inverness and Tain, you might like to think about taking a wee detour to hike up to the Monument. It's a lovely walk through attractive woodlands that open out onto a high moorland with magnificent views over the Cromarty Firth and Black Isle.

15/04/2025

Hogwarts Primary School... in Cromarty

11/04/2025

Yesterday’s waterfall was the Falls of Glomach in the Kintail area.

Today’s is a little closer to Loch Ness and a little less obscure too!
Any guesses?

10/04/2025

Guess where we were today??

09/04/2025

Glorious day around the Black Isle. Smallest gin distillery in Scotland, Pizza lunch in Cromarty, little Nigg ferry across the Firth, hike up to the Fyrish Monument.

07/04/2025

Everything looks better in the Golden light of a spring evening in the Highlands.

06/04/2025

An uncommonly warm April day gave us great motivation for a hike up Ben Wyvis.

The mountain’s name is said to derive from the Gaelic word for “Gloomy” but it certainly wasn’t that today.

From the summit, we could make out the distinctive peaks of An Teallach, Beinn Eighe and Ben Nevis.

Including a half hour picnic, we managed up and down in 5 hours and celebrated with a very refreshing dip in the Black Water river.

05/04/2025

We returned to the Falls of Bruar today. Still a pretty place but a bit diminished by the commercial tree felling which has left it looking a bit sparse.

29/03/2025

The light in Wester Ross is special.... and even more so in the evenings.

21/03/2025

This is on my "To Do List" for my next visit to Elgin! Gordon & MacPhail, the renowned whisky specialists, have just opened a shop in the "Courtyard" at Johnstons of Elgin's cashmere factory.

Lots of very rare (and very expensive) whisky, plus a posh new tasting room.

If it takes your fancy, you can book a tasting session on their website: https://www.gordonandmacphail.com/

18/03/2025

And here's a big dump of photos taken over the last 14 years of our visits to Lewis & Harris. There's even more where these came from, but these give you a flavour of the island's different moods.

16/03/2025

Just added another photo Album, this time a montage of places around the Inverness area. We will add more soon, but we've got more than 20 years' worth of photos and our filing system for photos is a bit haphazard.

11/03/2025

A perfect spring morning for our early departure from Arran.

09/03/2025

First day on Arran in 2025. A glorious and hot pre-spring day that we couldn’t let go by us.
But we tried something different! Goatfell, again yes, but from a different angle.
Starting from Corrie with a steep initial ascent, followed by a long steady incline through the false glen and a steep climb to reach North Goatfell then a ridge traverse and a few rock scrambles to Goatfell, and a very steep knee jarring descent back to the starting point.
Our legs are feeling it!!

25/02/2025

I'm building up photo albums for different areas of Scotland with the idea of using them to help illustrate our travel guides.

I'll be adding more Albums over the next few weeks so we'll take you on a "Virtual" tour of Scotland.

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Monkton
KA92PR

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 11pm
Tuesday	9am - 11pm
Wednesday	9am - 11pm
Thursday	9am - 11pm
Friday	9am - 11pm
Saturday	9am - 11pm
Sunday	9am - 11pm

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http://www.secret-scotland.com/

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