We started in Inverness on a Monday morning in July. We headed west. Our first stop was Beauly.

Beauly is only 20 minutes outside of Inverness. A nice stop to visit Beauly Priory.

Beauly Priory is one of three priories founded in Scotland in about 1230 for monks of the Valliscaulian order. The Valliscaulians came from Val-des-Choux (‘Valley of the Cabbages’) near Dijon in France, and adhered to strict ideals of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Beauly, meaning ‘beautiful place’, must have seemed to the monks a wonderful location in which to devote themselves to worship. Only the abbey church still stands today, housing some fine funerary monuments. (Source – Historic Scotland).

After a walk along the high street it was time to get back into the car. We didn’t drive very far. Our next stop was Glen Ord Distillery.

On our travels we have visited many distilleries but each time each distillery is slightly different and Glen Ord was no exception. Unlike many distilleries Glen Ord has a maltings onsite.

Tour done and bottle of whisky bought – only place in the UK this can be purchased as the whisky is made for the Far East market – it was back in the car.

As we hadn’t gotten very far it was time to put the miles on the clock. It was a lovely drive and our next stop was Lochcarron for lunch. We parked the car and went in search for somewhere for lunch. We had lunch at The Waterside Café – worth a stop to check out their haggis toastie.

Back in the car but it wasn’t long before we stopped to visit the Kishorn Selfie Box.

It was Terry’s turn to drive as this was going to be a difficult road up Bealach na Ba. This is a historic pass through the mountains of the Applecross peninsula, in Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands.

The road is one of few in the Scottish Highlands that is engineered similarly to roads through the great mountain passes in the Alps, with very tight hairpin bends that switch back and forth up the hillside and gradients that approach 20%. It boasts the greatest ascent of any road climb in the UK, rising from sea level at Applecross to 626 metres and is the third highest road in Scotland.

The names is Scottish Gaelic for Pass of the Cattle, as it was historically used as a drovers road. Source – Wikipedia.

At the top we had a brief stop to admire the view and stretch our legs. Then it was a descent into Applecross, where we had another brief stop for a snack. When we stopped in Applecross both of us had our ears pop due to the quick descent.

Back in the car it was a short drive to Shieldeig to our over night accommodation at Tigh an Eilean.