Every good day starts with scotch eggs and gin (not mixed, though that gives me an idea). Also, scotch eggs do not have scotch in them (which also gives me an idea). The only available tour at Dunnet Head Distillery was at 11AM so we slept in a bit, ate a delicious scotch egg, and had a G&T for brunch. The distillery was super cool: they just have two small stills that infuse botanicals into the gin and they get the botanicals either from their garden or foraged nearby.
The whole tour felt like it was just a family showing us their cool home moonshine setup with a garden to support it. They had dozens of jars of experiments that they rated using a complicated smiley/frowny-face system. After a few tastings we went down to the beach for a rainy lunch. The entire coast of Scotland so far has alternated between steep cliffs and white, sandy beaches.
Speaking of cliffs, we went down to Brig o Stack which is a series of 'stacks' of stones sticking out into the ocean. Here's me standing on one that looks a bit more scary than it is (but there's no railings in most Scottish places like this).
We actually walked right by this cool photo op and walked an extra 2 miles looking for it. Sheep pastures go up to about 4 feet of the cliffs so the whole hike is barbed-wire fence on one side and the steep cliff on the other. All day there were only a couple people around so we really got to experience the wildness of the north of Scotland. Unfortunately, that wildness can also cause trouble (this is better foreshadowing than Han Solo's bad feelings).
I wanted to fish tonight, unfortunately in the UK that means tracking down whichever podunk towny manages the loch you want to fish in. After much research and asking around we found that Hagarth and Sons gun shop supposedly had fishing permits. Upon entering we were met by a wonderfully helpful older man who told us he had fishing permits! He quickly pulled out a pad of permits and circled the correct date, so I was on my way to fishing... after 50 minutes of stories (if you've seen Derry Girls this was Uncle Colm, otherwise think of Grandpa Simpson's stories at half speed). Anyway, he was truly a lovely fella and I ended up with a permit and his best fly so I was happy.
Before fishing we drove over to Castle Sinclair which was once a huge castle perched atop an outcropping similar to the above cliff. The castle is now in ruins but was still cool to see.
There were informational plaques with diagrams of all the rooms of the castle, it took up every square foot of the rock island.
Now I was off to fishing!!! But this is where the foreshadowing catches up to us: a watery pothole in the road lead to a flat tire :( It shouldn't be that big of a deal to get fixed tomorrow but it does mean that I'm still fishless a full 5 days into a vacation which is totally unacceptable.
Tomorrow we fix a tire and head west along the north coast. Here's a bonus pic of what all of the coast looks like up here, I love it.
P.S. I came up with the title of the blog halfway through today when I found out puffins are nesting near where I was fishing. Sadly, flat tires mean no puffins and no fishing.
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