We had an unscheduled stop at St Andew's
Episcopal Church in Fortrose. For a small building, it had a
lot to see and admire.It was opened in 1827.
Looking towards the east end
The baptistry is located at the west end.
Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist
There was something fishy about this window.
Jesus with the samaritan woman at the well. "Whosever
drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst."
This fragment of a window depicts Sts Peter and
Boniface (the patrons of the nearby cathedral). It is
thought that it is possibly a survivor from that
building.
The Pulpit
A detail of the Pulpit
St Andrew
This embroidery adorns the lectern. It depict the four
evangists:
St Mark (winged lion)
St John (eagle)
St Matthew (an angel)
St Luke (an ox)
The view from the quire looking west
Our next visit was to Dunrobin
Castle. Although its origins lie in
the Middle Ages, most of the present building and
the gardens were constructed between 1835 and 1850.
After a period of time as a boarding school, it was
opened to the public. Apparently, it has 189 rooms.
We saw 18!
As with many stately homes, there were many
"trophies" collected from hunting trips.
The Billiard Room - note the amazing ceiling!
A closer view of the ceiling
A tapestry
A closer view shows the extraordinary work involved in
creating such a piece of art.
A detial of the fireplace above (a Scottish Wild Cat)
Above the fireplace above
The ceiling of the dining room
A detail of the ceiling above
The Breakfast Room
Someone spends a lot of time making these floral
arangements for the rooms
Again, a close up shows the detail of a magnificent
piece of art
One had several opportunities to admire the formal
gardens from the castle windows.
Each of the chairs in the Drawing Room had a different
tapestry.
There were just a few books in the library!
A close up of the clock above.
A close up of the close up. Only those with very keen
observation skills will have noticed that the clock
was made in "Chatham"!
The Aptly-Named Green and Gold Room
The Day Nursery
This is one part of a collection of a Minto dinner
service. Each piece has a different depiction of
kittens at play.
The Night Nursery
The Seamstress's Room displayed robes worn at various
Royal occasions.
I admired this portrait of Queen Victoria, painted by
F Winterhalter.
One of the uniforms in the Military room - this one
was worn by worn by the 5th Duke of Sutherland as Hon.
Colonel of the 5th Battalion, The Seaforth
Highlanders.
The uniform of The Household Cavalry worn by Lord
Alistair
Leverson - Gower, father of the present Countess of
Sutherland.
The Servants' Bells - that's a lot of rooms to which
one could be summoned!
The fire engine was on display in one of the seating
areas of the café. We felt secure in the knowledge
that we would be safe in the case of someone burning
the scones!
The gardens were lovely! The sea is in the background.
On the way back to Inverness, we had the
possibility of travelling some of the way by ferry. We
were not sure if it was running or not. Even though it
was a bit out of our way, we gave it a try. When we
arrived at Nigg pier, it didn't look promising but there
was a phone number to ring so I called. "We are only 5
minutes away" was the answer.
Here it comes!
On our way!
An oil rig
The luxury liner "Seabourn
Ovation" was being guided by this pilot boat.
While on the ferry, the movement of the ship made the
car alarm go off several times! Satoshi backed it off
the ferry very skilfully.
The ferry at Cromarty
Although the use of the ferry didn't
actually save us any time (in fact, it probably added a
few minutes), it was a different experience and a lot of
fun! After a quick dinner at McDonald's we returned to
our accommodation.