On Wednesday 17th June we travelled from Toumintoul to Inverness. Then over the Black Isle and the Cromarty Forth to Dornoch on the east coast of Northern Scotland. At this time of year Broom and Gorse are in flower everywhere. Sometimes you see whole hillsides covered in bright yellow flowers.

Just north of Dornoch we found a good parking place on the south shore of Loch Fleet (for those of you unfamiliar with Scottish terminology the word Loch is used to describe both a freshwater lake and a salt water inlet - Loch Fleet is salt water).

The ruined Castle Skelbo was just up hill from our parking place.

The thing on top of the hill across the loch from where we were parked is a memorial to the late Duke of Sutherland erected in 1834. He has been described as the Joseph Stalin of Northern Scotland and was responsible for the forced "clearance" of at least 15,000 Crofters (small tenant farmers) to make way for his sheep. Apparently the inscription on the monument reads that the statue was erected by "a mourning and grateful tenantry to a judicious, kind and liberal landlord"!

Flocks of Qyster Catchers were settled by the loch side. There were also lots of seals around and various kinds of ducks.