Visit to Tarbatness Lighthouse

My Aunt Marian and Uncle Dick have a holiday home up North which they come over from Los Angeles to for a couple of months every year. They own the two cottages at the bottom of the lighthouse at Portmahomack on the North East coast of Scotland.

They kindly invited me to visit them for a weekend in September this year and I gratefully accepted the invitation. To my shame, I have not visited them when they have been over, for years so some time spent with them was long overdue!

The journey up to Inverness on the train was uneventful but it was great to sit back, listening to music while the beautiful scenery rolled past outside. A few hours later my train pulled into the station in Inverness and as I disembarked I spotted my Aunt and Uncle waving to me from along the platform.

It was great to see them and as Uncle Dick drove us along we chatted for the hour long drive until we reached the little fishing village of Portmahomack where we stopped off at the wonderfully named Carnegie Hall for some lunch. Uncle Dick wasted no time making his feelings known because I am still not divorced and as he stated his case with vigour Aunt Marian gave him a look that only a wife can give and that conversation quickly came to an end. I had a chuckle to myself at the two of them.

After lunch we made the short drive along and the familiar sight of the red and white stripes of the lighthouse came into view.The lighthouse sits on the peninsula with the Dornoch Firth on one side and the Moray Firth on the other. The lighthouse was engineered by Robert Stevenson and is the third highest in Scotland, standing at around 40 metres. It became operational in 1830 and was eventually automated in 1985. According to local folklore the land that the lighthouse was built on was once the meeting place of witches and previous to this it was the site of a Roman fort.

I settled into my cottage and phoned Susan before heading next door to their cottage where we drank wine and chatted for several hours. Later on I spent the best part of an hour relaxing in the hot tub with a nice glass of wine and a view out of the window down over the nature reserve to the tip of the peninsula.

Before dinner, we headed out to the area that they have called the "sitooterie" where they 'sit oot' and watch the sunset. We enjoyed more wine and had a cigar as the sun disappeared behind the Sutherland Hills, with the midges trying their very best to spoil our fun.

The next day we went for a walk along the beach with Uncle Dick deciding that he had went far enough after a couple of miles but Aunt Marian and I carried on over the rocks of the beach and once we had found a nice spot we stopped for a chat in the warm sunshine.

After a while the silence was broken by the sound an engine coming closer and closer and the two of us looked expectantly to the sea for the boat that we thought was going to sail past at any moment. However, to our surprise a man on an off road motorbike roared into view as he bizarrelly was trying to motorcycle over the rocks on the beach. He paused briefly for a look around and definently had a "this isn't a very good idea" look on his face. I had to agree with him. Nevertheless he carried on and after 5 minutes we had lost sight of him and we decided to head back.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, chatting, eating nice food and drinking wine, but all too soon the weekend was over and it was time for me to return to civilisation. I forgot how much I enjoy spending time with my Aunt Marian and Uncle Dick and I will be back to see them next year, hopefully with Susan and the boys.

Thankyou both, very much. I love you loads.