Display MoreA small Inverness story:
July, 1971, I'm on school organised trip to Harris, Outer Hebrides, aged 12 and a half, there are about 50 of us. The trip included a coach to Liverpool, train to Glasgow, walk across Glasgow at about 10 pm to the other station for a train to Inverness. We arrive 5am, and have a 2 hour wait for a coach to take us to Kyle of Lachalsh for the ferry to sky.
It's a lovely morning, sun is shining and already high in the sky, relative to many places, being so far north. So we all split into our little groups, me with 2 others wander off around the town. But it's not such a big place, and so we keep bumping into others, and needless to say, we, collectively, aren't as quiet as we should be.
Around 6 am, we have woken the owner of a local café, who clearly knows an opportunity when she hears it. Cue freshly grilled burgers and hot drinks. This was the 22nd year the trip had been done (and the last, we went comprehensive the following year, and the teacher who organised it moved on, or retired) so I suspect she probably had an inkling we would be around, but it's a morning (and a trip) that has stayed with me ever since. Including hitching a lift from our campsite to Tarbert, Harris's main town, and getting a lift part-way from Lord Pilkington, driving from his holiday home to his private fishing lake!
Great story, lovely reminiscence and well told.
Yes I'm sure your very accommodating early morning cafe lady no doubt made sure to capitalise on there being a group of hungry schoolkids at a loose end at 6am. Though knowing the natural warmth and friendliness of Highlanders I think there'd also have been an element of genuinely wanting to look after the kids.
And - burgers for breakfast! That must have seemed like a treat. I bet in some ways that's still one of the best burgers you've ever had.
Just think, I've probably walked past the site of that cafe hundreds of times. I don't suppose there's any chance you'd recall roughly where it was eg near the river, near the station, etc?
Travelling to or from here by overnight train is very nice, especially coming back - going to sleep in the outskirts of London or Watford, waking up as the train makes its way through the mountains, moorlands and crisp air of northern Scotland... Great way to travel.
