Finally, Beauly!

Beauly is a little around ten miles from Eagle Brae where I am staying.  The first week I was here, I drove to the Beauly Co-op to pick up a few groceries.  Later, I drove into Beauly to take the train to Inverness...twice.  Never did I actually go all the way into Beauly and look around.

Here, in the middle of nowhere, Beauly is actually a pretty big town.  There is a grocery store of a fair size, a gas station, several eateries, and a community center with free parking.  There is a goodly amount of houses right in town and some apartments.  Lots of B&Bs (tell the truth, you couldn't swing a dead cat and not hit a B&B anywhere you went in Scotland) and a hotel or two.  There are even some fun shops to poke around in, one being an antique shop stuffed full of silver household items.  But right at the end of a line of shops is a small ruined church and graveyard.  It was quite a shame that most of the grave markers had eroded to the point of smoothness, and many monuments in the yard had toppled over.  Still, it was a quiet place in the middle of town, and quite unexpected.  I felt a bit sacrilegious as I took some photos of the more elaborately carved grave markers.
Finished with that, I crossed the street, looking in the correct direction for passing cars, and traipsed down the other side of the street.  I stopped at a cafe and asked if they had any gluten free treats. They did, so I purchased a slice of orange-lemon cake and walked back to the car.  All in all, a fun side trip and I gassed up the car to boot.