Victorian echoes - 3 September 2006

Today it was the “Victorian Heritage Trail” we followed out of Aberdeen, heading for Dundee.

This trail marks a number of places that Queen Victoria visited. We passed through attractive villages made prosperous when Vicky chose to re-model the castle at Balmoral.

We knew that Balmoral was not open but didn't realise why until watching TV at breakfast: the Queen was in residence at Balmoral, and Tony Blair was visiting. Had we known that earlier, we could have left Aberdeen in time to join them at the local church at 11-30 a.m.

We also discovered we missed the local, Braemar, Highland Games by one day. However, we did get to visit Mar Lodge, a hunting lodge built by Queen Victoria's grand- daughter, which is only open to the public 3 days per year. It was amazing, what a beautiful spot to come for a holiday. The ballroom is festooned with nearly 2500 stags heads hunting trophies.

Nearby, over the Linn of Dee cataract, is a bridge, the foundation stone of which was laid by Queen Victoria, another beautiful place.

En route, we stopped at the railway station that used to be at the end of the line, in the little town of Ballater. This had a waiting room, exclusively for Victoria's use. It has been preserved, exactly as it was when she used it. What we could not work out is why Vicky would need a waiting room anyway. Surely when she stepped aboard the train it was time to go and, presumably, she would not have left the castle unless Royal Train was already at Ballater.

The intention was that the railway would continue as far as Balmoral but when Vicky indicated that “we are not amused” with the thought of the hordes of Victorian tourists flocking to her holiday retreat, the railway proposal was quickly and quietly dropped.

Predating Vicky by a considerable margin is the Meikleour Hedge, the world’s tallest hedge. It was planted around 1745 by Robert Nairne, who was killed shortly after in the Battle of Culloden. Clearly, be never came home to cut the hedge and it is now over 30m tall.

All in all, the day provided an interesting window on the past.

Castles in the Air(rea) - 2 September 2006

We may have thought we had been diligent with our castle visits but we hadn’t scratched the surface. So we followed the Castle Trail out from Aberdeen.

Apparently there are more castles per square mile in Aberdeenshire than anywhere else in the UK and this tour featured eleven Castles. We avoided the ruins, and managed four of the remaining castles: Haddo House, Fyvie Castle, Castle Fraser and Crathes Castle, plus the very lovely formal Pitmedden Garden.
Some were more elaborate than others, but all very interesting. Our favorite was Fyvie Castle.

When closing time meant no more castles, we headed into Aberdeen. The city is mainly built of grey granite. Rather than looking somber, it actually looks substantial and impressive. The old centre has some beautiful buildings.

After a delicious dinner at a modern restaurant, we headed down to the coast. At the mouth of Aberdeen harbour is a very quaint small, planned, fishing village called Footdee. It's a beautiful place to end the day, and watch the ships leave the harbour.

Coastal trail - 1 September 2006

It was time to try the east coast again so leaving Inverness we took the coastal road heading for our ultimate destination of Aberdeen, naturally, via historical stopping places.

Such as: Fort George. George II had this fort built between 1757 to 1763 as a result of the Battle of Culloden. There were no further highland uprisings, so the fort was never needed, but it has been used as an army camp ever since. We saw groups of soldiers marching in. The whole area is very impressive.

And: Cawdor Castle (of MacBeth fame). This, another Campbell Castle, is homely and functional inside and very picturesque on the outside with beautiful gardens.

And: Dallas Dhu whisky distillery to experience a very major part of the local history: distilleries are very plentiful in the area.

And: Elgin to see their ruined cathedral. Next door to the cathedral ruins is a Biblical Garden that supposedly has at least one of every plant mentioned in the Bible: the first plant we noticed was NZ flax.

We continued on the coastal trail, through many very picturesque villages: Buckie, Portessie, Findochty, Portknockie, Portsoy and so on as far as Fraserburgh. The cutest village by far was Covie: a handful of fishermen’s cottages huddled on an impossibly narrow strip of land between the cliff and the sea. Nowadays the houses are holiday homes but there is still no vehicular access past the first cottage.

With so much to see, the daylight was nearly gone when we reached Fraserburgh so we took the fast road to Aberdeen.

You take the high road and I'll take the low road - 31 August 2006

The early morning rain cleared for us to enjoy a walk around Inveraray. First stop was the jail to tour the cells, read the histories of various prisoners and learn about their punishments. We met a jailor and the warden’s wife, both dressed for their parts. The best part was the Courtroom all set up with models of the judge, lawyers, and interested townsfolk.

Then, surprisingly, we visited the Castle: home of the Campbells, and much more elaborate than Dunvegan.

All in all, the package deal of castle, jail and town was most worthwhile and we recommend a visit.

As we were so close to it, we detoured to Loch Lomond and had a very pleasant morning tea break on the "bonnie bonnie banks".

We then visited the Bonawe Iron Furnace, located here because of the plentiful supply of wood for fuel for the smelting.

The next stop was Dunstaffnage Castle. By then the rain had made the day less pleasant, so we had a very quick look as the castle is virtually a ruin.

As we proceeded north towards Inverness, the day improved. By the time we reached Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness the sun had come out, and we enjoyed this beautiful spot.
The final stop for the day, was an amazing dinner at Oakwood Antiques, a restaurant/shop between Loch Ness and Inverness, probably the gastronomic highlight of our Scottish tour.

Its a long way to Inveraray, its a long way to go - 30 August 2006

Leaving Portree we drove north-west, up over Waternish and across to Dunvegan to visit to Dunvegan Castle: the seat of the MacLeod chiefs. Although one would think it was miles from nowhere in terms of the tourist route it was very busy with overseas tour groups.

The castle is situated in a commanding position over looking the loch. There are none of the frills of a southern castle, rather it gives the impression of a real stronghold, lived in by real chieftains.

We drove back to the Skye Bridge, past the Macleod’s Tables, along the other side of the island in the lee of the 1000m, rugged, Cuillin Hills. Once on the mainland we retraced our path back past Eilean Donan Castle and then onto Invergarry.

We had done this trip in winter and the contrast was striking. The lochs were gray, and ruffled. In the winter we got perfect reflections of snow-covered hills. Despite this, the camera still clicked away merrily! But once again, Ben Nevis refused to reveal itself.

After Fort William, we drove up Glencoe: a very attractive area, with a very troubled and blood thirsty past. The road continued through a boggy moor (the largest in Scotland, UK, World? [pick one]) to the Bridge of Orchy. From there we followed the Glen Orchy River along a very minor road, amply supplied with many perfect picnic spots.

Our final destination was Inveraray. This is a most unusual town. It was built in the 18th century, designed by John Adam and situated at a suitable distance from the new castle, undoubtedly to keep the ‘rabble at bay’.

Over the sea to Skye - 29 August 2006

We left Inverness in the rain, but soon reached sunshine in Dingwell. This is a very attractive town and next door is Strathpeffer, a Victorian spa town.

The road wound up into the mountains and we stopped at another waterfall to see the salmon jump again. We had heard about this, seen it on the television etc but nothing compares to seeing it in the wild, the athletic feats of the salmon are simply amazing. However, the next waterfall would have been a challenge for even the most energetic salmon, 50m straight up! The Falls of Measach plummet into Corrieshalloch Gorge, a deep, narrow, box canyon spanned by a 200 year old suspension bridge built by the same chap who co-designed the Forth Rail Bridge.

Although we were often driving though showers, the sun shone brightly at every stop. We drove past small towns and attractive lochs to Inverewe Gardens. These were developed from 1865 onwards on a bare hillside next to a loch. The gardens are extensive, and the walled garden is full of colourful flowers. Considering all the topsoil was carried to the gardens in baskets it is a real achievement in such an inhospitable environment.

Our last stop for the day on mainland Scotland was Eilean Donan Castle. Allegedly the McKenzie Castle, but this one is a fake and less than 100 years old. So we only took photos and had a coffee in the car park before driving over the new Skye Bridge, apparently the biggest single span bridge outside Australia.

The Island of Skye is much more rugged and much bigger than we expected. It took us an hour to reach our B&B at Portree. We would thoroughly recommend this very attractive town: the harbour is just like a picture postcard.

Stepping into history - 28 August 2006

An excellent way to avoid Bank Holiday Monday traffic was to tour the edge-of-the-world highway across the top of Scotland.

We set out at 7am to catch the sunshine, which was only promised for the morning. The first highlight of the morning was the Whaligoe Steps. These are 365 steps leading down to a tiny harbour. At the peak of the herring fishing era women used to carry baskets of herrings up the steps from the harbour. The entire flight of steps is wide enough for two-way traffic. There is not really a harbour at the foot of the steps, just a small bay with sheer cliffs all around, so the men sometimes had to chain their boats to the cliff to keep them safe from storms. There were no problems when we visited, as the weather was perfect.

The next highlight was a trip, out on a headland from Wick, to Castle Sinclair. Time has made this stronghold of power into a picturesque monument.

After that it was on to John O’Groats. This is not the most northerly point of mainland Britain but is probably the most northerly town so is treated as the top in all the “from Land’s End to John O’Groats” type phrases. It is equally miss-able as Land’s End. The rain arrived as we did, so we took the obligatory photo and left.

We saw an advertisement regarding the Queen Mum's holiday home (read Castle) which is on the north coast of Scotland. She spent two holidays at the Castle of Mey every year after she bought and restored it in 1952 just after she was widowed. The sun once again shone brightly, as we looked around the castle and gardens.

From there we drove through sun and rain all around the north and west coast of the Highlands. During the sunny spells, we visited the Smoo Cave, and the Falls of Shin. Smoo Cave is a huge limestone cave by the sea and just upstream the river that created it simply disappears down the proverbial ‘hole in the ground’. The Falls of Shin were fascinating in that we managed to see salmon leaping up the waterfall.

The day was rounded off with the very Scottish meal of Haggis, Neaps & Tatties.