A Sun Shiny Day in the Cairngorms

We were delighted to awake to brilliant blue skies and sunshine this morning!  After yet another fabulous breakfast, 

we bid fond farewell to Norrie and started out for a gallivanting adventure through the Cainrgorms.

Our first destination of the day was Corgarff Castle.  Now,  I don’t exaggerate when I say that this fortification is literally in the middle of nowhere.  And, in order to get there, one must cross the northern slopes of the Cairngorm plateau.

The drive was truly breathtaking……in more ways than one.  I would say that the scenery was amazing, but I decided to take the back seat in the car to prevent our daughter from becoming car sick.  Not that I couldn’t see and enjoy the beauty from my car position, but nothing makes me more nervous than when my husband decides that he must look at the view when driving.

So, here he is, driving a standard transmission, with the gear shift AND the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car than what one would normally be used to.  All while driving twisty turny roads at 60 mph…..not to mention on the opposite side of the road than what we are used to.   So, when he says, “Wow!  Look at that!” and I note that the car is slightly drifting into the other lane, my comment is generally, “I can’t , because SOMEONE has to watch the road!”

So, that could explain some of my breathlessness.  Although I did manage to absorb some of the amazing beauty along the way.

After some white knuckle moments, we finally arrived at our destination.  And let me say…..it was actually quite a disappointment.  The online brochure featured a beautiful, white bulwark, surrounded by a  white, star shaped fortification,


And, here’s what greeted us when we arrived.

We decided that since we had traveled all this way, we would still pay the fee for the self tour through the building.  When we popped through the door and startled the volunteer, we agreed that he probably doesn’t see many people peaking their head through the door.  In fact, we watched one couple arrive, look at the building, read the information sign, jump back into their car, and drive away.

Even the sheep seemed to question just why we were there.

  

But you know us, always up for something different.  So, we toured the building, which took all of about 25 minutes.

And, here’s a quick synopsis.  the castle was built by John Forbes as a tower house in 1550. It was burned down in 1571 during a clan fight, and, again, in 1689 by Jacobies, and in 1715 by Government forces.  

In 1748, the castle was converted to military barracks when the flanking pavilions were added in an unusual star shaped enclosure.  It has been restored to represent what it would have looked at in that year.

We walked around the building, took some shots,

then loaded back into the car to continue our windy adventure through the Cairngorms to Kildrummy Castle Gardens. 

The brochure states that this is one of Scotland's hidden secrets, and let's just say that we can definitely agree with that statement!  We maneuvered our way up a long road to the Kildrummy hotel, turned around, and drove back towards the road, entered again, stopped and read the sign that stated that entrance was through the Hotel, only to learn that tickets are to be purchased near the bottom at the little tea shop.  

No worries.  We are used to having to back track.   And, once we were in the gardens, it was obvious that it was worth the effort. 

The gardens are actually built in a quarry that was left behind after the building of the castle. 

They are privately owned and get no funding from the government, but they do abut against Kildrummy castle, which is owned by Historic Scotland.  But we opted to pay the admission to the gardens rather than the castle, and I honestly believe that the castle views were perfect from this vantage point and would offer little more by walking closer. 

There was actually a lot of up and downhill walking, and we joked that it verged on the edge of a "2 booter", but that was only due to the fact that there had been so much rainfall on Thursday, that the grades were pretty slippery and I really needed to carefully watch my footing.  

From here we headed back again on yet more windy roads and made our way to Craigievar Castle.  Marty and I had tried touring this castle 2 years ago when we had visited, only to find that it had closed early for the season, without warning.  

The history behind this castle shows that it had changed hands several times, but had never been involved in a battle.   It was originally owned by the Mortimers in the 1300s and   purchased in 1610 by William Forbes who added the upper floors and embellished it with turrets and towers.  It is said that Walt Disney used this castle as his basis for the Sleeping Beauty Castle.   

The interior contains articles that have been in the castle since the early 1600's.  The tour was fascinating and well worth the time and cost and we were thrilled to finally be able to see the inside.

There was a funny story which involved Queen Victoria visiting the castle.  She apparently showed up at the castle one day, found no one at home, and decided to wander through the place until a servant found her.  Unfortunately, the young servant did not recognize the queen at the time, and you can well imagine the outcome of that circumstance!

The only disappointment regarding the day, was that I had promised Amy that we would have tea and scones at the castle, as nearly every castle that we have visited has had SOME kind of tea room where Marty and I would partake in a brief respite with a scrumptious treat.  Unfortunately, this castle did NOT have a tea room.  So, I asked the woman who gave our tour if she could recommend someplace, and she suggested a wee shop in Lumphanen.  

We were there in short time and had no problem finding it as it was literally the ONLY shop anywhere near our travels.   

The experience was absolutely delightful! The place is run by a single, older woman,  who welcomed us as we entered, told us to have a seat, and she went about making a cheese toastie for another customer while getting a set of tea ready for another couple.  We patiently waited until she was finally able to take our order, a good 15 minutes later.  She was really quite entertaining and I will say that we definitely were enjoying the REAL Scottish experience.  We ordered the Earl Grey tea, and lemon drizzle cake (as the scones were all gone for the day), and I can tell you that it was delectable. 

Tea was served in these lovely English Bone China tea cups.

When we left, we told Rosalind, the proprietor, that her Lemon Drizzle cake had been scrumptious, and she commented that she had been concerned by the taste because the middle had sunk after baking.  But we all agreed that only added to the deliciousness because that area sucked up even more of the lemon drizzle! When we walked out of the door, we knew that we had just experienced a memory that would last for some time.  And, really, that IS what gallivanting is all about!

I've much more to share, but it's getting late and we have an early day planned for the morning.

So, for now, I bid you goodnight and look forward to sharing tomorrow's adventures, which, really, should NOT involve any crazy driving!

Gallivanting in the Highlands

What a marvelous day we had today in Kingussie!  We started with a fabulous breakfast, of course, complete with a starter bowl of porridge.  This place makes some of the best that we've ever tasted!

We are staying at the Arden Guest House which is located just at the base of Creag Bheag.

We had decided that we would venture out to walk the  trail named after the small mountain.  We were told that there could be some rather slippery spots, as well as some challenging slopes, but we figured that we were up to the challenge.  After all, the walk was rated only a "2 booter."  That sounded innocent enough, don't you think?

Before we left, I mentioned to Norrie, the proprietor, that I wasn't too thrilled to see that his rain gauge was falling right in the middle of RAIN.  He insisted that the proper way to read that meter was to look at  the opposite end of the arrow.  And it was pointing past FAIR, so the day would be perfect.

Did I mention that Norrie has quite the sense of humor?

There were dark grey skies looming in the distance, we headed out anyway, hoping for the best.

The trail might be easy to find.......if someone knows where to look for it. We did finally locate the entrance to the trail, but only after stopping to ask a local along the way.  He said that we wouldn't be able to miss it.

We did find the directive pole, 

but the real clue was this green sign, pointing to the summit.  Note that the sign states that the summit is 3/4 of a mile. 

Let me just say that this just might be the LONGEST 3/4 of a mile that I've ever walked!

It began simple enough.

Fern and flowers along the way.

with a crumbling stone wall that added to the aura.

Of course, we had to stop after a bit and take a photo featuring the beautiful landscape.

Then we spotted this sign, pretty much in the middle of nowhere on this mountain, directing us to the left in order to get to the top.  And, to be quite frank, I do not recall any sign of a trail leading to the right.  

It was at about this point that I asked my husband what the reference range was regarding the boots in respect to the difficulty of the trail.   Was it 1 to 5?  1 to 10?  1 of 3?   That's when he informed me that it was the last option.  Not that I wouldn't have presumed that I could handle it, but I will admit that there were some challenges that did make the hike a bit tricky.

Nowhere had the paperwork mentioned that the trail would actually involve little waterfalls along the way.  And I don't mean waterfalls for viewing.  I mean that the trail was actually under water!   We were equipped with boots, but the walking was muddy, wet, and slippery at parts, as you can well imagine. 

But the views along the way to the top were breathtaking.

Here you can see the village of Kingussie from whence we began.

The Summit was adorned with triangular rock piles,

and there was a real relief when we finally reached the top.

This was a circular route, and we had some magnificent views to view while making the decent down the other side.

Once we were nearly at the bottom, we spotted another sign, which kind of reminded me of the scarecrow in the wizard of oz, as two of the pointers actually had the same route, but they were pointing in different directions.

We opted to follow along the loch and through the woods.

These trees at the bottom looked far different from the ones at the top as they had some sort of light green growth on them, adding a very eerie essence. 

We walked past this old crumbled stone house, and found ourselves on the local golf course, with a sign reminding us to be wary of golf balls.

Which we immediately heeded when a group of golfers suddenly appeared within a few feet of us.  

Just for the record, they didn't seem the least bit inquisitive as to why we were hiking through the course, so it must be a common occurrence as it is supposedly part of the path.  

I'll admit that by this time, I was pretty tired.   Who knew that rock climbing could be so exhausting!  But we finally ended up on a road, that led us by this amazing waterfall. 

After a short rest at our B&B, we headed out to enjoy to a local shop for something to revitalize us.  I ordered a Highland Fog, which was an Earl Grey Latte, and a Victorian Sponge cupcake.  Both were absolutely out of this world!

Afterwards, we walked briefly around town, enjoying the sunshine that had briefly popped through.

And here you can see the top of the front of the mountain that we had climbed earlier in the day.

Pretty impressive, don't you think?

Around 3:30, we headed just a few miles north, to see the working dogs at a nearby farm.  The location offered quite a spectacular view with the sun shining on that mountain.

The "working dogs" are border collies, and the shepherd who owns them is really quite famous in this area for putting on a demonstration showing them herding the sheep.

Just a few calls and whistles, and the shepherd had those dogs bringing in the sheep from quite a distance, with them all ending up in a puddle not far from where we stood.

This puppy caught my attention

and it was fun watching him concentrate on the shepherds calls

Hunkering down, wanting to be part of the fun.

The shepherd then grabbed one of the rams, and began to show us how he can clip the wool off of the sheep in such a way that it comes off in entirely one piece.

which he then rolled into a ball.  

He said that the wool is sold all over the world, mentioning more countries than I can remember.

Honestly, if you are ever in this area, it is well worth checking out this place.  This man is extremely entertaining and the dogs are a delight to watch with the exuberance and willingness to follow his instructions.

At this point, we headed back to Kingussie, but stopped briefly at the Ruthven Barracks.

This stone barracks was where the Jacobites retreated after their horrendous lost at Culloden.  It stands on a high mound, and dominates the landscape.  

We were very fortunate to have skirted the raindrops, but the weather became extremely windy and cold and we were glad that we all opted to bundle up prior to checking the place out.

Dinner was once again, only a few blocks from our B&B, at Norrie's suggestion.  Amy and I both opted for the Aberdeenshire Angus steak, which was amazing.  And, after today's hiking, how could we resist sharing this chocolate tart?

In case you are wondering.....it was delectable!

Well....tomorrow we say good bye to Kingussie, but you can be guaranteed that another adventure awaits us!

I'll keep you posted!