Fred’n’Sue’s Peregrinations

Enough of city life and mobs of people – today was like a walk in the park compared with yesterday’s 14km ramblings. First stop Stirling and the Castle – as was said by one of the staff – Stirling is more royal than the very military Edinburgh Castle. Walking from the park and ride bus…

Another little “find” today – the village of Culross (Coo-ross) frozen in time – restored by the National Trust for Scotland to some semblance of its 16th century appearance. Culross was built on the coal mined from under the Firth of Forth, the salt production using the cheap source of energy, and as a trading…

First stop – roadside P bay ( and there are plenty of these along the major roads) for a photo stop – Ruthven Barracks ca 1719 to garrison English troops charged with putting down the first of the Jacobite “insurrections” and destroyed by Jacobite forces after Culloden – 1746 Next stop Pitlochry while we argued…

The walking trails around here are seductive – aside from the Cairngorm Mountain area the RSBP manages a huge area of the old Caledonian Forest – Scots Pines 300 – 400 years old. Today’s lesson: Caledonian forest is limited to Scotland, and is our only native pine forest. It has an open canopy of Scots…

Once again the rain held off and we headed for Cairngorm (Mountain) – forecast 4 Celcius max,windchill -3. Mode of transport – ingenious “funicular” railway – two cars with the mass of one descending “pulling” the other up providing 75% of the energy required. We enquired about the walk to the summit but 100km/h winds…

A quick catchup – lots of Skye photos to work through as we have had indifferent wi-fi and phone cover out of Portree – Port Ruigh . . . After negotiating with the locals for road space . . On single lane roads . . .Mind you this was the only traffic we encountered on…

The day started bright and clear with beautiful reflections on Loch Ness seen from our B&B at High March – our host had spent some time living in Perth while working on the dark side (Matt 😊). . . Colours of autumn foliage are just starting to show on the trees The find of the…

Driving – Ferry – more driving via Glasdrum (see later) – more driving – another ferry – more driving and “home” – our “farmstay” for the next 4 days – cheese and whiskey Photos – Glasdrum (thanks to Darcey Bussell) is relict temperate rain forest And waterfalls Not the Harry potter viaduct at Glenfinnan –…

Leisurely start to the day – 10am!!! – and the day broke bright and beautiful.and Tobermory was postcard perfect . . . Klay took us in hand – VW with 8 pax plus driver – first stop was to scan the hilltops for white-tailed or golden eagles. This guy was remarkable – he would spot…

A no camera day – just the trusty iPhone – sometimes though the watch gets it horribly wrong – we lost track of how many flights of stairs today. A warm 23C today First “appointment” for the day was the Book of Kells Experience at Trinity College. Self guided, not overly busy and a really…