Scottish Summer Dispatch II - Tuesday, 25th June, 2013

Dear Friends, time for a review of what we have been doing since I last wrote. We are continuing to love Scotland….the greenery, the people, the food, the treasures, everything is just perfect. Our only issue is something that is not unique to Scotland – managing European cars! In April we had a Peugeot which we never got the hang of…couldn’t make cruise control work, and never quite got a smooth ride as a result. This time we have a Citroen and Wes managed to get cruise control after a lot of fiddling and swearing and trying everything under the sun, which does include reading the manual. As we have only ever owned Mazdas, our minds are attuned to their user-friendly manuals and we don’t seem to have any difficulty at all, whereas I am quite convinced that the manual with this car belongs to another model. On Day 8 of our holiday we finally worked out how to change the time, memorise a radio station and open the fuel tank cover…..progress indeed.

Old Gaol & Courthouse, Nairn

The good news is that Warren was successful in his afternoon at Nairn Museum looking for information about his ancestors and narrowed down the area in which they lived and took photos of the sort of sheep that were stolen. He celebrated with a whisky at the local pub and we then had an early dinner at our nearest hotel, the Culloden Moor Inn, which serves quantity rather than quality…Wes had chili con carne and the mountain of rice would have fed both of us and the two boys on its own.

We drove to Elgin on Friday morning to see the famous ruined Cathedral and enjoyed walking around, climbing the tower to the lookout and getting lost in thought in the graveyard. Then we pushed on to Cullen, an historic Royal town, which we loved. It is home to the Scottish soup called Cullen Skink, which is made of smoked haddock, potatoes, leeks and cream. We went for a lovely walk there over a disused railway bridge and wished for the umpteenth time that we had Bilbo and Frodo to share the walk with us.

For dinner that night, we shared some cheese and biscuits and red wine with our hosts. The next morning I woke up exhausted as we had done too much the day before, so decided to spend the day in bed with a book and lots of cups of Jasmine tea. Muriel was very worried about me, but Warren reassured her that I needed the rest, and by Sunday morning, I had colour in my face again when I came down for breakfast. Muriel’s breakfasts are so yummy – freshly chopped fruit salad, homemade muesli, fresh local eggs, juicy sweet tomatoes, sausages, bacon, smoked salmon and special brown bread toast. We don’t have all of these things of course, but she presses them on us every morning.

We drove to Rosemarkie, where we parked the car and walked the path to the Fairy Glen. It was peaceful, green and beautiful, and we didn’t want it to end. In some ways it reminded us of parts of the walk to Twin Bridges, Daylesford, except that we had a running stream on either side of us. We then drove to Royal Burgh of Cromarty and fell in love with this little seaport instantly, stopping for a hot drink at The Pantry, and watching the local walking their dogs, who were all impatient to get to the water. We ended up having a late lunch in Inverness, at the popular Mustard Seed, where we enjoyed piping hot soup and beautifully cooked fish. Outside it was pouring with rain and we decided to go home and catch up on the footy on our laptop.

 

We sat in the lovely guest lounge watching the very exciting Brisbane win over Geelong after the siren (that’s turning the tables on the Cats, who specialise in last minute wins), saw some of Freo’s easy win over North, and discovered that Daylesford had beaten Hepburn, which was a fitting last game for Luke Adams, who has been playing for Daylesford forever! We sat around drinking whisky and wine with our hosts and welcomed the next visitors, two doctors from Manchester, who were having a rare few days off and spinning around Scotland in their beautiful MX5!

Yesterday was earmarked for the Culloden Battlefield, which was just down the road from our B&B, so we headed there on the coldest, wettest day we have had so far. We joined the Victorian National Trust before we left home, so we get free admission into any National Trust properties, castles or gardens. We found the whole battlefield and history quite dispiriting – so much unnecessary bloodshed and subsequent slaughter, but it was an excellent site and we are pleased we went.

Then onto Fort George, a huge 18^th C Fort built as a result of the scare that Bonnie Prince Charlie gave the King. We were able to walk the ramparts, visit the Museum and the Chapel and were amazed at the fact that it is a living fort, which visitors can roam around. It is home to the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Our first experience of a 3-tier pulpit

Afterwards we enjoyed a perfect late lunch at the Cawdor Inn, where we finally tasted Cullen Skink (beautiful) and I had a Scottish seafood platter, while Wes polished off venison sausages. It was a lovely way to finish off our 6 days in the Inverness area.

 

This morning, Muriel was in tears as we left, she hates her guests to go and likes them to stay in touch, so I will send her an email and let her know that we have arrived here safely in Pitlochry. On our way we detoured to visit Blair Castle and I am absolutely entranced by the history of the 12 Dukes of Atholl. It is a beautiful place, very well-kept and includes huge areas of garden which are being restored.

 

We stopped for a late bowl of soup at The House of Bruar, before driving here to Pine Trees Hotel, Pitlochry. Wes had a surprise for me, as he had booked the only suite, thinking we might enjoy having lots of space after being in B&Bs for the past 8 nights. We have so much space we don’t quite know what to do with it – a huge sitting room with comfy lounge suite and big TV (haven’t seen any Scottish TV yet); an equally large bedroom with 4-poster bed and breakfast nook, and a small but very modern bathroom. There are two fireplaces, a lovely desk where I am sitting, a drinks tray, two tea & coffee making trays, a heated towel rack we can switch on and umpteen chests of drawers and lamps. The hotel is set in large grounds and we can easily walk everywhere. Wes has just emerged from a long bath and is resting with a whisky in hand……I’ll write again soon.