Morse

Morse
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Sunday, 12 October 2014

Scotland Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 12th October 2014




Dear Everyone, when I left you on Thursday morning we were planning a walk to Killiecrankie, site of a famous battle won by King James II, and walk it we did. It had rained overnight, but the sun was out as we set off on what was to be a 3 mile walk. We think we walked 6 miles in total, and certainly it took us 2¼ hours to find the Visitor Centre, passing Soldier’s Leap, a burial spot and an old viaduct on the way. We met quite a few people on this walk, but most only said hello and went on their way. Although we had planned to walk back to Pitlochry, we had to abandon that idea and ring for a taxi, as there wasn’t enough time to get us back to our 2pm Matinee of Mr Bolfry.


White swans, such a treat, on the way from the Golf Course

We popped into home, Claymore B&B, to change clothes, down a cuppa & biscuit and relax very briefly before walking back to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre along the dam and by the fish ladder. The play was quite different from the others we have seen, and although it seemed somewhat dated to begin with, we felt that its premise – it’s as easy to follow the Devil as it is to follow God, is quite relevant in today’s world. Dougal Lee, the actor playing the Devil, Mr Bolfry, is the most accomplished of the troupe here and he played this role with aplomb. When we came outside at the end, it was raining heavily, so we rang for a taxi again, and discovered a 94-year-old man waiting for one as well. We persuaded our driver to take him with us and deliver him to the Green Hotel, and were thrilled when the driver not only opened the cab door for him, but escorted him to the front of the hotel and opened that door as well.

Our driver then took us to the Pitlochry Golf Club, where we settled down to a lovely two course meal of tomato & lentil soup, followed by grilled Shetland salmon, both accompanied by our waiter’s favourite wine, a French cabernet sauvignon, which was very smooth, not quite as flavoursome as our Australian palates crave, but enjoyable. We watched golfers carrying their bags up and down dale and decided this was a much prettier golf course than the famous St Andrew’s and probably much more affordable.

Claymore – we were in the bay window room

We walked home in the mist afterwards and spent a quiet evening reading with cups of tea and biscuits to keep us going. Our room here is very spacious and comfortable with an excellent bed and a pair of very inviting chairs in the bay window. Like most places, it doesn’t offer nearly enough hanging space or drawers and nowhere near enough power points. Our guest bedroom at home has 14 power points; there are 4 in the bathroom, and 2 in the passage outside the room, which should be enough for the most electronic minded guest. Here we have 4 power points in total and are forever plugging and unplugging things to charge our phones or the laptop or to use the hairdryer or iron. The bathroom is the size of 1.5 toilets and has been inserted into this lovely old room, as is often the case. The shower is right-angled in design and quite tiny, and it takes forever for the water to heat up. We still fill buckets at home with the cold water while we wait for our shower to get warm, and here we could easily fill three bucket loads each morning. The light switch which activates the tiny exhaust fan is outside the room and there is a small fluorescent light over the mirror once you are inside. We do have heated towel racks, which are operated from a switch on the floor outside the bathroom and quite tricky to work, but a godsend for drying underwear and socks. All this we can cope with, but we are very frustrated with the inadequate reading lights, which are dull, too low and too shaded to offer much in the way of illumination.

However, our hosts, Graeme & Dianne, are excellent and rarely could you stay in a B&B for eight days straight and not get sick of the breakfasts. We wanted to book a self-contained cottage, but could only have one for 7 days – Saturday to Saturday and we needed the extra Friday beforehand, which no-one was prepared to do for us. The Claymore is voted no 1 on Trip Advisor, so I think we have done well.

Wes had planned for us to walk Ben-y-Vrackie on Friday, and I had gone along with that, not really knowing what we were letting ourselves in for. We had our usually yummy breakfast and set off to walk along the West Moulin Road in search of the start of the walk, which was at a little car park, about 20 minutes from our B&B.

Now that it is over, we think it is probably the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives – climbing the rock at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, in 1979 & again in 2011, is the most dangerous thing we have ever done, but climbing a Munro that reaches 841 metres at its summit is pretty hairy. Most of the path is rocks in haphazard fashion, with very occasional straight patches. It wasn’t easy and we were tempted to give up but Wes really wanted to do it, so we soldiered on. I took Cliff Young as my hero and adapted my walk to his shuffle. By halving the size of my steps I conserved energy and was never breathless. Wes preferred to walk 100 steps then rest, so we were always close to each other on the path. Getting there was such a thrill!

A Canadian couple took this photo in return for us taking theirs

Getting down again was not so good – we decided to come down the path on the other side, which we had trouble finding, but it didn’t have any rocks and I wasn’t sure that we would be able to negotiate the rocks as neither of us had sticks to help us. So off we trotted and eventually realised we were going further and further away from Pitlochry, so plunged into the heather, down the side of the outcrops and eventually found a 4-wheel drive path, and even more eventually ended up at Killiecrankie Visitor Centre. I rang a taxi but they were all doing the school run, as were the buses, so we walked the 4 miles home to Pitlochry and arrived back at 4.45pm, 7 hours after we set out that morning.

We were exhausted but exhilarated, and after a short rest and showers and a change of clothing from top to toe, we set off for the Festival Theatre for our final play – The Yellow on the Broom. We had decided to grab a sandwich and drink at the cafĂ© there rather than try and eat a full meal, and that was perfect, as we managed to chat with two of the actors on their way past the bar. They were thrilled with our compliments, delighted we had come all the way from Australia and were looking forward to short breaks after the season finishes at the end of next weekend.

We didn’t much enjoy the play, which is about Scottish travellers, so at interval we decided to go home as we felt an extra hour’s sleep was more necessary than seeing the end of the show. We fell into bed and slept soundly, before waking yesterday morning in plenty of time for breakfast, packing, and a walk to the Catholic Church, a final check on the Fish Ladder, and then the two hour train trip to Edinburgh. We were lucky enough to get seats with a table attached and not too many other travellers fighting over it.

We booked into the Princes Street Suites, which are in Princes Street within walking distance of absolutely everything. First thing we did was unpack, and then while I mastered the washing machine/dryer combination, Wes made the wifi work and then went foraging for food. We had already decided we would spend the afternoon and evening relaxing as our tired limbs didn’t need any more walking.

Wes climbing a ladder over a dry stone wall



We didn’t sleep as well as we would have liked – back in a double bed, after the luxury of an excellent King Size and the dryer is yet to actually dry anything, so we have had that noise to content with during the night as we both need underwear and socks in preference to wearing yesterday’s stuff. However, the shower works well and after a small breakfast we are going to head off into Edinburgh and see where we find ourselves. As it is Sunday, we will avoid the most popular places and wait to do them during the week. 


Beautiful views of Pitlochry that we will miss – the Loch with the trees turning colour and the stunning vine growing up over the house

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