Claire Stanton's Blog
22nd September 2021 – 0 miles travelled
Today the weather was not so good so a day of resting, enjoying the views from the cottages, a little reading and some TV. After a week of travelling or exploring every day it was nice to take a day to enjoy the cottage and views and recharge out batteries.
21st September 2021 – 82 miles travelled
Today was forecast to be the best day weather wise of our whole holiday so we once again headed south on the A9. First stop was Latheronwheel harbour, not planned but saw the sign and thought why not go take a look. It was a nice little harbour with a stone beach.
Then we were off south still to Golspie.
When we got to Golspie we look up the kart track there, this is where people like David Coulthard, Allan McNish, Andrew Kirkaldy all competed when they started their motor sport careers.
As you drive into (or out of) Golspie high up on the hill you can see the Duke of Sutherland monument. The monument is to the 1st Duke of Sutherland and was built in 1836.
We stayed in Golspie for some lunch in a nice cafe, lovely bacon sandwich for me and then went a few doors down for some ice cream at Capaldi’s where I chose pear sorbet, first time I have seen it since I last had it in Paris back in 2002.
Golspie has a lovely sandy beach so we had a stroll along the beach after lunch.
On the journey back to the cottage we stopped by Helmsdale harbour. Helmsdale was a village developed around it’s harbour which was mainly herring fishing, it is still used as a working fishing harbour.
There was a lovely sunset over the loch opposite the cottage tonight.
20th September 2021 – 80 miles travelled
Today we headed south on the A9 to visit Dunrobin castle.
We arrived at Dunrobin castle just 10 minutes before the falconry display in the garden, so that was the first thing we did on arrival.
After the talk and display we were given the chance to see the peregrine falcon up close and have a photo taken with it.
There were a collection of birds of prey and owls on display around the grounds, one of my favourite was the Benegal Eagle Owl.
Before heading inside got to see the famous view of Dunrobin Castle which is outside from the back of the building with the beautiful gardens in the foreground.
After the falconry display we went to the tea rooms for lunch, sandwiches and cake, which were nice if a little expensive.
Then it was on to a tour of the castle.
Just as we finished the tour and headed back to the car it started to rain, good timing and back to the cottage not bothering with any further stops.
19th September 2021 – 52 Miles
It was an overcast start to the day with lots of low whispy clouds hanging in the view from the cottage.
Our first visit of the day was to Lybster Harbour just a short drive from the cottage. It is quite a small harbour with a little white lighthouse and beach.
Next we tried to find Whalligoe Steps, did get to the small car park but there was only spaces left for resident parking and was very windy so wasn’t able to stay.
Headed further north onto Wick we made a stop at Superdrug and picked up some sunscreen – bet it will be cold and wet the rest of the holiday now!
Time to try and track down old Wick castle, we didn’t look for it yesterday. Was bit of a bother, Sat Nav and signposts didn’t get us there lucky Gavin’s phone knew the way, but boy was it bumpy. A really long rough track and both our bits were feeling a little bruised by the time we go there 🙁 Old Wick Castle itself was disappointing, it was cold and raining too.
We bumped our way back down the uneven track and had a trip to Tesco to stock up.
Then back to Wick, again, to get pizza take away to take back to the cottage with us, though we think we got given the wrong order as it had olives on it and we ordered a veggie one! Do veggie pizza’s normally have olives?
There was a lovely sunset over Loch Rangag, which is the loch we can see in front of our cottage this week.
18th September 2021 – 64 miles travelled
Despite the long days to get here we were up and out early as today is predicted to be one of the better days weather wise.
We headed further north to start with to visit Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, a complex or ruined stone structures built over 200 years, originally in 1470 and added to through the early 17th century. Tom Tom took us via the A9 in direction of Thurso which involved a lot of small roads to get there, am sure there is a better route.
From the car park for the castle we were able to view Noss lighthouse, this was the first lighthouse to have diagonal glass panes on the exterior of the lantern. You can stay in the cottages at the bottom of the lighthouse – maybe next time.
From Castle Sinclair Girnigoe we were going to head to Sinclair Bay but not specific destination, it is a long large bay, when we saw a signpost for Staxigoe harbour and decided to follow the sign to investigate.
It was a beautiful harbour and the day had turned out lovely, beautiful blue skies with fluffy white clouds and it was really warm. There was some big waves breaking on the rocks and a little grebe bobbing about. There was a couple of picnic tables down by the harbour so we took our lunch down to enjoy there and afterwards Gavin put the drone up for a fly around.
After a long lunch break, couple of hours, we drove to Keiss beach on Sinclair Bay, had originally tried to view Keiss Castle but this would have been a long walk along the headland. Keiss beach was a lovely long sandy beach with only a few people on it, there was a strong breeze blowing off the sea.
Next castle of the day was Ackergill castle which we saw sign posted and was on the information board at the earlier castle. We didn’t get up to Ackergill castle but stopped at a little harbour that gave us lovely views of it over the bay.
The journey back to the cottage took us via Wick so had a quick pit stop to see Wick harbour. Wick has quite a large harbour which was very photogenic.
17th September 2021 – 235 miles travelled
Today is the third and final leg of our journey to Latheron in north east Scotland, near Wick, with lots of sites en route.
Not too far from Perth was our first stop for the day at The Hermitage, a place recommended to us on a previous visit to see the Enchanted Forest at Pitlochry. The Hermitage is a forest walk, along the banks of the river Braan and has the Black Linn Falls. There are red squirrels (that we didn’t see).
Out next planned stop was Blair Atholl palace, we didn’t want the tour just to see the building but it was expensive so we decided not to stop and go on to Blair Atholl watermill. They were fixing a fault with the sluice gates so tours were not available but we were able to get some lunch in the cafe – toasted sandwich for me and soup and roll for Gavin, all made with their own milled flour and was lovely.
After some lunch we continued on to Ruthven Barracks, today Ruthven Barracks are as was left by the departing Jacobites in April 1746. Most of the exterior walls remain but little of the interior or roof.
Continuing north we crossed both the Dornoch firth and the Cromarty firth on the way to Tain.
At Tain we took a detour off the main road to visit the Mermaid of the North. The Mermaid of the North sits on a rock called “Clach Dubh” in village of Ballintore. The tide was out so didn’t look as spectacular as photo’s i’d seen, it’s all about timing!
Final stop before reaching final destination was Tesco in Tain to get our groceries for the next week, or as much as we could fit around everything in the car. Then it was on to Loch End cottage which is 5 miles on from Latheron on the A9 north. We are staying in the cottage for the next week to explore the east coast of the northern highlands. The cottage stands on its own directly off the A9, there are no other houses near by, we missed the turning as it was dark and raining by the time we got there so had to turn round and head back.
16th September 2021 – 229 miles travelled
First leg of today’s journey was a short one, back onto the M6 and up the road to Tebay services to visit the farm shop, which we have been watching on the TV recently. Was a little disappointed with the range of jams and the cheese counter seemed smaller and not as well marked, Gavin did manage to get a couple of ewe’s milk cheeses though. We also picked up some nice rolls and Kendal mint cake to take back for my dad.
From there it was a long stretch up the M6, over the boarder into Scotland, couple of stops for expensive fuel to Doune Castle. The castle is famous as a filming location for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Game of Thrones and Outlander. There is work being done on the castle so it’s not open to the public at the moment but you can walk around and see the outside. The sun came out as we pulled into the car park and we took a stroll around and got a few photo’s.
From Doune castle we drove through Callander onto Edinample Falls but wasn’t able to get to the falls itself so continued on to Perth for our overnight stop.
Tonight we stayed at Monart Apartment in Perth which had a fish and chip shop in walking distance so that was dinner sorted.
15th September 2021 – 224 miles travelled
It has been 2 years since we last got to go on holiday, in fact for the last 18 months we have hardly left the house except for medical appointments – thank you Covid! But now after the disappointment of last years holiday being cancelled as travel was banned from England we are on our way to Scotland for a couple of weeks.
Our first leg of the journey is from home to overnight at Romney’s Apartments near Kendal, on the way we stopped at Morecambe.
We had a long walk along Morecambe prom, the weather was so warm with clear blue sky, grabbed a sandwich from Aldi and sat on the prom to eat before walking a little further for ice cream.
Just a little further was the Eric Morecambe status so had to get my photograph taken with him.
By this point we were both starting to feel a little bit sunburnt, who thought we would need sunscreen mid September in northern England, it was definitely warmer than forecast. On the way back along the prom to the car park we walked part of the way on the beach.
As we got back to the car we saw a whole pack of starlings getting ready to settle down for the night.
We completed the short rest of our drive to Romney’s for our overnight stay. On arrival I had a very sore toe, on investigation had the hugest blister on one of my toes, all the skin gone on one side, great start to the trip, guess that what happens after 18 months of little walking.
Today was a bit of a damp squid, as predicted it rain almost all day, so we had a day in at the cottage although I did nip out in a break in the rain to get petrol ready for tomorrow.
Thursday 8th August 2019
Today was forecast to be best weather for the week so we headed off north once more in our summer best for our tour of the power station.
This time we took the road to Oban it was good to have a different view but can see why satnav took us up Loch Fyne last time it is a better quality road if a little futher.
It was an interesting tour, they take you by bus from the visitors centre up and a little way into the mountain, then there is a short walk to the viewing platform where you can see the top of the turbines. They explain how it all works, when and how the power is generated, can start producing power within 28 seconds if generators already switched on, they also had screens showing how much power was being produced at the time by solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, gas etc.
After the tour we had some lunch in the cafe and continued slightly further north to visit Port Appin and Castle Stalker.
Castle Stalker is the castle featured in the Monty Python Holy Grail film, it is privately owned although they offer tours a few times a month with prior booking, it was fully booked for the days we were there.
On the way back to the cottage from Castle Stalker we stopped in Oban to see McCaig’s Tower, it was built to imitate Rome’s Colosseium. From here you can see seaward panoramas over Oban and it’s port, the largest port in north west Scotland.
