Well I think we could not have chosen a more fitting, or more gob smackingly beautiful location to end our year in the north! We had the whole Mull of Kintyre ‘mist rolling in from the sea’ thing happening regularly, just to add to the prevalent old and mystical feel to this ancient country.
We began with a night in Aberdeen, flying from Leeds as it was barely more expensive than the train and alot quicker naturally. Plus it gave me a discount on a hotel and the car hire – bonus! We stayed right in the centre of town and so we spent a couple of hours hopping between pubs and chatting to some of the locals. Aberdeen is known as the ‘Granite City’ due to the predominance of the local stone used to build the majority of the city and surrounds. I imagine when the sun is high it would look quite stunning. Unfortunately it was dark when we arrived, and barely dawn when we left at just after 9am, so we didn’t get to see that. No matter. It is clearly a vibrant place, despite the predominantly grey colour of the city skape. And like everywhere in the UK, they do their Christmas Lights really well! I think this old church turned goth/castle/pub was our favourite place of the night. Check out the secret passage behind the books 🙂 Which in fact lead to the ladies loo…
Friday morning we carefully drove out of Aberdeen amidst a thick fog that varied in intensity depending on how high we were, but pretty much stayed with us all that day. Didn’t distract from the gorgeous country though. By midday we were skirting around the south of Inverness, intent on catching a glimpse of Nessy. As it happened we had been driving along side Loch Ness for who knows how long, without realising as the water was so completely obscured by the mist! So here I am, getting about as close to the water as my built in thermostat would allow, sending Nessy a “Saw your ripples, thought we’d drop in” message via mental telepathy… I have no doubt as to the beauty of the area in the summer months. The lake was so tranquil and the country surrounding very lush. But I’m glad we came in winter, with the fog. Much more eerie and mystical (despite being bloody freezing!)
We hung around Loch Ness for about an hour, driving on some lovely windy roads, and through some cattle country apparently. At least I think they were cattle? Whatever they were they had a brilliant fur coat as you can see. (I could have done with one of those. Did I mention how cold it was? Whenever the thermometre in the car rose to 0.0° we cheered and sang ‘Heatwave’!) So we met back up with the main road and began heading seriously north to the serious ‘Highlands’. Here’s a shot of the fog sitting in a valley we’re about to drive into:
Then a few minutes later, we were in it…
Fortunately it didn’t stay like that the whole time, and I didn’t get beeped at once from impatient locals who obviously know the roads and are use to the conditions. Who said the Scots are impatient?
By about 4pm the sun was down and we were ready to call it a day. So we stopped for the night at The Eagle Hotel/B&B in a lovely seaside village called Dornoch. Very reasonably priced and gorgeous food. The homemade pate was simply divine 🙂 Wasn’t long before we both started to fade though, as can be seen by the evidence! Well, Nessy hunting in the fog is a taxing business after all… Don’t worry, she got up for long enough to ditch the boots. So we had a good nights sleep in a toasty warm room, before breaking the ice off the car to start again the next morning.
Before leaving Dornoch about 9.30, we took a quick drive around the village and inadvertently ended up in the middle of the golf course – whoops! Not really a problem once we realised that the people wavng to us were not just being friendly, but wanted us to move the car so as we didn’t end up with a golf ball ornament @_@. I’m sure we would have caught on sooner had it not been for laughing so hard at these blokes playing golf! IN THE ICE!! It was -4.5°C!!! WHAT are these guys on??
Our aim for the day was to make it to John O’Groats, the absolute top of the mainland – and we did. About 30 minutes out of Dornoch the fog cleared and so the driving was much easier. Still a bit ‘slippy’ (as the locals would say) in the many little gullys, but the windy roads are well maintained. The most dangerous part is trying not to miss the glorious views while driving – I pulled over lots…
The Highlands are dotted (like a kid with chicken-pox) with castles and crags, most in ruins, but some lavishly refurbished. This is Mey Castle. Big and stunning. Most of these places close down for the winter so we didn’t get to see inside. Didn’t take away from seeing it though.
So we reached John O’Groats early afternoon after many ‘looky’ stops, had a cup of coffee and watched the barge going between the Islands clearly visible from the mainland. Then we skipped across to Thurso for a gander, before heading down the centre of the Highlands on the inland road. Meeting back up with the coast about 3pm, we were just in time to see the ‘mist rolling in from the sea’ – literally! There’s only about 3 minutes between these 2 photos. I was stunned at how fast it moves. The photo could never do this scene justice. The blanket of cloud was so thick, and so pristinely white with the sun giving it all a last blast before he went down for the day. Yeah – that was the breathtaking part (apart from the cold of course…)
The village just down the bottom of that hill was Helmsdale, and looked like a perfect stop for our last night in Scotland. We were wondering around the couple of streets in Helmsdale, checking out the prices of accomodation, when we were approached by a woman selling raffle tickets. As she didn’t know us by sight, we were obviously not locals, and upon hearing our accent Arlene took it upon herself to ensure we had all we needed for a memorable stay. Within half an hour we had arranged a room at a lovely B&B ran by her friend just up the road, were enrolled in the pool comp at an incredibly friendly pub, and we had a free feed of sandwiches and nibblies to boot! We performed abysmally in the pool comp, but somehow or other still managed to win a prize? Or was that from the raffle? Anyway, we have a lovely handmade thermal bag from Helsmdale, and supported the Lifeboat by participating. As per usual, all batteries had well expired so I have no pics of these lovely people who made our night just wonderful. But if any of you Helmsdale-ites are reading this, a big G’Day to Maggie, Arlene, Margaret, Andy, Philip, Dara, Fergus, and quite a few others who I can’t remember their names. I did get a picture of the B&B the next morning though. It use to be the Vestry attached to an old church across the road, and yes, it was haunted. Gothling will tell you ALL about it! As the fog had cleared that night, it was our best chance to see the Aurora Borealis, and it was indeed a beautiful star filled night sky, but no flickering coloured lights I’m afraid. Ah well – just have to go to Norway won’t I!
We had most of the next day to get back to Aberdeen for our 6pm flight back to Leeds, so we made the most of the scenic route going through 16th century sea ports like Portsoy, Banf and Pennan. Can I say, once again, how stunning it is when the sun shines on a field covered in the thickest frost?
We also detoured a couple of times to the occasional castle – as you do. Cannot recall the name of this one, and actually the castle itself was quite an ugly thing painted in a strange dull pink, but the surrounds were very interesting. Gothling is standing by the little wheel house next to the FROZEN pond! It’s so much easier to skip stones on ice…
This was the first of three – um – not sure what the correct name would be – stone things, leading to the main entrance. They certainly predated the main building by a long way so were no doubt part of the original castle, the rest of which has long decayed. Look really old hu? (That’s the stone thing – not ME!) I’m guessing at 11th century. (That’s the stone thing – not ME!)
So we arrived at Aberdeen airport with enough time for a quick bite before the 45 minute flight back to Leeds. Our last adventure completed succcessfully. We might not have seen the northern lights, but we did see (and feel) the northern wonders. Tis a truly magnificent part of the world. I just hope I don’t make a certain ginger topped library manager too homesick when she reads this. I’ll just have to track her down and drag her back if she suddenly disappears… 🙂