Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 10

We had another amazing breakfast by Sheila today (included in our tariff) - the food is delicious, but she has such a sense of style in the plating up. Her sons wedding happening in 3 weeks time has an amazing story. It was supposed to happen 3 years ago, but then they went into lockdown and it was postponed indefinitely. During the covid lockdowns they decided to continue with their plans for a family (hence the highchair at our table last night), but first off, Sheila tells us, during the lockdown her husband said “Sheila, I need you for an hour or so today”. She asked if she needed to get changed and he said no, we’ve got to go now and they drove off. She thought it was to see her son’s plot of land ... read more

Sorry I didn’t write this up yesterday - I was not in the right headspace. This morning we left Sandend - so sorry to leave, we’ve had the loveliest time. We set off with lovely plans for stopping enroute to Dunnet, but these did not eventuate. We had planned to stop off at a distillery as we were passing right by, but unfortunately they were unexpectedly closed. So we continued on to Glen Morangie, but they were open only for sales in the shop. We had planned to have lunch at the Morangie House Hotel, but contrary to their website, they were not open at all, until Sunday (Mothers Day). It was about this point that the Optus coverage ceased. It seems they cover the UK, just not the highlands of Scotland. So we drove on ... read more

Very sad, our last day exploring in Banffshire. We are pleased though that we did our outdoor things yesterday, our only 100% fine day We drove firstly through Glasshaugh where my 4 greats grandmother was born back in the 1700s, and then continued on to Fordyce. I was really hoping to see a wild deer over the stone wall, as Tom did the other day, but no such luck. We do still see pheasants by the sides of the roads and in paddocks. They have an “old Kirk” at Fordyce that has been turned into a bistro and I thought “great, we’ll dine in my ancestors old church” but then I read that it had been consecrated in 1804 and that’s too recent for my family! The old, old Kirk is my family’s Kirk - St ... read more

This weather is just crazy. We were laying in bed planning our day after having our brekkie (lovely habit we’re in) exclaiming over the giant yellow thing in the sky shining radiance upon everything in the land … and then it was snowing. Then it was sunny …. Then it was snowing. We thought we’d venture out nice and early on Wednesday’s itinerary and drove as far as the turnoff to Keith, but the Yaris wasn’t so keen. It wanted to slide around on the snow, so we turned around to return and promptly passed the snow plough on his way to plough the road to Keith and throw salt on it. But return to our cottage we did, where we just relaxed until it was almost lunchtime, then set out again. We drove down the ... read more

We woke really early this morning which was handy because today we left Rothbury and headed north, back into Scotland. We stopped off at a Morrison’s supermarket, our favourite, at Dalkeith, on the Edinburgh bypass, for some groceries and then continued, taking the long scenic way because we didn’t need to be at our accommodation till later in the afternoon. At Morrisons we bought a meal deal each where we got a choice of sandwich (which was really soft and fresh, and the roast beef was sooooo tender), a snack (I chose the millionaires shortbread, which is shortbread, caramel and chocolate) and a drink (we both chose Starbucks chilled coffee). We also stocked up on porridge, frozen curries, chips and cheese and crackers. The Sharwoods frozen curries are sooo good. They are for 1 but we ... read more