Day 18 - Thursday 16 March - Fordyce, Findochty

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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 Tarquin, and it was soooo interesting. We had TEN baptisms, 4 marriages and 1 burial (1677-1787), and that’s only direct ancestors! There were many of our surnames in the kirkyard, but only distant cousins. It was very wet, but so atmospheric, really beautiful (apart from a room underneath a crypt that gave me the heebie jeebies just standing outside!).

Fordyce itself was totally quiet, not a soul in sight. After exploring Fordyce we drove back to the coast, just stopping to check out an abandoned trainline - we‘d noticed the train-beds going into Portsoy yesterday, with beautiful stone bridges going over them, and of course there’s the viaducts over Cullen and then today there’s another beautiful stone bridge in the middle of nowhere.

We explored Portnockie and Findochty, and finding lunch in a pub there, the Admiral’s Inn. Tom had Cullen Skink gnocchi - an interesting variation, although why they put a poached egg on it I’ll never know. I had the fish pie. We both think we’ve had enough haddock now.

Then back home for a nap and time to pack up.

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