Blogs from Kingussie, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

The reason we’d come to Kingussie was to visit the Highland Wildlife Park but now that’s ticked off, we decided we should see more of the place. Things to do include walking and biking and we don’t have bikes, so a walk it was. There’s plenty of walking markers dotted around, so Glyn researched online and found a short circular walk via Creag Bheag. A small chance of see red squirrels in the woods sealed the deal and I packed my longest and heaviest lens in anticipation. What the walk lacked in length it more than made up in steepness. My regular exercise is a slow jog on flat towpaths, so this was a shock to the calf muscles. The thick forest eventually gave way to heather and low hedges that probably wouldn’t be so popular ... read more

The reason we’d decided to holiday in Scotland during January was in the hope of snow. Not because I’m a big fan of the stuff but because polar bars are and polar bears are very hard / expensive to see in the wild, with snow. So the next best thing was to go to Highland Wildlife Park in the Winter as they have the only polar bears in Scotland, but just to wind me up it was a beautiful sunny day; seven ruddy degrees! Not even a ground frost in the morning! Gah! Scottish weather likes upsetting me, the reason I chose to do the Edinburgh marathon in 2007 is that I assumed the weather would be cool, but no, there was a heatwave that day. Typically we were the first to arrive and had to ... read more

Polar bears or European bears? That is the question. I like a European bear, they have friendly faces and dance like no one is watching. However, polar bears have self-assured attitude and it was cool to see them today, even though they got so muddy they were as brown as your standard bear. To see polar bears in Scotland, we had to leave Edinburgh at 7.30 am after bidding adieu to Helen, Saul and adorable baby Maisie. We drove up north to the Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig. The enclosures at the park were massive and we had to walk about a fair bit to see the animals, who didn't let us down. The majority of them were running about despite the mad weather, from strong sunshine, to gale force winds, driving rain and hail - ... read more

Kilravock in the light of day… All rightly then - Kilravock Castle was a bit of a strange stay. Mom and I never felt comfortable there. The people running it just didn’t seem all that interested in having guests there or very welcoming. The hotel had a permanent ‘No Vacancy’ sign on the door and at the end of the driveway. We even heard the receptionist tell someone on the phone that the hotel was full up. We only saw 2 other couples there and counted at least 6 or 7 rooms on the first floor alone - weird. (When I was back home and doing some research to round out this journal I went to the hotel website and it says in bold that they are welcoming guests in 2009 so maybe they were just ... read more