12 spectacular days in
sometimes sunny Scotland
sometimes sunny Scotland
The Moray
Day Four: Edinburgh to the Moray.
After breakfast, we cabbed to the airport to pick up our car. Not a real
efficient process, but an hour later we were on our way. We crossed the
Forth Bridge and headed up toward Perth. Smooth sailing so far on the
motorway at 70mph. Time to get out all the CDs we brought. We debated
about which route to take and which castles/palaces to visit. In the end, we
opted for a winding, scenic route out of Perth through the Deeside and up
to our hotel near Elgin.
Our first stop was Scone Palace. We visited the insides, the chapel, the
graveyard and the gardens, and chased around a few of the resident
peacocks. It is a lovely place and would be great for a picnic lunch. Well
worthy of its Michelin stars.
After lunch in the Palace coffee shop, we drove on up through Braemar and
Balmoral and along the Dee, but without any real stops other than to switch
drivers or take some pictures. By now we were well off the beaten path, on
a B road. We stopped at Kildrummy castle -- a ruin not far from Huntly and
a nice contrast to the elegant, inhabited Scone. We were the only ones
there and had a great time running around exploring the ruins. Did we
mention that it had been a marvelous, sunny day to this point?
As we drove on toward Elgin, the clouds closed in and the rain started. We
found our hotel -- the Old Church of Urquhart -- after a few wrong turns, but
without too much trouble. After a nice chicken dinner prepared by the hotel,
we spent the evening playing "spoons" in the guest lounge with a family
from Oklahoma.
Day Five: The Moray, Whisky and Loch Ness.
Another nice, sunny start to the day. We set out for Duffus Castle, a ruin up
near the RAF base at Lossiemouth. There is no admission here, and we
were the only people there -- perhaps the only people there all day?! It was
a little surreal standing on a ruined castle and watching British Tornado
warplanes and cargo planes taking off overhead.
Our next stop was Spynie Palace nearby. Again a ruin, and for most of our
hour there, we had it all to ourselves. Finally, on to Elgin Cathedral -- a very
impressive ruined cathedral that once was as large as some of the major
European cathedrals. We walked around Elgin a bit and liked it more than
we were led to believe we would. It was nice, in a non-touristy sort of way.
We then drove down to Dufftown, had a quick lunch, and toured the
Glenfiddich distillery. We thought it was pretty cool (particularly the tasting
at the end!!), but Allie didn't find it much to her liking; she thought it (the
whole distillery) smelled bad and had to run out of the building for a breath
of fresh air
By then, it was mid afternoon, and we decided to try to squeeze in a boat
trip on Loch Ness to satisfy Allie. So we raced off across the Speyside and
up to Inverness. Got directions to the Jacobite boat launch from the visitor
info office on the outskirts of town, then deftly followed the map with purple
highlighter through Inverness -- Marisa driving and Chris navigating. We
arrived at the boat launch just 15 minutes before the 5pm (last) trip, only to
find the boat was leaving from a different point 10 miles further down the
road. Ughh! Back in the car, racing down the road, we got there now five
minutes before departure. No problem. Onto the boat, with just one other
family on board. We cruised the loch for about an hour and passed
Urquhart Castle. It was crawling with people, so we decided we would skip
it the next day on our drive to Skye. You kind of get spoiled when you have
the ruined castles all to yourselves. Loch Ness is beautiful, but we found
the loch scenery only got better as we headed west and then south later in
our trip.
We drove back toward Elgin through Nairn, and stopped for an Italian
dinner at the Hotel Aurora (credit the ad in the Nairn tourist info book). Not
too bad. Then we went on a walk on the beach and made friends with a
few friendly, elderly locals who were very happy to tell us anything we
wanted to know.
Next Isle of Skye
our travels
home
contact us
Day Four: Edinburgh to the Moray.
After breakfast, we cabbed to the airport to pick up our car. Not a real
efficient process, but an hour later we were on our way. We crossed the
Forth Bridge and headed up toward Perth. Smooth sailing so far on the
motorway at 70mph. Time to get out all the CDs we brought. We debated
about which route to take and which castles/palaces to visit. In the end, we
opted for a winding, scenic route out of Perth through the Deeside and up
to our hotel near Elgin.
Our first stop was Scone Palace. We visited the insides, the chapel, the
graveyard and the gardens, and chased around a few of the resident
peacocks. It is a lovely place and would be great for a picnic lunch. Well
worthy of its Michelin stars.
After lunch in the Palace coffee shop, we drove on up through Braemar and
Balmoral and along the Dee, but without any real stops other than to switch
drivers or take some pictures. By now we were well off the beaten path, on
a B road. We stopped at Kildrummy castle -- a ruin not far from Huntly and
a nice contrast to the elegant, inhabited Scone. We were the only ones
there and had a great time running around exploring the ruins. Did we
mention that it had been a marvelous, sunny day to this point?
As we drove on toward Elgin, the clouds closed in and the rain started. We
found our hotel -- the Old Church of Urquhart -- after a few wrong turns, but
without too much trouble. After a nice chicken dinner prepared by the hotel,
we spent the evening playing "spoons" in the guest lounge with a family
from Oklahoma.
Day Five: The Moray, Whisky and Loch Ness.
Another nice, sunny start to the day. We set out for Duffus Castle, a ruin up
near the RAF base at Lossiemouth. There is no admission here, and we
were the only people there -- perhaps the only people there all day?! It was
a little surreal standing on a ruined castle and watching British Tornado
warplanes and cargo planes taking off overhead.
Our next stop was Spynie Palace nearby. Again a ruin, and for most of our
hour there, we had it all to ourselves. Finally, on to Elgin Cathedral -- a very
impressive ruined cathedral that once was as large as some of the major
European cathedrals. We walked around Elgin a bit and liked it more than
we were led to believe we would. It was nice, in a non-touristy sort of way.
We then drove down to Dufftown, had a quick lunch, and toured the
Glenfiddich distillery. We thought it was pretty cool (particularly the tasting
at the end!!), but Allie didn't find it much to her liking; she thought it (the
whole distillery) smelled bad and had to run out of the building for a breath
of fresh air
By then, it was mid afternoon, and we decided to try to squeeze in a boat
trip on Loch Ness to satisfy Allie. So we raced off across the Speyside and
up to Inverness. Got directions to the Jacobite boat launch from the visitor
info office on the outskirts of town, then deftly followed the map with purple
highlighter through Inverness -- Marisa driving and Chris navigating. We
arrived at the boat launch just 15 minutes before the 5pm (last) trip, only to
find the boat was leaving from a different point 10 miles further down the
road. Ughh! Back in the car, racing down the road, we got there now five
minutes before departure. No problem. Onto the boat, with just one other
family on board. We cruised the loch for about an hour and passed
Urquhart Castle. It was crawling with people, so we decided we would skip
it the next day on our drive to Skye. You kind of get spoiled when you have
the ruined castles all to yourselves. Loch Ness is beautiful, but we found
the loch scenery only got better as we headed west and then south later in
our trip.
We drove back toward Elgin through Nairn, and stopped for an Italian
dinner at the Hotel Aurora (credit the ad in the Nairn tourist info book). Not
too bad. Then we went on a walk on the beach and made friends with a
few friendly, elderly locals who were very happy to tell us anything we
wanted to know.
Next Isle of Skye
our travels
home
contact us
Scone Palace
Stream in the Grampians
Kildrummy Castle
Spynie Palace
Elgin Cathedral
