Firetop

On Saturday I was very much looking forward to our drive up to Tain, North of Inverness, where we would find the Glenmorangie Malt Whisky distillery. Our Lonely Planet Guide to Scotland told us to arrive on Saturday between 10am and 4pm so we got there just after lunch. However, rather annoyingly the Lonely Planet Guide had it wrong; Glenmorangie’s distillery is closed completely on weekends - which ruled out visiting at all whilst in Northern Scotland. I was most annoyed, not least because that was one of the reasons I’d made Suzie_Q a named driver on the hire car (more…)

Following our scenic drive across the Cairngorms on Friday, we arrived at Tulloch Castle, North of Inverness, just after dark. Walking into reception past a large door marked ‘Dungeon’ I tried to find somebody to check us in - their computer was up and running but the desk was vacant - and no bell to ring. After a few minutes I wandered into the restaurant and found somebody to help us (an odd welcome really). Having completed the necessary paperwork we were shown to the honeymoon suite (room 12) up on the 4th floor (could have been 3rd but carrying a 29kg suitcase up the stairs it sure felt like 4th!). Once in and collapsed on the bed (can’t put your back out on a honeymoon) I realised that we’d missed Deal or No Deal… yet again (more…)

Fraser Castle was our first destination on Friday morning after checking out from Norwood Hall. It was yet another beautiful sunny day as we drove West towards Alford on the A944. We reached Fraser Castle at about 11:45am and discovered a virtually empty car park and closed castle. However, most castles are closed in January, and we went primarily to see the external scenery rather than any internal historical materials. (more…)

Until a week before our wedding I wasn’t sure if Suzie_Q and I would be able to stay at Norwood Hall. Unlike the other three Scottish honeymoon destinations I’d made online reservations with, Norwood’s staff hadn’t responded to my email chasers so I had to phone them to get confirmation. We arrived on Wednesday evening after a drive up from Edinburgh via the Cairngorms and received our key to the honeymoon suite. No porter to help with the heavy suitcase (still carrying BA’s ‘heavy’ sticker), and no lift – the Norwood needs an ‘Angus’ like Melville Castle, instead I struggled to take the case up two flights of stairs myself. (more…)

On Thursday morning we had breakfast and went back to bed because we’d had such a bad night’s sleep the night before (we slept on the sofa bed instead of the main bed for reasons described in the forthcoming Norwood Hall posting). By 1pm we’d switched rooms and were free to go out and enjoy Aberdeen. ‘Enjoy Aberdeen’ is probably a contradiction in terms, I’ve never seen somewhere so grey with tiny little tenements lined up row after row. We headed North out of Aberdeen for Forvie Nature Reserve – a place allegedly full of migrating winter birds and sand dunes which sounded like something a bit different from castles and snow. I was still keen to test the Digimax on something different, so a contrasting environment seemed a good idea. (more…)

On Wednesday morning we awoke to another beautiful sunny Scottish day, having overslept and only just made breakfast we had to rush to pack and check out by 11am. Having said goodbye to Melville Castle we drove around the Edinburgh City Ring Road and over the Forth Bridge (at a £1 toll fee) heading in the direction of Perth. The drive was relatively easy, very few cars or lorries about and we could see the mountains and grey clouds ahead of us on the horizon. It was certainly picturesque from the outset with hills and widely differing weather systems on show from West to East. Having passed both Perth and Dundee we were making good time - so at Forfar decided to take a large detour West via the Grampian Mountains. (more…)

Having spent two nights at the Melville Castle Hotel we checked out on Wednesday morning. We enjoyed our stay thanks in part to the extremely friendly and helpful staff. The aging porter ‘Angus’ seemed to take a shine to Suzie_Q, calling her ‘Princess’ at all times and insisting that she should be the one to receive the tour of our hotel room and not me; “You’re just her butler nowâ€? he said to me. He tested all the lights in our suite when we arrived – even changing a blown table lamp bulb within minutes of our arrival. (more…)

On a Tuesday morning filled with bright sunshine, with Scottish breakfasts lining our stomachs, we drove into Edinburgh City Centre in search of a car park. We found an NCP (St John’s Hill) and the fees were no worse than average at £5 for 6 hours. Having parked up by 12pm we took a stroll up Chambers Street, past the Royal Museum. Initial impressions of the surrounding architecture and beige stone colouring reminded me very much of Bath. As we reached the top of Chambers Street I saw a whole bunch of toothless edgy characters standing on the corner – they looked like they should have been on the Jeremy Kyle show… of course they were standing outside of main Edinburgh’s Court House! (more…)

We arrived in Edinburgh airport early on Monday afternoon, after a very bumpy approach as high winds buffeted our little British Airways plane; we could see the choppy Firth of Forth below us through the cabin window as we clutched our seat arms tightly. Thoughts of movie classic Flash Gordon went through my head as I hoped Ming the Merciless wasn’t about to fly into the cockpit and rip our pilots from their seats. (more…)

As we sadly come to the end of the Christmas and New Year holidays, I thought I would post some secretly filmed footage of a family argument taking place over a game of Trivial Pursuit (90s edition). In scenes I suspect were repeated all across the country at this time of year, a row broke out over the answer to ’What is a glass of Red Wine a day good for?’ - the official answer ‘The Heart’… the answer given ‘Heart Disease’. As the answer didn’t match what was on the card a row broke out, see the video footage on the links below. They’re taken from my phone so not the best quality but they made it onto youtube anyway. (more…)