More Scotland

Went to Edinburgh Castle, bit of steep walk from bus stop and queue must have been longest we have encountered to date - waited nearly half hour to get in, but we did get an interesting tour of the castle with guy who gave history then wandered around and looked at the various exhibitions ourselves. Great view of the city. Also visited the Tartan Mill in Edinburgh and walked up and down the hills around the town. God my feet were killing me at the end of day!

We went on to Perthshire on Thursday stopping at the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle on our way to Pitlochry. The scenery is amazing, goes from rolling hills to craggy mountains with scotch pine contrasting against the lighter green bracken and brown/green low heather which in parts is starting to flower. Rivers run through the valleys and lochs seem to be abundant. We walked to the Fish Ladder in Pitlochry where 5000 salmon a year pass through to their spawning waters, seeing the salmon leap along the river was really good.

Visited Blairgowrie where nearby is the worlds tallest hedge 30 metres high by 3/4 mile long and apparently is in the Guiness Book of Records. From there we moved on to Dunkeld - Big Tree Country - Telford Bridge over Tay River and took a forest walk through Hermitage National Trust area. Did a tour of Eradour Whisky Distillery which is the smallest one in Scotland and tasted 10 year old malt whisky. Not a bad drop, very smooth.

Saturday we headed to Aviemore and on the way stopped at Blair Castle, the only white castle in Scotland and also the Queens View so called after Queen Victoria who had declared it the most beautiful view she had seen, which it was. Stopped at Killercrankie where in 1669 the Jacobites fought the Red Coats and took a walk to Soldiers Leap, where a Jacobite soldier leaped across a rugged span of the river to escape. Beautiful countryside spoilt only by the rubbish that people insist on dropping everywhere.

Believe it or not Sunday we had a day off - did some washing and walked to Aviemore which is only about 1.5 miles down the road from resort also had welcome drinks on Sunday evening, and booked a tour to the Isle of Skye for Thursday so John can have a break from driving.

Monday drove to Loch Ness and took a cruise. The weather has been incredible in Scotland but on the cruise it decided to rain just a little, never mind got some good photo's. Mind you I think I have taken a couple of thousand to date so it will take a while to sort them out on our return. We also visited the Culloden Battlefileds where the final battle between Bonnie Prince Charles and the Red Coats occurred in 1746, after which the clan life, kilts and bagpipes were banned in the highlands for many years.

The scenery here is totally amazing and although I get a bit bored with all the Battlefields and Castles which seem to interest John never-endingly we are seeing a lot of countryside in the process.

Today we went to Cairngorm Mountain and got the funicular railway to the top where there is a magnificent view. The railway runs about 1.25 miles and takes you to within 120 meters of the summit (approx 1100 meters) where there is a viewing platform. You cannot actually go out on the mountain top unless you walk up and I wasn't ready for that one. Drove back through Abernathy and took a river walk then back to the resort where we headed to the swimming pool and spa.