Scotland Aboyne to Aboyne
The first time I woke up it wasn’t raining, saw some swans on the lake. There was a bit of drizzle when I went down for breakfast and when we set off for the day. Though there had been quite a lot of flooding in Aberdeen, we are in Aberdeenshire not so bad by the loch.
First stop was the Donnie stones at Potarch
Richard the tour leader of the kilt variety had told us about a purple flower called Rose bay willow herb, all we could see were foxgloves so was good to see the flower up close, apparently it starts off this colour and when it fades to white it is the end of summer, the other prevalent wild flower roundabout is Queen Annes Lace.
The bridge over the Potarch was designed by our friend Thomas Telford of the Menai straits bridge, apparently we will see more of his designs because he was such a marvellous engineer.
We went on to see the water falls at Feugh, hoping that we might possibly see some salmon going upstream but the water was fair pounding down so any sensible salmon will be waiting until it’s easier to ascend those rocks.
One of the Australians asked why the water was brown so Richard explained about the tannins from the peat, I explained that Aussie rivers are all murky so they wouldn’t know if they had tanin or not. Flag flying!
Crathes Castle was our major stop for the day, Robert the Bruce gifted the land to the Burnett family after the original Burnett fought alongside him at Bannockburn in the early 1300’s. Still in the same family the main part of the castle, a 16th century Scottish Tower House, was turned over to the National Trust in the 1950’s - I think? Family still lives there but in the extension put on in the 1800’s.
The tour is through the kitchens up one spiral staircase, calling in at rooms on the way up, The main hall contains the horn that was given to Burnett by Robert the Bruce and used in the Burnett crest ever since. A wild boars tusk it is thought, how amazing it has been kept so long.
Rooms have a mixture of furniture and art work though some have beautifully painted ceilings.
And some great views over the garden.
Luckily the rain held off and we had some time within the beautiful walled garden and surrounds, It was such a pleasure to walk through quite colour coordinated.
Lunch was held at a nearby Crathes Bistro, one of the inclusions of the tour, I had a fillet of beef with horseradish mash and a tomato stuffed with those wee mushrooms that look a bit like knitting needle tops , don’t know how they got them in there! Followed by lemon tart and strawberry homemade ice cream. So much food!
Luckily there was going to be some walking involved in the afternoon as we were booked at a local pub for dinner. Stopped in a little town called Ballater where Queen Victoria used to catch the train to when going to Balmoral, there she would wait to be collected by carriage. They have the Royal wagon there in a cafe at the old station.
Burn O’ Vat our next stop required somewalking and a little bit of stone hopping to climb through a hole in the rocks to see a waterfall, and space carved out of the sandstone by harder rocks and swollen rivers. Only two of us braved going through with guide and driver but it was a wondrous place, surely they could dream up legends about it.
The walk through the woods was lovely so some of us took the long way back, going up higher to get a view.
Driving onwards
Queens view was somewhere Victoria liked to stop, so of course we did too, more beauty.
Finally back to Aboyne and The Boat was the pub where we were dining.
Went for a walk part way around the lake with Sue from Melbourne, the wind was dying down and the reflections, well they were glorious.
What a day full that was.
So awesome Jayne x
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