History in the making...

In just over twenty four hours we'll all know whether Bradley Wiggins will have made history by being the first Brit to win the Tour de France. Here's hoping...

A weekend in Iceland in the summer

Reading Alex Lester's blog brought back memories of our trip to Iceland last year and, separately, the challenges of long summer days in northern climes. The links below may amuse and interest you...

Off we go...

Whale watching

The trip continues

And in the end...

Mingling with the Royals - present

Although not ardent Royalists, having booked our stay at Mar Lodge, in this Jubilee year we felt it our duty to visit nearby Balmoral Castle. For many visitors this is usually a half day excursion – however, we made this a wonderful full day out.

Keen to get behind the scenes on an estate whose use isn't limited to purely commercial interests, we booked a morning "Land Rover safari". 

First things first, this wasn't in a traditional Land Rover (Defender) which would still have been an experience. This was in a Discovery - air suspension, automatic drive, automatic hill decent and traction control, cream leather seats, air conditioning...the list goes on and on. Apparently the vehicle of choice by the Queen in her older age. The trips accommodate up to six passengers - on our trip there were only four of us so nobody had to use the smaller seats at the rear of the vehicle.

Advertised as a three hour trip, in reality it was closer to three and half. The enthusiasm of John, the estate ranger, made the morning very special. His years of highland experience and his personal interest in the birds and wildlife added enormously to his "commentary" as he described the history of the estate, estate management past and present, as well as commenting on daily and annual life of a Highland estate.

After looking behind the scenes of some of the estate's farm building, we headed off along the lowland tracks through the pine forests - along the route of one of the former military roads that criss-crossed the highlands as part of Westminster's efforts to control the perceived maverick influences of the highlands three hundred years ago.

And then the Discovery showed its capabilities as we headed off of the stone-surfaced tracks and up water-filled ruts, bouncing about with the occasional slide as we headed further up above the estate. It was great to once again enjoy a 4x4 in the terrain it's designed for rather than the school or shopping runs that many seem to be wasted on these days. Passing through various areas of the forests, we were able to look back down on what was now the distant River Dee and castle. Each of the areas was gated to help restrict deer access. One of the major projects the estate is running is naturally re-establishing areas of Caledonian pine forest, rather than through planting.

We stopped for a break beside the "Honka hut", a favourite day-time haunt of the Queen and Prince Phillip when staying on the estate - see the top picture above. It was easy to imagine why they would enjoy it so much. Away from any noise other than the wildlife, with spectacular views, it must be nice to spend the day taking one's ease and enjoying a picnic or barbecue.


The drive continued out across bleak moorland, punctuated with stops to look for birds and wildlife using the binoculars each passenger were provided with. While the morning wasn't searing hot, on the open moorland it was certainly warm. It was equally easy to imagine how desperate it would be on a wind-blown rain-drenched day. The trip also took in two other man-made features - the footbridge over the Falls of Garb Allt, a Victorian cast iron bridge, and another stone-built dayhouse favourite of the Queen looking up to Lochnagar. Dropping off the moorland, we meandered our way back through the golf course and estate farm buildings to conclude our thirty mile drive beside the estate office where daytrippers were stepping off their coaches in time for lunch.

After a sandwich, we continued our visit, taking in the grounds, vegetable gardens and ballroom exhibition before taking a walk around the lower levels of the estate and alongside the River Dee. Some visitors express disappointment that the only room open to the public is the ballroom - if you visit expect to walk around the whole castle, you could easily be disappointed. However, staying at Mar Lodge, the connections between the two estates were of special interest to us. In the ballroom, while it wasn't possible to photograph it,  I was especially interested to see the bottle of whisky, number one of sixty, given to the Queen by the Royal Lochnagar distillery to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. Of note was the fact that buyers will be "invited" to purchase a bottle for £100,000 - profits from the project will be donated to a trust that supports rural craftspeople. Mmm...I need to go and have another look for my invitation...

Lost and found...

We’ve all had that sinking feeling from time to time. Everything’s tickty boo, life couldn’t be better, and then we realise we no longer have something in our pocket that we ought to.

On this occasion it occurred during one of our moorland wanderings. During our walk we’d paused to take in the view and enjoy some refreshments. Sometime later that sinking feeling struck. “I thought you’d got it?” “But you had it last…” Safe in the knowledge that it was most unlikely another walker would locate, let alone walk off with, our missing possession, we continued our walk and resolved to search for it during our return journey.

A thought came to me. During our break I’d meandered around the spot we’d stopped at in order to get a variety of perspectives on the view. With a little luck my meandering was sufficient to show up if I zoomed into our track on our GPS. Good old Garmin – there it was. Marking the spot with a waypoint, we were able to navigate back to where we hoped our missing object might still be. The tension rose as we counted down to the last few paces – and there it was, just two foot away from where the GPS said it should be.

Moral of the story? It may be necessary to take a spare GPS with you in case the object you inadvertently lose is your GPS. (In our case it wasn’t a GPS.)

Mingling with the Royals - past

The current Mar Lodge, five miles west of Braemar in the Cairngorms, started life in 1895 when Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of her grand-daughter Prince Louise’s summer hunting lodge.

Renovated in the 1990s following a fire, the pink-coloured granite building originally hosted the extended Royal family for summer fishing, shooting and hunting, up to the second world war. Post-war, inheritance tax took its toll and the lodge passed through numerous private owners until the National Trust for Scotland, (NTS) purchased the estate.

We occupied one of five holiday apartments, a contrast to the simplicity of the croft who’s total floorspace probably equalled the apartment living room! The four poster bed looked small in the massive bedroom whose windows overlooked the lodge’s drive. From humble crofters to Laird in the course of a couple of days, the toil of subsistence living and the clearances replaced by Victoria summer pastimes of the Royals and rich.

Victorian artifacts, stuffed animals and countless deer heads adorned the corridors, making evenings meanders around the house a spooky affair. Only on our last day did we discover that the locked door in our bedroom was through to the Princess’ boudoir which we were able to visit along with the dining room, living room, library, and billiards room used by the Princess and her guests.

As featured on BBC Countryfile earlier this year (after we’d booked our stay), the NTS management approach has proved controversial, preferring to cull deer in order to redevelop the ancient pine forests that were removed by commercial and military logging over the past century. One of the benefits of being a managed estate is that we were able to spend time with the estate’s ecologist, learning more of their approach and some of their work with the local wildlife and raptors.

The estate offers lots of opportunities for walk to suit everyone, regardless of age or ability. Time allowed us two longer walks during our stay, both taking in open heather-covered moorland that was yet to bloom.  Our first was on a beautiful day, warm enough for shirt sleeves. The heavily eroded Falls of Quoich were spectacular and a great place for a coffee break. Coffee the next day was taken while sheltering under the only group of trees on rain-driven moorland after walking through one of the sparse forests that NTS are seeking to re-establish. The main curiosity of the day was a number of dwarf telegraph poles that seemed to serve no purpose. Despite being short enough for us shorties to be able to touch the top, the poles included the footsteps normally associated with the top of regular height poles. A secondary curiosity were the tallest styles we’ve ever seen, required to assist walkers to get over anti-deer fences.

More to follow – “Mingling with the Royals – present”.

Tremors in the Trossachs

Next stop on our Caledonian Capers was a couple of nights in the quiet town on Comrie. Quiet, that is, as long as there’s no earthquakes.

Comrie sits on the edge of the Highland boundary fault line and in 1839 was the centre of an earthquake. As you’ll recall from our NZ blog, volcanic activity is one our interests, as was the Earthquake House in Comrie which has featured on a number of recent BBC programmes.

In the early ‘70s Comrie was also the destination for one of my school army cadet force camps. A couple of years ago I read in the Scots Magazine that the camp had recently been sold to the local community by the Ministry of Defence during a round of defence cuts. The feature described the origins of Cultybraggan camp as a prisoner of war camp in the second world war, a fact unknown to me in my schooldays. Subsequently the camp and surrounding locality became a major army training camp until its military demise best part of ten years ago.

Revisiting the camp was a real journey back in time with much of the site unchanged. An enduring memory, reconfirmed during the visit, was the stark and bleak accommodation. A long corrugated Nissen hut with minimal external light, a single coal stove, and metal framed bunks and metal lockers. The only concession to modernity in forty years seemed to have been the replacement of the stove with three utilitarian gas heaters along the length of the hut – but then this is the army.

Our stay also took in a twelve mile walk along the length of Glen Artney, parts of which had previously been used as an army exercise which I also recalled. Boggy patches, home to frogs, was another barely changed feature. Wildlife included three red deer encounters, one of which seemed to delight in watching us traverse an extremely boggy length of footpath, and red kites. The biggest surprise was a close encounter with a buzzard, happily snacking on a freshly-caught rabbit until we unintentionally disturbed it. We’re not sure who was shocked the most – it or us – as this massive bird took flight within feet of us.

During our two weeks in Scotland we saw numerous red kites, such a change from our first sighting in the Brecon Beacons in the 80s when these birds were close to extinction in this country. As to buzzards, we never expected to see them as far south as Kent as we’ve done numerous times this year.

Next stop, Royal Deeside.

Thought for the day

"In my head... I sound absolutely normal. So that's all that matters." Rhys Darby

Looking forward to our flight in the spaceship later this month - shame it isn't aboard a Conchord. If you're in Edinburgh for the fringe, you can book a flight here.