Castles, Beaches, Whiskey and Snow: A Week in Morayshire

 “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” –  G K Chesterton

A wise lady once said it is better to visit a place where you know something of the history of someone who once lived there so that you can better relate to the place you are visiting. And so instead of turning to the history books I turned again to my mother’s store of family history and chose the area around Forres, Alves and Elgin in Morayshire, where our family once called home. Family history connections really added flavour to our visits to Herefordshire and Ireland, and here again in Scotland.

 

 We selected a National Trust of Scotland cottage, Cormac Lodge, at Brodie Castle as our base as the castle has wonderful grounds and an adventure playground for the kids. Also it makes a perfect base for all the places we wanted to visit as well as those we didn't get around to, such as Culloden, Cawdor Castle and even Aberdeen.  We had no expectations of what we would do here other than having a lovely relaxing week but we found so much to do we were out and about every day.

I must admit lately our enthusiasm level has dropped dramatically brought on by the stress of our tenants at home buying a new home and asking to leave before their lease expires, our inability to find new tenants and the fact we are on the other side of the world and can do nothing about it. With this hanging over us for the past few months I was absolutely dreading this week, preferring the idea of staying “home” in our cottage in Hampshire and doing nothing. I am pleased to say that as the bookings had been made we had to come and we are very, very glad that we did.

Enough of our woes let us move on from Paradise Lost to Paradise found. Morayshire and its neighbouring shires provide a long and varied list of day trips within easy reach. The first day we stayed at Brodie, built cubby houses at the cottage, read books, drew pictures, cooked delicious food at home after a visit to the delightful Brodie Country Fare within an easy walk away, fed ducks, walked in the forest and admired the castle from the outside. After this lovely at home day we were ready to head out over the next five days and discover the highlights of the area.



Aviemore and Cairngorm - SNOW AT LAST!!!! 

Our very first day trip took us out of Morayshire and back into the highlands. After 153 days on the road the kids finally got to play in the snow in the mountains above Aviemore, about an hour’s drive away. We planned to take the funicular to the top of the mountain but a chance comment I made about the kids being able to have a snow ball fight changed our plans.

The young man in the ticket office told us that while we could see snow from the top you are not allowed out onto the area surrounding the look out at the top of the hill. We were advised to walk halfway up instead and there we would find huge piles of snow.

As we don’t have snow at home in Western Australia we accepted the challenge and headed up the hill. It sounded easy until the wind and a little rain starting hitting us straight in the face. But we eventually made it up to what would be the ski runs in winter and there was the snow.

The kids had thought all their Christmases had come a once and, while lamenting their lack of gloves, they had a ball. Or should I make that a snow ball fight. Wet and freezing we hiked back down the mountain and back to Brodie, well satisfied that we had finally seen snow.

Findhorn

 After the mountains we turned next to the lovely coastline of the Moray Firth . Just down the road is the stunning Findhorn Bay, and after a very healthy and tasty lunch at the Bakehouse we spent a lazy afternoon strolling through the Findhorn Ecovillage.

It was a very special place to visit even for a short time. The community has been created around an ethos of sustainability and spirituality and if I had the opportunity to attend a workshop here I'm not sure I'd ever want to leave.

We had planned to visit a huge sand dune somewhere nearby mentioned enthusiastically in the visitors book in cottage, but without internet we weren’t able to find it. While I’m sure we could have asked we have prioritised healthy home cooked food this week and the kids are more than willing to play at home and so home we went.

 

Brodie Castle

We took advantage of our free pass to Brodie Castle that came with our holiday cottage. Even without the pass Brodie is a jewel in Morayshire's crown. About two hundred and sixty odd years ago a Brodie of Brodie castle acted as Sponsor at the christening of one of our Gordon ancestors. Having this, somewhat tenuous connection, to the place added interest to our visit to the castle.

Unlike the other castles we have visited over the past five months, we visited the castle accompanied by a guide. Our lovely guide was able to explain who the people in the portraits were, really bringing history alive for us. For example she showed us the coat of arms and motto of the Brodie’s “unite” and then showed us into the dining room where the same crest and motto appear on the hand painted china, except on the two misspelled pieces she pointed out, which read “untie” which gave us a chuckle.

The castle was filled with interesting things, from a creepy skeleton of little person to all the Brodie kids toys and beautiful artworks. Emma even impressed the guide by recognising a portrait of Charles I. I’m so proud of these kids. While we might drive each other crazy at home, with the usual arguments between the kids, and a tendency of the kids to respond “oh no that will be so boring” to every idea we present them, we end up having fun every day and when a guide compliments us on our well behaved children it’s the icing on the cake.

The adventure playgrounds at Brodie Castle is brilliant for kids, but I must also add that all the public playgrounds we have found in Scotland are incredible, with much more that you would expect to find.

The pond next to our cottage is part of the castles grounds and the kids loved visiting the swans with their eight little signets. We wandered off behind the pond with the plan to loose ourselves in the forest and see if we could see any wildlife if we walked quietly. The idea came from a seeing a baby red deer running in a field, but sadly with crashing feet and loud voices we saw no little creatures other than the lovely little birds but had a lovely walk never the less.

Elgin and Lossiemouth

We enjoyed a wander around Elgin, trying to imagine what it looked like when our family had an Inn here many many moons ago. At that time, the early 1700's, the whole town consisted of one street around one hundred metres long and so it was quite hard to picture today. We only drove by the Cathedral but with more time would have like to have a closer look.

We followed the advice of this sign and wandered "doon tae" the Elgin Museum and thorough enjoyed ourselves. Though entry was by donation it was well stocked and very interesting. It had everything from Pictish and Jacobite history, to dinosaur footprints and a mummified princess.

When the kids felt they could cram no more history into their heads we head down to Lossiemouth to visit the beach.

Julian and I walked from the township while Rob and Emma drove and then to get to the beach we all crossed a long foot bridge. It was such a lovely day to be outside, but the wind was still pretty wild.

The kids enjoyed rolling down the sand dunes while Rob and I attempted some yoga and found it much more relaxing to lay in the sun in the least windy spot we could find. 

Huntly and Dufftown
It took a little over an hour to reach Huntly in Aberdeenshire, but the drive was very pretty and the castle was worth the effort.

While the castle is a ruin, large sections of it are intact, such as the kitchens and dungeon, and some areas have been reconstructed or supported so that you can safely visit the upstairs.

 The kids were “freaked out” by the little birds that would suddenly come flying out of the fireplaces, and also by their father who raced up the spiral staircases to yell “who does there” and pretend to shoot arrows down on them.

 

 

We were able to stand in the courtyard outside the castle and locate the original Motte from the timber Norman castle which stood here until the 1400’s.The playground next door was really terrific, it is refreshing to see how local government authorities place value on fun places for children to play.

Dufftown, which is only a short distance away, is considered the malt whiskey capital of the world and so we decided we couldn’t leave the area without a visit to a distillery.

 We chose Glenfiddich not because we are whiskey connoisseurs, but for the simple reason that they let young children on their tours, and even better once we arrived we discovered it is also free.

Apparently this is the maintenance period of the year so the tour was limited to having a look at the stored barrels and then having a sniff to identify what had previously been in the barrels that the whiskey is aged in, sherry or bourbon. It was still very interesting though we would have liked to see the production process.

We were even given a free tasting session of the 12, 15 and 18 year old whiskey, and a very good vintage of orange juice for the kids. Luckily on the way out of Dufftown we finally caught our first glimpse of the iconic Highlands Cows

Goodbye to Scotland

And so after a week that simply flew by we made our way back to Inverness to make the journey back home to Hampshire, via Bristol. As it turns out the weather in the south had not been as pleasant as lovely mild days we had in Scotland which was an added bonus.

Sadly we were not able to fit in a round of golf for Rob, which had planned to indulge in regularly while in the UK and decidedly in Scotland but with only two weeks remaining before we head off on our round Europe adventure we must make sure he fits in at least one game back in Hampshire before we leave.

While in Inverness we received an offer from a lovely family looking to rent our house and so the stress we have experienced over the past couple of months, which has sadly marred this wonderful experience, was instantly evaporated. Now we look forward to enjoying every day we have left to us in England and can head off on the next adventure in a calmer state of mind.