On this trip we have had a week in Timeshare in Aviemore, Scotland, in the Highlands. Here’s the report on that week:
Saturday, May 3. Today we moved from Crieff in central Scotland to Aviemore in the Highlands, a two hour drive or all day with the stops we make. First stop was at House of Bruar, an upscale retailer for men’s and ladies’ clothing, furnishings, art, and food. We stop mostly for the food--specialty meats and cheeses for our time in self-catering. Our second stop took much longer. We played 18-holes of golf at Kingussie GC, an Old Tom Morris Highland design set in the heath and birches of the low Highland hills.
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| Kingussie GC |
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| Teeing off at Kingussie GC |
The course is a fun track we’ve play three times before, and one we always like. It is a bit of work, though, since the course climbs on several holes, but the downhill shots are spectacular. Anne won our match--it was her sixth straight win. I’m not playing badly, but Anne is playing like a real bandit. Check in at Scandinavian Village was easy and our accommodations fine--home in the Highlands for a week.
Sunday, May 4. After a self-catering breakfast of bacon (Scottish style), eggs, cottage cheese, toast and jam, juice and fruit, we drove up to the Cairngorm Cog Railway station in the national park with some photo stops along the way (Loch Morlich, and a river through Glenmore).
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| Loch Morlich |
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| River Luineag |
Weather wasn’t very good for a train ride up the mountain so we headed to a new nursery and tearoom in the Insh area south of Aviemore. Inshraich Nursery and Gardens was a good find, especially because the Potting Shed Tearoom at the nursery specializes in cakes.
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| Old planting beds at Inshraich Nursery |
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| The cakes at The Potting Shed Tearoom |
Lovely tea and cakes on our first full afternoon in the Highlands. Dinner was at a local Hotel, Cairngorm Hotel, always good.
Monday, May 5. Today we headed north about an hour and a half to play one of the best golf courses in the world--Royal Dornoch is consistently ranked in the world’s top ten course you can play. The course was fantastic as always and better than sometimes because there was no wind and no rain.
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| The two of us at Royal Dornoch GC |
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| Bob putting on the 17th at Royal Dornoch |
We played with a father-son team from the US mid-west--very nice playing partners who bought caddies for themselves (the bill for golf and caddies for the two had to be £350 or almost $600; we paid $0.00, just arranged to give a copy of our new book to the club). On the way home, though, we almost ended our trip. On a two lane section of the main north-south highway, the A9, a car coming at us pulled into our lane to pass a truck. We were in the middle of a string of traffic and had to sweve left (remember we drive on the left here) and bounce onto and off the verge which I did without losing control of our sporty Mercedes. It was just about as close as we’ve ever come to disaster in our travels.
Tuesday, May 6. Golf was more local this day. We played a James Braid design in Grantown-on-Spey about 20 miles away.
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| Anne tees of on a tough par 3 at Grantown GC |
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| The 9th at Grantown GC |
Grantown GC is a fine heathland course with parkland features, heathery rough, and Braid’s signature bunkers. Compared to American golf this is old golf, the course having been designed in 1890. Anne won again, as she had done at Dornoch, and was now 8 and 0 in our matches--got to get this gal into competitions.
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| Packhorse Bridge in Carrbridge |
On the way home after golf we stopped for photos of the Packhorse Bridge in Carrbridge, always a photographer’s delight. Dinner was steaks, chips (called crisps here) and broccoli in our unit.
Wednesday, May 7. This day was a quite a touring day with no golf--I needed a rest to build up my strength to try to win a match. We drove almost to Inverness and then turned west and south along the east side of Loch Ness. Our first stop was at Gask Ring Cairn, an ancient burial site, inside fenced pastures.
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| Gask Ring Cairn |
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| Highland Cows or Hieland Coos |
Usually there is a way in to see the cairn, but the Hieland Coos didn’t seem too friendly and we could only get photos from outside the pastures. Second was a visit to the Falls of Foyer, a tall waterfall that would fit well with the falls on the Columbia Gorge. I hiked down (steep walk) to an overlook for photos.
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| Falls of Foyer |
Anne had come part way down and then turned back as the steps got steeper. After a fist full of photos I slowly hiked back up to the top and met Anne in the Waterfalls Cafe for a latte and apple pie.
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| Waterfalls Cafe |
My walk had earned me a treat. Several miles further on we pulled into the car park at Ft Augustus on the edge of Loch Ness. Here is a series of locks on a canal that connects Loch Ness with Loch Lochy (part of the system called the Caledonian Canals).
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| One of the Caledonian Locks and the Lock Inn in Ft Augustus |
We had lunch in the Lock Inn where we’ve eaten several times before--nice atmosphere, good pub food. Last touring stop of the day was at Urquhart Castle (pronounced urk-ert) on the west shore of Loch Ness.
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| Urquhart Castle |
A large and intriguing ruin, even the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits here. But the crowds could. The gift shop, where everyone must enter the castle and exit, was jammed with tour groups pushing and shoving because they were on a time table probably to see the Nessie tourist traps in Drumnadrochit up the road.
Dinner at the Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore deserves special mention as one of the worst dinners we’ve ever had in Scotland.
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| The bar at the Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore |
We were seated nicely and ordered mains (bream for me, pork belly for Anne) with no starters. We got two bream dinners. Anne said to take hers back. They said it would be 8 minutes to fix her pork belly, but they’d give it to her free. In a minute they returned and said that they had found a pork belly dinner and it would be at our table in 2 minutes but not free now, instead they’d give us desserts free.
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| The food at Old Bridge Inn wasn't bad, the way we got treated was. |
Thursday, May 8. Called yesterday and got a tee time on another great course, Old Moray in Lossiemouth on the North Sea a few miles for Elgin. The drive is an hour and a half but the golf is well worth it. The Old Course is an Old Tom Morris links design and we hit it on another sunny, windless day.
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| Anne tees off at the 16th with Lossiemouth village in the background. |
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| One of Tornado fighters training out of Lossiemouth RAF base…they landed right over our heads. |
Glorious golf. Visited before our round with the pro, John Murray, whom we had met first when we played Gleneagles Queens several years ago and since then just about every time we come to Moray GC.
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| Gorse is one of the main hazards at Old Moray. |
Golf was brilliant--I finally won a match and am only down 8-1 now.
Friday, May 9, Today. Rain or heavy showers is forecast for all day, so we’ve done a little touring and a lot of packing (or Anne has).
While Anne packed I did a little local photography and then together we went to the Cairngorm Osprey Reserve where we could see a nesting pair of Osprey, other birds, and a Red Squirrel (endangered) feeding.
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| Red Squirrel |
Next was lunch at the Glenmore Cafe where we could watch more birds feeding as we were feeding--interesting place.
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| Loch near the Osprey Reserve |
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| This bird isn't feeding; he's waiting our a heavy shower under cover. |
The rest of the afternoon has been spent packing and writing and listening to the Coo Coos in the forest beside our timeshare. Tonight’s dinner will be grand at Anderson’s in Boat of Garten.
Saturday, May 10. A long drive, about 5 1/2 hours, clear to the bottom of Scotland on the Kintyre Peninsula and Campeltown for golf on Sunday.
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