Greetings from Scotland

Rainbow coming into Amsterdam

Our home base village of Crieff

Adopted niece Ailsa fixing dinner at Merlindale, our Crieff B&B.

The Smoking Pasta Fork

We arrived in Scotland a week or so ago and haven’t stopped running since. It was snowing the day we arrived, but now the weather is dry, cold, bitterly cold with 20-30 miles per hour winds. Still we’ve filled our days with golf, sight-seeing, and visiting with our Scottish family (adopted). We’ve played several times at our course, St Fillans GC and even attended the AGM (Annual General Meeting). 

St Fillans GC General Manager Gordon Hibbard opening the meeting.

Raising funds for a memorial to a member.

Anne tees off at the seventh with a Stuart family church/graveyard and a croft in the background.

We played a course new to us to write up in our golf guides. 

Teeing off at Dunning GC.

Anne playing out of a bunker at Dunning.

Our Dunning GC hosts Ian and David flank me.

At Dunning GC we were well treated and enjoyed our round with Honorary Past Captain David Taylor and Sr Captain Ian.

A couple of other highlights so far have been a garden and a small church and I’ll end this post with one story from past trips.

Branklyn Garden

One of our standard, go to attractions in Scotland is the two acre Branklyn Garden in the city of Perth. 

Branklyn Garden in Perth.

The garden sale area at Branklyn Garden.

Created in the 1920s as a private garden and now run by the National Trust of Scotland, Branklyn is particularly known for its fine collection of Meconopsis, Himalayan Blue Poppies. 

Brought back from the Himalayas by early explorers and climbers, the Blue Poppies were just begining to come out when we visited. 

The gardens are so nice that we make one of two visits each trip.

St Mary’s Church at Grandtully

Built by Alexander Stewart, Laird of Grandtully, this small church is a few miles from Dewar’s World of Whisky in the highland village of Aberfeldy. 

A Grandtully local

Construction of the chapel was started in 1522 and it’s known for the 29 panels of decorations painted on the ceiling (half the length of the chapel). 

The paintings reflect different themes, from biblical stories to the crest of Lady Stewart. Extensive restoration has been done to the church since the 1940s when it came under care of Historic Environmental Scotland. 

In the kirkyard of St Mary's.

The church may look like a farmer’s byre from outside, but the inside is magnificent.

Whisky Library at Craigellachie Hotel. 

Several years ago we had heard about a place in a hotel that had a bunch of whiskies—not a whisky shop, but a bar where one could buy drams. The hotel was the Craigellachie Hotel and the bar was called the Whisky Library (now the Quaich Bar). The Library was a small bar with a few stools and several over-stuffed chairs by small tables. What was impressive, though, were the walls which from waist high to ceiling were filled with open (or ready to be open) whisky bottles. The barman saw my eyes glaze over and said, “There are 750 bottles available for tasting. What’s your pick?” That started a conversation about whisky styles and brands.

Not The Whisky Library, but Andrew at J L Gills in Crieff has a quite large selection for sale.

I ended up picking a version of Highland Park from the Orkney Islands. I did, though, have to ask about the most expensive whisky in the library. The barman showed me a partially drunk bottle of Black Bowmore whisky from the Isle of Islay—£750 for a small dram! I didn’t buy a dram, but I did get to smell the whisky. It smelled good, but I couldn’t swear that it smelled $1500-a-dram good.

The Craigellachie Hotel’s Quaich Bar still gets rave reviews for its definitely unique whisky experience. 

The White Church in Comrie.

NEXT: We move to the Highlands and then to the Yorkshire Dales in England.