I offered to start this Topic before my own trip to Scotland, so thought I'd better get on with it.
The idea - somewhere to bring together people's accounts of their visits, photos, useful information, questions from those planning a trip - a sort of scrapbook really.
I still need to write up my own visit, but anyone is welcome to post material or links here.
Oh KR really looking forward to the trip + am v envious of your location. Inverurie was one of my great haunts when I lived in Aberdeenshire, just of the River Ythan not far from Ellon. Will be visiting Ardlethan + Cuminestown when over your way, love that part of the world masses!!
Sue c thanks for the pic of Loch an Eilein, while I was volunteering at LG I met up with a forum member and her husband and we had a delightul picnic. Really lucky with the weather that day, in fact weatherwise it as the best day of the week. Magical place with the castle in the centre and wouldn't it be wonderful if ospreys took up residence there again.
ChloeB and myself had a holiday based on Loch Garten from Wednesday 20th July to Tuesday 26th July 2011. The following is an account of it.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
The day had arrived and it was time for our great Highland holiday. Our aim was to be on the road by 7am. We managed to be on the road by 7.05am. It was a dry but cloudy morning.
We made good progress and arrived at Loch of The Lowes at 12.25pm. It was quiet there but the Lady was in residence. We took some pictures and were on our way. We arrived in Carrbridge at around 3pm and managed to check in what proved to be a wonderful B&B.
We then relaxed before taking a walk into Carrbridge in the evening. We stopped and had a look at the lovely old bridge.
After that we had a meal in the Cairn Hotel which became our favourite eating place for the holiday.
Here is a picture of Marge by ChloeB
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Today was the day we hit Loch Garten. We worked out a route and tried to get the satnav to understand. We got on the road at about 10.20am. Very soon we realised that there was a familiar car behind us and we stopped. Yes it was our friend Zara who had driven down from Loch Fleet and was meeting us.
We stopped at the top of Loch Garten and took some pictures. We then went to the osprey centre car park. Chloe and I went to the gatehouse where we found Abbi on duty. I joined the RSPB and claimed my free osprey print.
We went up to the centre and we met Richard Thaxton coming down with a cup of tea, presumably for Abbi. When we introduced ourselves he asked “How come you know so much about ospreys?”.
He said that he would be back soon. We went into the hides and had a look at the nest.
Then we went out to the shop and found Julie. We said hello to her and had a chat with her. Then she took us to the forward hide. We spent about 30 minutes at the forward hide. That very interesting.
We then came out and had a word with both Stephanie and Richard. Then Chloe joined the RSPB too. We then left and went down to the car park.
We came back to Carrbridge and had some soup in the Old Bakery which proved a wonderful coffee shop.
After that we set off for Loch Fleet. We arrived just after 4pm. We sat and had a chat. Then Zara, Chloe and I went to the falls of Shin. It was fascinating to visit a place that I last saw 31 years ago.
It was wonderful seeing the salmon leap up the falls.
Chloe and I finally got on our way south. We stopped at Dornoch and had a lovely meal there in a place called the 1 Up restaurant. We then got on the road again and arrived back in Carrbridge about 10pm.
A salmon leaping at Falls of Shin by ChloeB
Friday, 22 July 2011
We were up early as usual. At breakfast we had a chat with a guy who was cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats.
We left for the osprey centre at about 10.30am and got there at about 11am. We were met by Charlotte at the gate.
We spent some time looking at the ospreys and browsing in the shop. I bought quite a few osprey postcards but was disappointed not to be able to buy any images of Odin or EJ.
We left to go to Forres around noon. We went via Lochindorb. We arrived in Kinloss at around 2pm. We had a meal in the Abbey Inn there. The meal was ok but the service was slow. There were interesting pictures of aircraft on the wall. We then continued to Findhorn bay. We went out to the dunes and looked out the sea.
We then made our way to Spey bay. We got there at about 4.25pm We had tea in the wildlife centre.
We then took pictures before heading to Boat of Garten. We hoped to have a meal at Lisi's restaurant but found it closed. We went into Boat of Garten and had a meal at Anderson's restaurant. The food was good if a bit pricy. Also the staff were not too interested. We then came home and arrived at about 8pm just as news of a bomb attack in Norway was coming through.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Once again we were up early. Today we headed into Aviemore to do some shopping.
We walked around Aviemore exploring it. That was easy since it consists of a single street. We had coffee at the Mountain cafe a place that had nice pictures on the walls.
After that we walked right to the end of Aviemore.
Later we had lunch in the Coffee Corner and that was pleasant too.
We then went to the osprey centre. We found Charlotte at the gate. Then we went in and found the centre to be very quiet. It was Caroline in the hide and Stephanie in the shop.
Then we met the blogger Henry. We had a long and fascinating conversation with Henry mainly about the days of EJ and Henry the osprey. Then Pru another long term blogger arrived. Pru joined our conversation until it was time for her leave.
We spent the rest of the afternoon there talking mainly to Henry. We saw Pru out to the car park and then came back to talk further to Henry.
We left only as Caroline and Stephanie were closing the centre.
Then after a drive around we came back to Carrbridge and had a meal in Cairn hotel. That was really good
Sunday, 24 July 2011
We had learned that the bloggers Valerie and Carrie would be visiting the osprey centre at opening time.
We set out set out for the osprey centre at about 10am. We got there at around 10.20am and we did manage to meet Valerie and Carrie.
We had quite a chat with Valerie and then we walked her down to the car park.
Chloe and I went into Aviemore and had soup in the Coffee Cup. There were some really nice paintings on the wall.
After that we went to the Rothiemurchus fish farm. We decided to come back later. We then went to Loch an Eileen. It was really interesting seeing the historical castle and standing at the spot where Dunbar must have stood before swimming across to steal the osprey eggs as explained in Scottish Ospreys by Philip Brown. Mind you it is not a swim I would fancy particularly at the dead of night when Dunbar did his egg stealing.
We also had our first sunshine of the trip.
After that we went to Loch Insh and saw the nest there.
We came back to Rothiemurchus and had tea and scones before returning to the fish farm. We did manage to see two ospreys there. It was fascinating to see the size of the fish. One can imagine where some of the Loch Garten booty originates!
We then followed up a tip off that ospreys could be seen fishing at Loch Vaa. It proved a long trek and did not yield anything.
We came back to Aviemore and had a lovely meal at The Winking Owl. Apparently Robbie Burns once stayed there. A really nice place.
This would have been the end of our holiday but we had managed to extend our stay by one day.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Our last day in the Highlands. We got on the road at 10am. This time we headed up Station Road away from Carrbridge rather than toward it. We had been told that it came to a dead end.
We explored the road right up. We came to a river and we spent some time exploring that.
We then decided we would go to the end of the road. A vehicle started to follow us so that made up our minds for us that we had to continue to the end. The guy in the car passed us and then got out and walked away with his dog.
Chloe and I stood around and then decided to explore the derelict house which was some distance away . We got there just as the man was returning. We began to talk to him about the old house. We mentioned that the main purpose of our visit was to see ospreys. He said that his brother was once involved with protection of the ospreys at Loch Garten. We asked him what his brother's name was and he said "Waterston". We really it took notice at that. It turned out that we were talking to none other than George Waterston's wee brother. It was a hugely exciting moment.
We then came back to Carrbridge and had lunch in the Old Bakery. On the way Chloe managed to photograph a crossbill.
We then went to Loch Garten and took pictures of the entrance sign.
We then came back down the road and parked the car in the car park near to the entrance to the path down to Loch Mallachie. We walked down the path and it took about and hour. We tried to work out where the 1958 nest was. Loch Mallachie was pretty much as we expected it to be.
We came back to the car and headed to to Loch Morlich. We wanted to see loch Morlich since it was the site of the frustration nest of 1956. The road to Loch Morlich proved to be much better than the map suggested.
We looked around Loch Morlich and then went up to the railway station on the Cairngorms. We came back down and stopped at a wonderful cafe called the Glenmore cafe. We had coffee and cakes and it was wonderful. Chloe sat in the seat apparently occupied by Kate Humble when doing Autumnwatch in 2009.
I then bought a pair of boots in the shop next door.
We then had a look at the Sluggan pass, the site of the 1955 frustration eyrie, but did not find it for definite.
We had a look at Loch Avielochan before going back to have a look at Deshar Primary School which the 2008 chick Deshar got its name from. By now the sun was shining brightly.
We then had one last meal at the Cairn Hotel and our great Highland adventure was over....well nearly.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Our holiday over we got on the road at around 9.45am. We called into the osprey centre just as it was about to open
Then Abbi came down to open the centre. As I approached a young chaffinch jumped up on me and tried to get into my pocket. I offered it my arm and it climbed on there. We managed to photograph it before it flew away.
We went to the centre and stayed around for an hour. We finally said our goodbyes at about 11am.
We then got on the road with the satnav suggesting an arrival time of 5pm About 20 miles down the road it cleared out and we had lovely sunny weather. We came to the Bruar Centre and we decided to stop for lunch. We had soup and tea outside the restaurant. We then went out to see the Bruar falls. We did not succeed as time was pressing.
We got back on the road and then arrived on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Just as we joined the M73 we broke down at about 4pm. We checked out the situation but then called the RAC. The RAC came to rescue us about 5pm. By this time the police had come to join us.
The RAC towed us to a quiet area. They determined that our car was not easily fixable so they arranged for us to be taken on a low loader to Warrington. We were towed down to a McDonalds and finally at about 6.15pm we were on the way.
We took a stop at 8.20pm at Penrith. We started again at 9.10pm and got to junction 35 near Carnforth. We then met another low loader at about 10pm and we swapped over. This truck took us home arriving at about 11.30pm. Our great Highland adventure was over.