There must be a ghost or two around here somewhere…….
June 30 … Our time at Oban came to an end so we moved on to Moulin Vaddie. I think the drive out of Oban along A85 through several valleys and eventually along Loch Tay to Aberfeldy was the most picturesque trip.
From Aberfeldy, we traveled north to the 300-year-old cottage in the central highlands. This cottage is exceptionally remote located in the center of a sheep farm. It lies about a mile or so off the main road using a single track which was not much more than a tractor path through the fields. As we made our way along the track, we passed through four different gates separating the farm into specific pastures. The sheep in each pasture would slowly run ahead of our car to the next gate hoping to sneak through as we passed. This place is exactly what I hoped to find on this trip. A private location with breathtaking views that were outside every window of the rustic cottage. It was not hard to imagine the generations of farm families raised here. Across the field, about 100 yards from the front door, is a 5000-year-old burial mound. At night the darkness is complete and it is so quiet. After dinner, Sherrie and I built a small fire in the fireplace and sat together on the couch to read. I do not think we have ever been in a place that feels this remote or where we felt this alone. Substitute a candle for an electric lamp and this is how it must have been 200 years ago.
Using the cottage as our base, we explored the surrounding area for the next five days. It is about twenty miles from the picturesque town of Pitlochry. This town has been a tourist destination since 1842 when Queen Victoria visited. There are numerous restaurants and shops to explore. Here we found the Blair Athol distillery founded in 1798. One of several distilleries we would visit in the area.
There were a couple more distilleries visited but forgot to take photos. I was too busy tasting.
Interspersed with the distilleries we managed to find a little time to explore the castles in the area. The most elaborate was Blair Castle in Pitlochry, home of the Stewarts and Murrays for nineteen generations. The oldest part of the castle was the main tower, constructed in 1269 and expanded in the 1500s.
Castle Menzies just outside of Aberfeldy is much smaller than Blair Athol but to me more interesting to visit. Some of the rooms are restored for modern use but most of the castle remains true to a much older time frame. We arrived late in the day and had the building to ourselves. The castle was first built in 1488 as a defensive structure that was burnt a couple and rebuilt a couple of times. It was occupied at different times by opposing forces during the Jacobite war. In 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie was in residence for a time.
For all of the fans of Outlander, we took a side trip to find Craigh Na Dun; the fictional location of the portal stones which transported Claire back to the year 1743. I was hoping to skip back a few pants sizes myself but to no avail. The stones in the movie were props modeled after the Calanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis, which were removed after filming. Just the same, Kinloch Rannoch, the actual name of the loch in the photos below, was fun to visit but the wind almost blew us away.
In case you are wondering, this is the last post on the Scotland adventure. We have started talking about next year, the “North Coast 500” looks very interesting.
Dennis
