Beautiful Britain - Loch Muick, Aberdeenshire

Hi there everyone

We are back in Scotland, in the beautiful Aberdeenshire, for this week's post. We just have so much to share from our week's visit back in June with mum and dad.

When returning from our earlier visit to Balmoral we had taken a bit of an off piste route and we'd seen the signs for Loch Muick. We'd all agreed that we definitely wanted to come back and have a look and today was the day.

The Loch is on the Balmoral Estate and there is a 7.75mile circuit walk, which takes in the impressive Glas-allt Shiel house built by Queen Victoria, from where there is an optional detour to see some waterfalls.

We weren't planning on completing the walk, but did hope that we would at least get to see the Loch.

It was a fair old drive from where we'd seen the sign and we were beginning to wonder if we'd missed a turning somewhere, but eventually we did arrive at The Spittal of Glenmuick car park.

We followed the path out of the car park passing some intrepid campers, heading for the visitor centre.

The scenery was spectacular and we were nowhere near the Loch yet.

It wasn't far to the visitor centre and we had a good look round, taking in the information on local wildlife and stories about the area.
We continued on past the the visitor centre towards the Loch, which was still hidden from view, following the river which was meandering across the valley floor ...
... where we were thrilled to see a herd of deer peacefully grazing ...
It wasn't long before we crested the ridge and caught our first view of the Loch and we decided that we would aim to walk to the bridge, which you can just about see in the centre of the picture ...
As we were following the path we suddenly spotted some movement up on the hill to our left and were absolutely thrilled to spot a lonesome stag grazing ...
As you can imagine we stood for a fair while watching him, just willing him to look our way and we were rewarded with a brief glimpse ...
We passed the footpath to Glen Clova ...

... but stuck with our easy path, still heading for the bridge, with the promise of a bit of blue sky overhead ...

We soon made it to the pretty wooden bridge ...

... which dad and I couldn't resist crossing so that we could get right to the edge of the Loch. 

It's so hard to describe how majestic it felt standing right by the side of the Loch, my pictures really don't do it justice. We could feel the wind whistling around the valley and were dwarfed by the mountains towering all around, it really felt as though we were part of the landscape. I did try and take a video, it's not brilliant, but here it is anyway ...

It was time to head back the way we had come so we turned our backs to the Loch and made our way back up to the main footpath ...

We couldn't resist a last look at the Loch as we crested the ridge ...
... to head back towards the visitor centre ...
We did get one more real treat though on our way back ...

... before we entered the last bit of woodland by the visitor centre ...

We were so glad we'd made the effort to visit and to walk to the Loch. Even though we are no longer fit or energetic enough to make the full circuit, it was definitely worth the visit. It is a truly beautiful spot 😊

Beautiful Britain - Balmoral - Royal Deeside

Hi there Everyone

It's back to Scotland for this week's post for the next big day out we had on our week's holiday, with mum and dad, back in June.

This time we are back to Balmoral for a second visit, having also visited on our previous holiday back in 2015.

It was as impressive an arrival as we remembered, walking from the car park, across The Dee to the gatehouse, where we caught the trailer for a ride up the drive.

We had a good look round the exhibitions, seeing all of the photographs used for the royal Christmas cards dating right back to the beginning of the Queens reign.

It was the gardens we had really come back to see again. We had purposely come a bit later in the year this time, in the hope that there would be more to see in the gardens and we weren't disappointed.

There was a lot more colour than there had been on our previous visit and we spent a lot more time exploring the gardens and took lots more photographs.

It was surprising to see how far behind us things are in flowering, our allium came and went back in April/May time, but they are still giving a really good show here ...

The same is true of the laburnum arch, which is still to reach its best. Ours always has its best show in May time ...

We managed to get some more good shots of the castle, though we couldn't manage the full building without any people in at all, however long we waited.

We had a little more luck from the side...

There was a lot more to be seen in the sunken garden this time too. 

This time we walked down to the river and we are so glad we did. It was absolutely beautiful. What an amazing spot to have at the bottom of your garden.

We had another look round the exhibition in The Ballroom, which was completely different to our last visit, and we came away knowing that we had to visit both Glamis and Mey Castles, which have both been added to my list of 50 things to do before I am 60.

There was just time for a quick visit to the cafe for a piece of cake, shared with some of the locals, before heading off.

Mum and dad had really enjoyed their first visit and we were no less happy with it being our second. It's definitely worth visiting at different times of the year 😀

Beautiful Britain - Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Corndavon Cottage

Hi there everyone

We are just back from a fab week's break in the very lovely Royal Deeside, making a revisit to Garnshiel Cottages, with us staying back in Corndavon and mum and dad ensconced in Morven.

We had a crazy busy week, got out and about loads and saw some amazing sights, so I have plenty to tell you about over the next few weeks.

Apologies to those of you who will have seen most of these pictures on Facebook over the course of last week, but I thought I'd start with a bit of a snapshot, so here it is from start to finish ... a week of selfies and smart phone pictures.

We had a stop off at The Kelpies on the way up ...

There was plenty of Geocaching ...

... and even more sightseeing, with plenty of beautiful spots and loads of castles ...

The Burn O'Vat

Braemar Castle

The Linn O'Dee

Balmoral Castle

Balmoral Castle

Crathes Castle

Drum Castle Rose Garden

Craigevar Castle

Craigevar Castle

Loch Muick

Loch Muick

With one last stop off at the lovely Rosslyn Chapel on the way home ...

Rosslyn Chapel

What a week we had. We all had a fabulous time but came home absolutely shattered.

If you want to see more of our trip than a few selfies then please keep reading over the next few weeks, where I have plenty more to share 😉