Not far inland from the Cliffside
Dunnottar Castle you will enter the Cairngorms National Park. An amazing, but short and easy hike can be taken at
Burn O Vat (burn means stream in Scots Gaelic) near Dinnet. Park at the trailhead (where there is a restroom) and take an easy wooded hike to a what looks like a dead end. The rocks create a little portal through which you enter the vat - a giant bowl shaped rock hollow created by years of stream erosion. From here you can scramble up past a small waterfall along the stream and moss and ivy covered boulders - slippery but worth the effort. Directions and more trail info
HERE.
From Burn O Vat we drove through the Cairngorms to The Glenlivet Whisky Distillery for an afternoon pick me up. Then we were on to Grantown-on-Spey where we stayed at the
Craiglynne Hotel.
The next morning we took shelter from the rain in the Glenfiddich Distillery, peeked into Balvenie Castle ruins across the road and then headed a bit south through the Cairngorms to
Auchindoun Castle, a desolate ruin. We visited Auchindoun on a cold, cloudy April day. Sitiated atop a high hill on the edge of Cairngorms above the deep valley of the River Fiddich (as in "Glenfiddich" Whisky), this is perhaps the windiest place I've ever been. The hike seemed harsh against the wind as we walked up a lane and through a farmstead but was really perhaps a half mile. We parked our car near the main road as the lane said not suitable for vehicles but knowing what was ahead we would have driven up that road at least a bit (unless it was muddy, mind you). Auchindoun was incredible - so stark and lonely, a gothic ruin if ever I saw one. I especially loved how the field around the castle was planted with rows of crop (turnips, I think) and the dozens of sheep grazed and dotted the field. Worth a visit if you have the time. You'll likely find yourself alone here a the top of the world, or so it feels.
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| Auchindoun Castle, Scotland |
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| Late Winter Cairngorms |
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| Late Winter Caringorms |
Onward north we stopped in Elgin to see the cathedral ruins and ancient Pictish Stones as well as Spynie Palace and Duffus Castle. Then we ended in Inverness for the night, arriving too late to stop into Leakey's Bookshop which could have busied me for hours days. Alas, I don't travel just to shop for books so we sadly missed out on this gem There is always next time...
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| Elgin Cathedral |
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| Stone with Christian Carving on one side and Pictish Carving on the reverse |
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| Spynie Palace Ruins above and below |
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| Duffus Castle - just a few scattered ruins here atop a motte and bailey earthwork and remnants of a wall enclosure. Still fun to scramble around the tilted ruins. |
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| Leakey's Bookshop, Inverness. Still dreaming of this bibliophile heaven... |
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