Castles everywhere!

Aberdeenshire is famous for having so many castles, so we visited three more. Corgarff castle is quite remote and on the day we visited quite bleak! With a wind chill down to just above zero and some horizontal rain, we didn't hang about outside for too long - don't be fooled by the shorts!

Dee does love to dress up!

Two to a bed in the Barracks

Not far away was Kildrummy Castle and the sun had come out at last - still freezing though! Purdy loved the soft grass.

The following day we visited Huntly Castle on the edge of what was quite a grand town.

The castle is a ruin but what's left is in surprisingly good condition and much better than we expected.

Spot Dee in a window!

Good job the sun was out

That looks like a ghost in the window! Oh, it's Phil!

There was a lot of very old graffiti near the
castle prison - this knight stood out

Ballater, the perfect setting for walks from the door

Ballater is a lovely small town on the river Dee, at the end of what was the Royal Deeside Railway - Dee's everywhere! It was planned to continue to Braemar but Queen Victoria's desire for privacy at Balmoral stopped this extra section!

Inside a replica of Queen Victoria's carriage

We stayed on a site on the edge of town with several great walks from the door. We did each one, separately, with shorter walks for Purdy in between.

The Seven Bridges Walk but we only found Five!

The weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse, with rain and cold northerly winds. We are now heading to the north eastern coast via some more castles, which are always good for not so good weather.

The road to Braemar

As we drove NW towards Braemar the scenery was stunning, reminiscent of Glencoe in a way. We stopped for a bite to eat beside a fast running stream with a pair of Golden Eagles flying overhead and landing on the hill nearby.

Some Scottish Heritage sites were free that day and Braemar Castle was one of them so we stopped for a visit. We were not expecting much but in fact it was really interesting.

Owned by the community and leased for 50 years, they have been doing it up for the last few years. A rich benefactor also bought them all the interior furnishings, which meant it was stuck in a time warp and brought it to life.

The previous Laird died a couple of years ago and his nephew, Philip took over. However, we found out that he is in fact a Librarian and lives in Milton Keynes!

This is a very ornate wheelbarrow and
spade used by Queen Victoria