Into the Highlands

Aberdeen was only ever intended as an overnight stop...a rather rare occurrence in our holiday...and today we were off to the Cairngorms. As we didn't have far to travel, we first took a short drive around Aberdeen. Although we could have stayed longer, we decided we could spend more time here at the end of this leg of our holiday and headed off towards the Highlands. Our road map was littered with interesting looking historic relics and places to see...and the first of these that we visited was the Cullerlie Stone Circle that dated back to the Bronze Age.

Cullerlie Stone Circle

After a short stop at the stone circle, we were back on our way westward...slowly climbing into the hills. Our wandering next brought us to Craigievar Castle. For reasons that are immediately obvious when you see it, this 17th Century castle is known as the Fairytale Castle. We took a fascinating guided tour through its six levels and followed this up with a spot of lunch and a walk in the ground.

Craigievar Castle...the Fairy Tale Castle

Back on the road again, we were heading along the B9119 where we discovered a fantastic lookout called the Queen's View...where we discovered an interesting geocaching quirk for this part of Scotland...if a place or even a pull-off is worth stopping at, it is highly likely that there is a geocache there. Continuing along the B9119, we were heading to Tarland and the nearby Tomnaverie Stone Circle...and adjacent Royal Observer Corp post dating from the Cold War period.

The Queen's View

Looking down on Tarland

Tomnaverie Stone Circle

Royal Observer Corp bunker

While in Tarland, we discovered that there was a carved burial stone standing in the nearby Migvie Kirkyard and so we left in that direction. The afternoon was getting on so we decided it was now time to head for our B&B in the village of Braemar. Our route there took us from Migvie north along the A97, alongside the River Don on the A944 through Strathdon and on to the A939 and B976 through parts of the Cairngorms National Park. The views were spectacular...which slowed progress as we kept stopping for photos...and geocaches.

Standing stone in the Migvie Kirkyard

Cairngorm views

Eventually we wound our way down to the Royal Deeside and the River Dee for a short drive to Braemar.

Our Braemar B&B