We woke to a greyer day today and a long drive ahead so there was no relaxing lie in ( although, who am I kidding, we almost NEVER have a relaxing lie on on our holidays!) . We drove back through the town of Thurso but this time headed off away from the coast to cut across to Wick and then a little further East back to the far north Eastern coast so we could take a look at
Castle Sinclair Girnigoe . It is considered to be one of the earliest seats of Clan Sinclair. It comprises the ruins of two castles: the 15th-century Castle Girnigoe; and the early 17th-century Castle Sinclair. We had the place entirely to ourselves and found that the view was a bit restricted from the path so it was the perfect spot for Neil to fly the Drone.
Heading on south we stopped briefly at the Whaligoe Steps. Whaligoe is a small natural harbour in use at the peak of the herring fishing era. When the boats arrived with the herring, local women would go and carry the herring back up the steps in baskets balanced on their heads. It’s a little obscure finding the top of the steps, you feel like your heading down someone’s driveway! We didn’t attempt to go all the way down, the climb was enough to make me admire those herring fisherman climbing all the way back up after a tiring day of fishing!
Along this section of the coast we got a good view of the some of the oil rigs that line up out into the North Sea.
The road down the East coast was much better and faster driving than the East coast and we made good time. We stuck very close to the coast most of the time and passed through pretty villages and past some spectacular estates.
The MOST spectacular in this part of the country is Dunrobin Castle , one of Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited houses dating back to the early 1300s, home to the Earls and later, the Dukes of Sutherland. We walked through the state rooms of the castle on a self guided tour, they certainly did well for themselves in terms of fine paintings, furniture and other odd and sods, those Dukes of Sutherland. The castle overlooks its own formal gardens with a fine view out to sea.
We made tracks from Dunrobin with a goal in mind. I’d been keen to visit Strathisla Distillery and we wanted to get there in time for the 3.30pm tour. This part of Scotland is littered with whisky distilleries but I wanted to see Strathisla because of its very beautiful buildings and setting, and also because it’s the oldest continuously operating distillery in the Highlands. Strathisla is the home of Chivas Regal. The distillery was founded by two enterprising local gentlemen in 1786 within a stone’s throw from the ruins of Milton Castle. They distill their Strathisla Single malt here and it is used in every one of the Chivas regal Blended whiskys.
A wedding Gift for Harry and Meghan
It was a small tour with just us and 6 other people but I was amazed at just how much the young guide knew about her whisky! The tour ended with a tasting of the Strathisla Single Malt and three of the Chivas Regal blends. They were all very different!
From here we had just a 50 minute drive to our hotel at Aberdeen airport where we dropped the car and spent the rest of the evening trying to fit our carry on luggage into the very strict limits imposed for our flight the next day. Although its an Aer Lingus flight it is operated by Stobard Air on a little turbo prop plane and the limits are giving us a headache with our luggage. Just another one of the challenges of travel.