Day 6 - The Cairngorms

We had a great night's sleep at the Rosehall Inn in Grantown-on-Spey. After a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon we were ready to tackle an adventurous drive through the back roads of the National Park. Our host, Martin, provided a number of great tips on a route to Pitlochry, our destination for today.

We started off with a trip to the Knockando Woolmill, the UK's oldest fully functioning wool mill that has been manufacturing textiles since 1784. Most of the equipment has been in service since the late 1800's. It was continually operated as a family business up until 2000 at which time a Trust raised funds and did a major restoration of the mill and equipment. Unfortunately, they were not in production this morning so we missed seeing the equipment operating but could appreciate the restoration effort. Needless to say, the fabric produced here is not cheap!

On our way to the mill and back, we encountered deer and pheasants on the one lane road. The weather was sunny on the way there but as we returned, it had started to cloud over.

We now headed into the Cairngorms. A fairly twisty road through the hills/mountains with some single track short cuts. Even though it was overcast, we were treated to some great vistas.

We passed trough several small villages with interesting names; Tomintoul, Cock Bridge, Colnabaichim, Spittal of Glenshee, Kirkmichael and Dainavid.

On the way we passed by two Scottish ski resorts.

One of the things we had to be alert for were sheep on the road. Apparently someone has been helping many of then "over the fence" and they like to graze on the lush grass right at the side of the road.

A really cool driving bit was going over this beautiful stone "hump back" bridge at Glen Gairn.

Along the way we saw two castles, Corgarff Castle near Cock Bridge

and Braemar Castle at Braemar.

We tried to get a look at Balmoral Castle but the only way to get near it was to pay for a full castle tour which was too expensive and would have taken up too much of our time.

Martin had recommended a stop at Scotland's smallest distillery, The Edradour,  just outside of Pitlochry. We were just going to have a look but ended up deciding to take the tour. It was fun and our guide was hilarious. There are only three workers here and they produce very small batches.

We arrived at our inn just as it was starting to rain.

A very nice room and the inn was right at the end of the main street. Pitlochry is sort of like a Niagara-on-the-Lake except with narrower streets and more stone buildings. Hopefully the sun is out in the morning and we can explore.

Our host guided us to a pub that was nearby that used to be a blacksmith's shop and we had a nice dinner without getting too wet.