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To celebrate our 10th anniversary we decided to head for Edinburgh and then continue on up to the Cairngorms. On our first evening we visited a comedy club. There was mixed range of talent: the compere’s material mostly consisted of having a go at the audience (you got a feeling of bitter disappointment in life such was the vitriol), and a class act from Canada and his observations on being a foreigner in Scotland. We stayed in a plush hotel for the first night and enjoyed a repeat visit to the Scottish Museum (highly recommended) in the morning.

Chilly in the Cairngorms

Dorian Speakman
2006-08-26 13:16:58

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Edinburgh and The Cairngorms

To celebrate our 10th anniversary we decided to head for Edinburgh and then continue on up to the Cairngorms. On our first evening we visited a comedy club. There was mixed range of talent: the compere’s material mostly consisted of having a go at the audience (you got a feeling of bitter disappointment in life such was the vitriol), and a class act from Canada and his observations on being a foreigner in Scotland. We stayed in a plush hotel for the first night and enjoyed a repeat visit to the Scottish Museum (highly recommended) in the morning.

The journey is pretty impressive on the Edinburgh - Inverness route. After the Forth Bridge, the rolling landscape of Fife and the spectacular views of the coast, the train heads inland towards Perthshire. The landscape abruptly changes just before Dunkeld as you enter the Highlands. The mountains were heavily clad in snow as the train topped the Drumnochter Pass summit, a stark contrast to the almost monochrome brown of the heather moorland. Shortly after, we got off at Aviemore, at the foot of the Caringorms and home of the British ski industry.

We were moss and lichen in the still dormant woods, Carrbridge.staying in Carrbridge about 8 miles away. Our hosts at the B&B kindly gave us a lift to Carrbridge. The first evening was provided with grand weather so we went for a stroll in the woods around Carrbridge and were rewarded with a grand vista of the Cairngorm Mountains.

Next day the weather forecast was for deteriorating weather, so we stayed off the tops and headed for the Spey valley. We followed the woodland paths again before heading across to the Boat of Garten and a ride on the Strathspey Railway, a preserved steam line. The line had recently been extended, with volunteers relaying the track where there was once just a muddy track remaining. Though the weather held, an icy wind blew across from the mountains. We appreciated the old fashioned ...