Living the retirement dream

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One Night in Grantown-On-Spey Entering the Cairngorms National Park

Jim planned this whole itinerary starting back in February and finishing up in August. The trip hinged on flying into Edinburgh and then getting to Islay for a booking there and then back to Edinburgh October 17-24 to meet up with daughter Jennifer and family. Everything in between was planned by Jim with help from AI. Jim came up with Cairngorms National Park and the Snow Roads by himself. The Snow Roads is a 90 mile route traversing the highest public roads in Britain. We will be staying one night in Grantown-On-Spey which is the northern end of the Snow Road and then four more nights along the way.

After leaving Dornoch we drove south around Inverness and on to Carrbridge which is a jumping off point for the Cairngormes. It is famous for this packhorse bridge from 1717 which is now only used for jumping into the River Dulnain.
Beautiful fall colors.
The village plays host to an annual chainsaw carving competition. Jim saw these two sculptures while turning around after dropping Sandy off to take a picture of the bridge.
Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown-On-Spey is nestled in the Scottish Highlands. It is one of Scotland’s oldest and most prestigious hotels dating back to 1765. It has hosted both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth with their husbands.
A modest room overlooking the dumpsters. According to the hotel staff the opposite side of the hall looking out front was unsleepable due to wind noise from the end of storm Amy.
Nice dining room with a decent meal.
We attended a one hour talk by this 85 year old on capercaillies which seem to be heading for extinction according to him. These birds are members of the grouse family.
Setting out on a morning walk before the short drive to Ballater.
It seems that all of these small Scottish towns have a golf course.
Multiple routes and paths through these woods. Jim uses All Trails app to get us around.
Easy wide path to start.
This old dead tree was so spectacular in real life but a very drab picture.
These benches all have plaques with tributes to someone on them.
Lots of downed trees from the recent storm Amy.
The river was up over our path in places.
Many paths in the UK run on private pasture land with livestock in the fields.What you see here is a stile or step over. In some areas it is a gate known as a kissing gate. We felt like we were back on the Camino again with these gates and pastures.
We passed many old bridges along this walk.
The terrain is ever changing.
Still some heather in bloom.
We were resting on this bench when Darroch came along and scooted us over so he could sit down. We spoke to him for about ten minutes even though he had primary progressive aphasia and a Scottish brogue we were able to communicate. He told us about his diagnosis and also about recently losing his beloved dog and the fact that he can no longer walk long distances because of knee problems. He was quite chatty and we enjoyed sharing a bench in the woods with him as these are precious unexpected moments in our lives of human bonding, even if it is only briefly.
Heading for Ballater on The Snow Road. Up here they have red and white snow poles all along the road so the snow plows can find the road.
Ever changing scenery. At one of our lookout stops we saw a sign with a pheasant on it which said “caution, I might be around the next corner”. Sure enough there were many dead pheasants in the road after that.
Speaking of pheasants in the road, here is a video of a pheasant crossing.

After a very pleasant days drive we arrived in Ballater for our next two night stay. The Cairngorms are turning out to be very memorable and worthwhile.

Living our retirement dream

One response to “One Night in Grantown-On-Spey Entering the Cairngorms National Park”

  1. peggy scott Avatar
    peggy scott

    Wonderful and touching memory of your “bench mate”….

    Reply

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