Pitlochry 2008
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We decided to have a Summer break in Pitlochry so off we went for a few days. Jonathon had never seen "real" Scotland before so I thought it was about time he did, especially as the scenery is beautiful. Weather was mixed - starting with lovely and sunny and gradually falling into rain as the days went by. |
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We stayed at the Atholl Palace Hotel. It's a real castle and perched on top of a hill, you can see it as you come off the A9 into Pitlochry. A lovely place to stay, good food and friendly staff etc. |
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One of the reasons we chose this hotel was the facilities - spa etc in case of wet days. We were pleasantly surprised to find a putting green and a pitch and putt course there as well, both of which we had a go on. |
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But more importantly (for me) was the fact that it had a lot of ground around it and various types of garden areas. To get to the pitch and putt your walked through woodland (no photos as didn't want to take camera round the course!). There were several species of birds around ... |
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A quick tour of one part of the grounds, starting with the drive in ... |
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You can just see the 39 Steps on the right of the photo. Some of the steps are really steep but it's an interesting way of getting from one level to another. |
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Although not the walk through the main woodland, this is the alernative route to the main gates - very pretty. |
There are a few water features around - even a couple of waterfalls.
There were signs saying Watch Out for Ducklings but we didn't see any (we saw some bigger ducks but no ducklings so perhaps they'd grown up by the time we got there).
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The pond on the right is the Mirror Lake but I think the Duck Pond would be better called the mirror lake on the day I was taking photos as that provided better reflections. |
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There were quite a few large trees, including a Giant Redwood and several fir trees. The Noble Fir was indeed noble. |
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As well as the 39 steps, there were two stone staircases leading from the garden to the hotel, each edged with flower beds and topped off with a lion! |
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There were loads and loads of plants, a small number of which are shown here! |
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During the rainy day we spent time in the very comfortable hotel lounge .... |
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... or in the swimming pool, snooker room, steam room, jacuzzi etc etc |
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The view from our room was so lovely we could have just sat in there and gazed at it but we did venture out occasionally.
One day we went for a drive around the local area. First stop The Queen's View.
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The view looking back from the official lookout point was very pretty too! |
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There were lots of wildflowers all over the place - very pretty to see. We carried on around the north shore of Loch Tummel and then round the north shore of Loch Rannoch. Looking across Loch Rannoch, you can see that the sunny weather was changing to not so sunny! |
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Driving along the north shores, we drove through pretty leafy lanes |
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However, when we went along the south shore, the scenery was very different - far more moorland-y, with the usual sheep roaming around looking for trouble! |
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We stretched our legs at the end of the loch (Rannoch) and took a few photos (weather was now a fine drizzle!) |
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We went to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre every evening (more info below). The first night was pre-booked and was Kathryn and Peter Tickell in concert. The support act was really good too. On the back of one of the tickets was an advert for a book/music/coffee shop in Aberfeldy so off we went there. En route, we spotted Glengoulandie Country Park so popped in. |
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Rather than take you round in the 4WD, they give you the keys, ask that you stay on the road and off you go! Fantastic and gave Jonathon a bit of a different driving experience! |
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The animals in the park were Red Deer, Highland Cows (Hielan Coos), Goats and Soay Sheep. The deer had young with them so we kept our distance but it was lovely to see them. |
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The stags' antlers were furry - you still wouldn't want to get on the wrong end of them! |
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The park had a nice big lake in it so the animals wouldn't go thirsty. The lake is stocked with Brown Trout but we didn't see any. |
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Another day we took ourselves off to the Falls of Bruar. When the first visitors came to view the falls (in the 18th century) the water flowed across a bare hillside but while we were there there were loads of trees making for pretty walking tracks.
There are 2 waterfalls - Lower Falls and Upper Falls with pretty stone bridges. The water was very brown due to the peat in the area.
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As well as the trees and water, there were a few birds and flowers around... |
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Back to the theatre ...
PFT have this brilliant scheme where they put on a different play each evening through the week in the summer so you have plenty of choice.
The first show we saw was a concert by Kathryn and Peter Tickell. Kathryn plays the Northumbrian pipes and fiddle, Peter plays the fiddle and guitar. We'd pre-booked these tickets and our looking forward to it was well justified.
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This year's selection included:
Wild Honey by Michael Frayn (based on the Chekhov play with no name) - a bit long and quite intense.
Habeus Corpus by Alan Bennett (a really funny end of pier show) and Shirley's favourite of the week
Arcadia byTom Stoppard - this was a very clever play with the cast split in half. One half from a few hundred years ago, the other half in modern days trying to find out what happened in the time of the first lot.
She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith - Jonathon's favourite. It was a very funny comedy based in Georgian times and full of misunderstandings.
There were a couple of others (Friday and Saturday) but we'd left by then.
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One final trip to The Queen's View - another cloudy day but still a beautiful view. This is a lovely part of Scotland and one that I've visited before and I dare say we will visit again. |
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