A week in Aberdeenshire

It’s the end of summer 2020, the world is still in partial lockdown and the fear of Covid-19 continues. Across the UK, thousands of families have been going on “staycations” to replace their usual trips abroad. This week we did just that and rented a remote cottage in the countryside of Aberdeenshire.

We stay in a 2-bedroom cottage on an estate near the town of Alford, not far from Inverurie. There is a notable silence here. We are far from a road, the house next door is empty and the only noise to speak of is the wind rustling through the trees and the morning birdsong. I sit in the “conservatory” which is a porch-like extension on the front of the house. The sun shines in through the windows, warming the room and, beyond the hedge marking the end of our garden, I see the tops of some hills in the distance.

On Monday we climbed the many peaks of Bennachie. We drove round the back to start our ascent from Rowantree Carpark on the North East side. We walked up through the woods following a well trodden and substantial grit path. We emerged from the trees and continued upwards with an endless sea of heather stretching as far as the eye could see all around us. The initial climb was fairly steep but beyond the trees the path flattened into a gentle ascent to the first and most prominent peak, Mither Tap. Once a pictish fort, there is a sharp final scramble and some impressive rock formations at the summit which was busy with walkers and almost as many dogs. One hour in, the first peak conquered, our next target was Oxen Craig, the highest point of Bennachie at 528 meters. Being 518 meters up already, this proved to be less of a challenge than it might have been. The gradual climb to this next peak was well worth the extra mile and a half for its spectacular views of the sunlit countryside and further interesting rock formations. The brunt of our journey now complete, we looked to head back to the car park, taking in the smaller peak of Craigshannoch en route. This final hill was the quietest of the three. By this point the sky was starting to cloud over and we embarked on our ultimate descent through the heather. A three hour round route and my favourite activity of the week thus far.

On Wednesday it was a tad rainy. We visited Craigievar castle which is very picturesque with its unusual pink walls, said to be the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella castle. We walked around the grounds, checked out some nearby golf courses and decided against playing that day when we realised we had no money. Instead we opted for a local walk up the back of our cottage in search of some standing stones marked on the map. We made the unfortunate decision to explore a small path off the main track which ultimately led to an hour of wading through overgrown heather. We never did find the stones we were looking for.

On Thursday the sun shone again and temperatures soared to 20°C. We made sure we had the money and set off bright and early for Lumphanan golf course. The 9 hole course was almost deserted which was just as well given the level of my playing. I was surprised to still be able to hit the ball at all after about 3 years off and delighted to complete the first round in 69 shots. Sadly this didn’t last and I went rapidly downhill in the second round, ending with a total of 142 (par being 62). Still, the important thing is that we had fun (most of the time), the weather was very kind to us and it was a lovely wee course with some interesting holes and good views. On our way home we stopped at Haughton Park in Alford which had an impressive amount of play/exercise equipment including monkey bars and a trim trail. There was also a nice stretch of path along the river.

On Friday we headed north towards Rhynie and stopped halfway to do the Tap o’Noth hill fort walk. It happened to be a very very windy day and by the time we’d fought our way to the top it was hard to even stand without getting blown over! The views were fantastic though and at least it was sunny. The top is a historic iron-age fort, the second highest in Scotland, and the remains of the walls are still present (providing much needed wind shelter). The walk was a lot shorter than we’d expected, taking not much more than an hour, so we proceeded rapidly on to Leithall. The garden at Leithall was one of my favourites, beaten only by Crathes which had a very cool display of Aeonium tabuliforme.

Cakes and coffees being an essential part of any good family holiday, we made a special effort to find a new place every day from which to sample the selection of baking. On Saturday we stopped for lunch at the highly recommended Finzean farm shop and cafe. Here we had some very delicious leek and cheese quiche and carrot soup followed by a selection of tiffin, raspberry frangipane and date slice. The quiche and the ice cream that came with the frangipane were my highlights of the meal. On Sunday we went to Barra Castle for lunch which is in fact no longer a castle and far less grand than it sounds. I had a greek salad of olives, feta, tomatoes and cucumber with pitta bread and fresh chickpea hummus. This was nice but I was particularly impressed with their dessert selection of which I had the lemon, pistachio and chai vegan loaf and sampled the rolo brownie. My favourite was the brownie but both were delicious and I appreciated the unusualness of the loaf. On Monday we struggled to find the ideal cake shop. With the streets of Inverurie proving disappointing on this front, we were forced to continue our search into the centre of Alford where we ended up in the Alford Bistro. The cake selection was not quite up to the standards of the previous days but we settled on a well fruited fruit loaf and a malteser fudge slice, both of which were tasty but a definite step down from Barra Castle. On Tuesday we went to Aberdeen and visited the highly acclaimed Foodstory for lunch. I had the most delicious toasted avocado, refried bean and nacho cheese flatbread with a slightly less delicious and rather too filling sweet potato and chickpea salad. This was closely followed by a cheesecake brownie. I’ll be going back to Foodstory. On Wednesday we visited the Alford bakery where we picked up some butteries for breakfast (regional speciality that simply had to be tried) along with a chocolate fudge slice and a caramel yum yum to go with our lunch. They were very very good. On Thursday we got lucky and by chance found a coffee shop called Platform 22 in Torphins, near where we were playing golf. Though not prominently displayed, we were delighted to find a selection of home baking in the corner and sampled the chocolate orange cake, the chocolate, coconut and brazil nut slice and the cherry almond sponge cake. They were excellent and I would recommend the shop to anyone visiting the area. On Friday we looked for coffee shops in Insch and came across The Butterfly Effect on the main street - a zero waste cafe and refillery with a delicious looking vegan biscoff sundae that I felt couldn’t be missed. I have to say it didn’t quite live up to the picture but it was still pretty good. We also got some millionaire’s shortbread which was very tasty. On our final day we came across possibly the best cake shop of all. Seemingly the only coffee shop in Johnshaven and idyllically situated right by the harbour, the Hidden Treasures Tearoom had a bigger choice of baking than we knew what to do with. After much deliberation, we finally settled on trying the raspberry and lemon cake, the chocolate cake and the tablet cheesecake. My pick was the cheesecake and it was the perfect end to our summer holiday.

#holiday #summer #Aberdeenshire #walks