We went for a walk around the town to while away the time before the open top bus tour around the island. However I hadn’t realised that the only day of the week that the bus doesn’t run is Wednesday. After a trip to the tourist information office we decided that we’d get the bus…
We were up early today so that we had time for the full cooked breakfast before catching the 8:12am from Wick. The line going via Georgemas junction (twice) and Thurso to Inverness must be one of the last on the network to still have jointed rail and ground levers for the points. Clackety-clack in a…
We had a fairly low-key day today. Started off with a walk up to the Pulteney distillery for a souvenir (drinkable for me, wearable for Ady). We then spent 3 hours going around the amazing Wick heritage centre. If it happened in Wick there is probably some article associated with it somewhere in the museum.…
This morning we walked from the hotel past the harbour and down the coast to the south. Wick was once the largest herring fishing port in Europe. There were a couple of years when over a hundred million herring were landed. Wick was one of the first planned industrial towns in Europe. The old part…
We set off from home just after 9a.m. for our train travels around Scotland. The train into Manchester was a couple of minutes late, but that still gave us plenty of time for a cup of tea from Pret. The Transpenine Express out of Manchester was only 4 cars rather than the usual 8 and…
Today was the last leg of our home journey and we had another easy run making it from Moffat to Cheadle Hulme in about two and a half hours to pick up the dogs. They and Lisa seemed to have survived being with each other for the week. We were back home and unpacked in…
There’s not a lot to report for today since this is the first leg of our trip home. We set off just before 11am and arrived in Moffat just before 4pm after a brief stop for a very tasty lunch at Dowally Craft Centre and Cafe. We checked into the Annondale Arms Hotel and then…
We had pre-booked the Keith and Dufftown railway for today and so drove to Keith. We arrived with around an hour to spare before the 12:15 train and so took a short detour to Strathisla distillery. We had a look around the shop and the small exhibitions of photos, wooden things and other random products.…
The day of the royal wedding (Kate and William). We couldn’t get anything but snow out of the TV at the cottage and so Nadine and Tim went down to the Aberlour Hotel to watch the wedding. Ady and I decided to go for a walk up Ben Rinnes (rin-knees). We took a packed lunch…
Today we were booked on the VIP shortbread factory tour and whisky tasting. The factory tour was very interesting because we were signed in as visitors and shown around the factory floor at Dean’s of Huntly. Dean’s pride themselves on the fact that a lot of the process is still manual – they employ around…