Scotland 2025 - Sept 27 - The Last Hike

 

Our last stop on this trip (before returning to Edinburgh) is Blair Atholl. And after having hiked and walked over 180 kilometers, our bodies are sort of "Killie" and "crankie". So it seems we are at the correct intersection 🤣

After breakfast and chats with other MAC adventure hikers, we walked out towards the River Tilt. We said goodbye to the fellow Canadians Sonia and Pete, as they crossed the river towards the train station, and we stayed to do the river hike. They are one day ahead of us, on the same MAC trip. 

The hike up the river was a rich green forest, and the river was loud and energetic. 

We came across an old shelter or auditorium or amphitheatre, or, we are not sure what? It was on the other side of the river. 

Today we chose to "hike our own hike" so from here we crossed the river and went back towards the Castle grounds. A few cool nights and we are witnessing the transformation of the trees to Fall colours. 

And guess who we ran into again today?!

Some sleepy cows! 

Gotta love those cows! 🤣

Back through the Castle grounds and into Blair Atholl, to the Watermill. 

At the Blair Atholl Village Hall, we discovered the

We enjoyed meeting some locals, and wandering through the craft sale. There may have been some shortbread purchased, as well as some Christmas shopping started here today 🥰

The skies were threatening rain all day but we continued our journey, through the small town, and across the railway tracks. We were careful and avoided the trains, but enjoyed watching this one come through this lovely old stone archway / bridge. 

We then crossed the River Garry and found a hiking trail along its shore. 

Complete with fly-fishermen. 

Pretty flowers.  

And hidden bales of hay. 

We had to climb an embankment and hop a fence to get back across the River Garry and to the road headed home (don't tell our mom about the fence hopping). 

It was a tough walk from here. Although it was categorized as a "hike" it was far too much road walking for us, and far too little shoulder, and the added complications of driving on the left. Actually the most stressful few kilometers of the trip, to be honest. 

We couldn't even walk facing traffic because there was a stone wall on that side of the road,

This road is actually labeled National Cycle Route 7. What??? Absolutely no shoulder, and blind corners... Yikes. 

 

We made it back safely to our Bridge of Tilt, and the cute little community of our Bed & Breakfast, the Ptarmigan House. 

(Photo above from internet, we did not see blue sky today) 

This little community has many restores old stone houses and has lovely art and fixtures. 

We made sure we were back in time for the main event today. The Woman's Rugby World Cup finals. Canada was an underdog in the tournament, but we beat the odds and made it to the finals against the #1 ranked English team. So we did what all good Canadians would do, we found a pub to cheer our girls on. 

Sadly, our pints did not help them in the first half, so we resorted to the truly Scottish pub experience and got fish and chips (and another pint). 

 

But, alas, the English team was not to be beaten tonight. Still so proud of our team and their amazing rise to play in the world cup finals. 

A rainy walk home from the pub, and some comfort for our loss. 

Tomorrow we say good bye to Blair Atholl and to the Hike and Rail Grand Tour of Scotland. 

Thanks for reading along and in particular for those who left comments ❤️. 

Scotland has been grand, indeed. 

Scotland 2025 - Sept 26 - Blair Atholl

There was a frost last night, the air was crisp and the sky clear this morning. We packed up and said goodbye to our lovely (and a bit quirky) Bed & Breakfast host and headed for the train station. 

The Inverness town hall looks like a castle.

We had time to shop (Victorian Market) and visit a post office and get some train snacks at Marks & Spencers. 

There was a Miles of Mystery car rally going through town, so lots of small fast fancy cars going through. 

The train station was once again busy, and even a bit chaotic, but we were able to get seats with a good view for the ride south.

We had some crazy cloud formations roll in, but no rain drops. 

This east side of Scotland is definitely very different than the West. Less dramatic but still lovely rolling hills and more farming. 

We arrived in Blair Atholl just after noon and walked to the Ptarmigan House, our home for our final two nights. Ancient curling stones greeted us at the front door. This home is managed by the Muirhead family - Eve, the daughter is a two-time Olympic medalist in Curling!  Duff is very happy. 

We decided to explore the Blair Castle for our hike today. A long walk up the driveway and another chance to see Highland Cows was a fun beginning 

We watched as these two cows approached each other and we thought they might fight but no. They actually were grooming. We watched as the larger bull licked the neck hair of the smaller cow. It was quite interesting. 

Once again we were mesmerized by these animals. 

The castle itself is quite large and white and striking. We didn't venture in (we didn't buy a ticket) but we enjoyed the grounds and the incredible forests.

Some of the UK's tallest trees are here. And trees from all over the world. The Atholl's have had this land for hundreds of years and have worked to make it remarkable. 

The site of these church ruins dates back to the 1200's. 

We then left the castle property and enjoyed a hike in the surrounding hills. 

There was a side trail to The Whim. We thought, hmmm let's do this, on a whim 😉

 

What's a whim?

Well, we are not really sure, it is sort of a wall / gate to nowhere / monument?? Very cool but??

It did have a great view of the castle. 

Back to the hike.  We took an old road (we encountered no cars) that was a very popular dog walking route.  We found this lovely old bridge. 

We found ourselves walking with Willow the dog and her owner. The dog owner was a chatty guy, here on holiday from England, with lots of knowledge to share. As an arborist he explained that many of the pine trees are not indigenous to Scotland - and neither are rabbits! Who knew?

We walked for several kilometers with Willow and her owner, looping back to the castle to see the deer. 

Here we said goodbye to Willow, and her owner. 

It was nice to have company. 

 

Duff is hiding in this photo ...

At the front door! 

It was a nice easy hike today. And we have a wonderful room at the B&B. We raised a toast to another successful day of exploring Scotland. 

Tomorrow we will do our final Scotland hike, but more importantly, we will find a place to watch our Canadian Women's rugby team play England in the finals. 

🇨🇦

Go ladies Go