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.