What a great week we have had on the Aberdeenshire coast… sea, sand, sunshine, castles, birds and wildlife all on the doorstop!

Highlights of the journey included crossing the Forth and seeing all the different bridges, following the A92 to Dundee rather than the motorway and making it to our cottage with it’s view of the sea just before it got dark!

Our first full day (28th February) and we woke to the most amazing sunshine… it was blumming cold but we enjoyed a nice walk from the cottage to get our bearings.

There are a view interesting things in this little village we are staying in. In the photos above:

• Top left – the wreck of the Sovereign which went aground in December 2005, featured on the poster for the 2012 film Life of Pi – see pic below!
• Middle Right – from the harbour in the village, you can see Fraserburgh across the bay in the background.
• Bottom Left – The Fishermen’s Memorial – depicting a fisherman’s wife & child looking out to the North Sea – commemorating all those lost at sea from the village of Cairnbulg & Inverallochy

We also saw lots of different birds!

On our 2nd day (1st March & the meteorological start of Spring!), we decided to have another walk from the cottage but going the opposite way down the coast… we didn’t go too far as it was very, very windy!

On Monday (2nd March) we had a run out to Fraserburgh. If you look at a map of Scotland, Fraserburgh is basically where the East Coast takes a left turn at the very end of the Moray Firth. The town is locally known as The Broch although it was originally called Faithlie.

Some Fraserburgh facts…

• The Fraser family (after whom the town is named) are said to originate from Anjou in France & settled in Scotland around the 12th century
• The 8th Laird of Philoth, Alexander Fraser, is recognised as ‘The founder of Fraserburgh’.
• He built Kinnaird castle, erected a new church, and extended the harbour originally built by his grandfather and, in 1601, the town was renamed Fraserburgh…
• The town was renowned for herring fishing in the 19th century when, at its peak between 1870-1900, the industry employed 16,000 people including gutters, coopers and curers and the whole town worked on curing and barrelling during the fishing season (July to September).
• Today, whilst the herring industry has declined, Fraserburgh continues to be a major white-fish port and a busy commercial harbour.
• Kinnaird Head Lighthouse was built in 1787 as the first lighthouse in Scotland and the town also had the first RNLI Station in Scotland, opening in 1858.

Tuesday (3rd March) we headed off to RSPB Loch of Strathbeg, just 6.5 miles down the road near a place called Crimond.

The reserve was a bit unkept but we eventually found our way to one of the hides and saw some Whooper Swans, Lapwings, Goldeneye and a distant view of what we believe was a Marsh Harrier… we also saw Wigeon and Buzzards and a lone male Roe Deer as we entered the reserve which we thought was a good omen! Oh, and hundreds of pink footed geese gave us an amazing aerial display – what a treat!

Yesterday (4th March) we decided to have a drive round to see as many of the local “castles” as possible. I say “castles” because many of them are not what I think of when I think of castles (e.g., like Skipton, Clitheroe, Durham or Richmond…). Most are fortified houses which have fallen into ruin but it was still nice to see them!

Our first castle of the day was the local Inverallochy Castle which dates back to 1504… originally, the castle stood on the edge of the Loch of Inverallochy which was drained a long time ago.

We then went in search of the Castle of Lonmay near St Combs, the next village down the coast from where we are staying but there is nothing left of this one! So we carried on…

And after a short drive when we by chance spotted the Mormond Hill White Horse (a 162 foot-long geoglyph made of white quartz stone – see photo below), we found Fedderate Castle.

Back in the car, we headed off to Gight Castle… we missed the turn initially but found it after turning around and retracing our tracks with the help of Google rather than our satnav which kept trying to take us down the wrong track! I liked Gight Castle as it meant we also got a walk in the woods… if we had come to this one first, I think we would have stayed longer and done a longer walk as it bordered the start of a Scottish Wildlife reserve overlooking the Ythan river.

A couple of interesting facts about Gight Castle… It was the ancestral home of Lord Byron’s mother and a ghostly piper is said to haunt the ruins!

Next stop was in Turriff – no castle here but probably more importantly, there was a bakery serving coffee!

After refreshments, back in the car, we decided we would do one more castle before heading back along the coast to our cottage… so we headed to Eden!

As the photos suggest, it was another beautiful day – we have been so lucky with the weather this week.

For a few weeks now, Pete has been complaining about the odd bristle on his chinny-chin-chin as his facial hair is slowly starting to regrow… I told him I know exactly how frustrating unwanted chin hair can be 🤣 and offered up my tweezers! He was having none of it so yesterday marked the day when he had his first shave since last August! Another sign of his recovery from chemo! 🤣

Today was our last in Aberdeenshire before we head home to the Borders tomorrow morning. Pete has been feeling very tired in the mornings but determined to go out each day so today we headed to RSPB Troup Head along the coast, near the town of Banff.

Although the cliffs at Troup Head are home to Scotland’s largest mainland Gannet colony, we didn’t really expect to see much today as it’s a little early in the season. However, we were pleasantly surprised to see some Gannets on the cliffs as well as a few Kittiwakes & Fulmars… the bonus was, apart from the farmer ploughing his fields, we were the only people there and so had a very pleasant walk along the cliffs where we saw a number of Yellowhammers too!

Despite being mostly cloudy today (and a bit blowy on the cliff top!), it was a nice way to spend our last day. We managed to miss the rain which threatened for most of the afternoon, as the drizzle only started when we were back in the car on our way home…

We decided that Troup Head is definitely a place we would like to visit again one day…

Thank you Aberdeenshire for a fantastic week – we hope to see you again sometime soon! Xx