Travel & Holidays in later life |
Travel FactsVisit our holidays, breaks and travel options pages TRAVEL FACTS
|

There are thirty rooms on display and touring them will take you through Scottish history as it related to the Dukes and Earls of Atholl. Mary Queen of Scots visited and Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed here during the ill-fated Jacobite Rebellion. The great Scottish Fiddler, Niel Gow, who lived in nearby Inver, often played at the castle and his portrait, painted by Sir Henry Raeburn, is in the ballroom along with his chair and his fiddle. The renowned contemporary fiddler, Pete Clark, recorded a CD of Gow’s Tunes called Even Now – The Music of Niel Gow. For the recording Pete played all of the tunes on Gow’s own fiddle in the Ballroom at Blair Castle.

The estate is in the Cairngorms National Park, which offers an abundance of facilities and opportunities as well as spectacular scenery. Within easy reach are the picturesque towns of Aberfeldy, Dunkeld and Pitlochry. Each one is worth at least a day’s exploration. By chance we discovered that the world’s leading Celtic guitarist, Tony McManus, had just added an extra night to his UK tour. A couple of brief telephone calls and we had reservations for Tony’s guitar master class, dinner and then his solo concert. The venue was The Weem Hotel, just beyond Aberfeldy. It was an excellent evening with good food, great entertainment and a wonderful atmosphere in rooms heated by roaring log fires. The owner, Peter Butterworth, aims to establish it as a major centre for live music and we will certainly be going back.
Next day we returned to explore Aberfeldy. We passed a couple of hours meandering up and down the quirky main street and lovely square. There are lots of interesting, retro shops from vintage clothing to arts and crafts, but the jewel in the crown is the Birks Cinema, a genuine 1930s Art Deco building brought back to life from the ignominy of bingo and amusement arcades. It closed in 1982 and by 2005 was on the market as a development opportunity. A group of local enthusiasts campaigned to returned it to its former glory and after years of hard work the refurbished building, including a café and meeting rooms, was opened in December 2013 by Hollywood actor, Alan Cumming, star of X-Men 2. Cumming is originally from Aberfeldy and following the opening, the first film shown was his latest film Any Day Now.
From there we repaired to browse the books in the Aberfeldy Watermill, leaving us ready for lunch in its café. On the outskirts of the town is the Aberfeldy Distillery. It’s one of the best distillery tours because it has an excellent small museum, which covers the history of Dewar’s from 1898 when John Dewar first started distilling his single malt just three miles from his birth place. Naturally the visit included the purchase of a bottle of Aberfeldy, one of our favourites.
Before leaving the town we went on a circular walk along the Moness Glen. It’s been named the Birks of Aberfeldy Walk after a poem of the same name that Robert Burns wrote in 1787 on his tour of the Highlands. The walk is mainly through birch woodlands, (birks being the Scots for birch trees). The outward journey was uphill along a gorge with streams dropping down the slopes. There’s also a statue of the poet sitting on a bench and many visitors sit beside him to have a photograph taken. The walk is just 1.5 miles long and not strenuous.
Heading back to our Woodland Lodge we stopped off for dinner at The Red Brolly Inn, Ballinluig. It is at the same junction where the Aberfeldy Road joins the A9. We’ve passed it many times but had not thought to stop before. It was first class. Nachos, haggis fritters, soup and bruschetta for starters followed by great fish and chips, rib eye steak, chicken Caesar salad, Scotch beef and Lai Fail Ale Pie for the mains. The house wine was very good but two of us stuck to the local Lai Fail Ale, which was outstanding. The food was great but it is the standard of service and the atmosphere that really makes this restaurant. It’s one of the friendliest places we’ve visited in a long time. It’s now going to be our regular pit stop for journeys north.
Back to
UK & IRELAND
INDEX
CONTINENTAL
EUROPE INDEX
LONG-HAUL
INDEX
TRAVEL TOPICS
INDEX
If you enjoyed this page:
Bookmark This
Receive more like this
Visit our Pre-retirement Courses section here on laterlife or our dedicated Retirement Courses site
back to laterlife travel | |