In our original Scotland plan we had thought about going up into the Shetlands and thus made Aberdeen a natural place for us to stay for a few nights as that is where the ferry departs. Unfortunately, in our research we found that the accommodation options Shetlands were very expensive and we would totally need a car. When the Shetlands were scrapped we thought that Aberdeen was far enough into the highlands that we could get a glimpse of this wonderful countryside. Boy were we wrong! We should have made Inverness our base if we wanted to explore the Highlands. We will keep this in mind for our next trip to Scotland!

No offence to Aberdeen, it is a lovely city in it’s own right, but the grey stone is overwhelming and there is not a tremendous amount you can do without a car. However, we did manage to make it to two castles and a whiskey distillery so it turned up right in the end.

The Glen Garioch distillery (pronounced “geery”)  in the little town of Oldmeldrum, was a short bus ride from Aberdeen and it is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, dating back to 1797. We took the “Wee Tasting Tour” that included 3 drams after a wander around the distillery with a wonderful guide. The tour led us through the whole process and luck for us it was day one of production and the smell and the heat in the kettles were only just starting up.

Only two of the castles in the area were accessible by public transportation and luckily both on the same route. Thus began our day of castles. The farthest one out was Crathes Castle, it had a beautiful walled garden and grounds that were utterly breathtaking. The bus let us off at the gate and we had a scenic stroll trough the trees to the main building. The impressive structure also had a public washroom that I was grateful to use.

After a lovely hour at this 16th century tower house, we hopped on the bus and flew down the road to Castle Drum.  The walk from the transit stop to the castle was a wee bit further than before, but it was well worth the trek. This massive estate has one of Scotland’s oldest tower houses and a little chapel built in the 1500s. Again we took a walk around the grounds and found ourselves surrounded by ancient oak trees and scenic vistas of rolling fields. it was a magical day.