TRIP 9 - JANUARY 2020 - ABERFELDY

Day 1 Arriving in Aberfeldy.

It seems to be becoming something of a tradition that we meet up with Sandra and Chris for a wee break towards the end of January.

This year, we had taken a cottage in the village of Aberfeldy in Perthshire.

That meant a journey down the A9 for us on the Monday morning. It had been cold when we left home, and it got colder as we headed south. By the time we were at Drumochter it was snowing quite heavily and the roads were a bit on the slushy side.

Undaunted, we pressed on and soon arrived in Aberfeldy in time for a spot of lunch.

Aberfeldy is actually a Pictish name and marks the confluence of Paldoc. It derives from Aber Pictish for confluence or river mouth and the Old Gaelic Phellaidh referring to St Paldoc. He was a 5th Century Christian missionary to the Picts.

After a reasonable, but unexceptional, lunch at The Fountain pub, Sharon and Sandra took Blue for a walk and Chris and I were forced to have a nice cold beer.

Our cottage was one of a number grouped around a central parking area off the road and up a little lane. We were met by the owner, who knew Chris and Sandra.  She was very nice, showed us round and stayed for a cup of tea and bit of shortbread before leaving us to it.

Our cottage was the left hand side of the pair at the back of the photo.

We had already decided to stay in on the first night, so after some pre-dinner drinks we had a nice Cuban beef dish as well as a range of cheeses and port. It was all very convivial, but that feeling soon disappeared after Sandra and Bob lost at cribbage.

During the night it started to snow.

Day 2 - Aberfeldy Distillery

Tuesday morning was blue skies and quite bright in the snow.

Some little while after breakfast, we had a walk up to the nearby Water Mill bookshop and cafe. The mill is a Category A Listed Building and it dates from 1826, but mills have been recorded on the site since the 1400's. It was still operational into the 1970's, but was converted to an interpretive centre in the 80's. That closed in 2000 and the building fell into disrepair until it was renovated to its present state and was opened by Michael Palin in 2005. You can tell it is a smart bookshop cafe, because they have Roman numerals on the tables. We had a very nice bit of cake and refreshment there, before Chris and I had to be dragged to our distillery tour.

The tour of Aberfeldy Distillery was well worth it. It started with a short film on the history of the distillery, which produces the heart malt for Dewars White Label blended whisky, one of the biggest sellers in the world.

After the film we were guided by iPad around various exhibits giving more detail of the history of the brand.

There were copies of the original distillery building plans.

There were lots of posters and artefacts from the past of the company, which led the way in marketing of whisky all over the world. It is thought that they made the first moving image advert for any product.

You were taken out of this display area into the tasting area through a tunnel of oak cask staves, which was quite effective.

By now we were obviously in need of a drink and, happily, there were 5 different whiskies set out for us. These were a Dewar's 12 year old and 21 year old, along with Aberfeldy 12, 21 and 20 year old. The last of these was from an exceptional cask.

It would have been churlish to refuse, so we didn't. It would also have been daft to drink them all at once, so we had two before embarking on the rest of the tour.

Chris was deep in contemplation about which two he should drink. Either that, or he had fallen asleep.

The next part of the tour took us round the distilling process and no photos were allowed. Next stop was the warehouse. Around the edges of the room were casks to represent each of the 40 whiskies used to make Dewar's White Label. A number of these whiskies are no longer available, the distilleries having closed down. The task of the modern blender is to find other combinations of whiskies that would replicate the original taste.

Here was the cask we were to try next. 

Cask number 5050 containing a 20 year old Aberfeldy.

We were given a nice glass of whisky from the cask and the glasses were also ours to keep.

Before going back to the tasting room, we could see how much whisky is lost over a 12 year period from the average cask. The Angel's Share is a pretty hefty one.

Sharon and Sandra came to pick us up as we finished off the remaining drams.

All in all a very enjoyable tour - well worth it.

It was back to the cottage after that. We were all a little tired, so while Sandra and Chris had a sauna, Sharon and I had a Jacuzzi. Some glasses of fizz were also involved.

A good bit later, we went out for an Iranian meal, which was a first for all of us.

We were the only people in the restaurant, and our host had only just come back from Iran!

Our starters were stuffed peppers, aubergine and cabbage leaves, salad and the most fabulous thin flatbread.

I then had a very nice lamb and spinach stew with saffron rice. I really enjoyed it. Sandra and Chris had a variety of meats and rice and Sharon had a broad bean stew. 

After that, it was home for cribbage and a nightcap.

Day 3 Chocolate time

It was a little damp this morning, but Sharon and I managed a decent walk around the river without getting too wet.

We walked down to the river and crossed Wade's Bridge. Although it is called Wade's Bridge, General Wade did not design it. It was designed by Robert Adam, one of the foremost Scottish architects of the time. It sits within Wade's system of military roads and was designed for him and built by his men, so it can be claimed to truly be a Wade's Bridge.

It was built from locally quarried stone in 1733 and finished within one year. This was possible, because all the stone for the bridge was worked and numbered over a two year period and then transported to the site and assembled there.

It is the most architectural of Wade's Bridges and at the time of construction was the only bridge across the Tay, the earlier bridges at Dunkeld and Perth having been destroyed by floods.

On the other side of the bridge is a long straight stretch of road, with poplar trees on either side. Originally the road was bounded by briars and beech hedging and the area was known as the Hedges.

There is a photo in the cottage showing the road at a later date when it was bounded by well grown Lombardy Poplar trees. These had been planted in 1897 to mark Victoria's Diamond Jubilee by Sir Robert Menzies.

The road then became known as Poplar Avenue.

However, in 1976, the poplars were felled as they had fallen victim to disease.

In the 1980's interest was raised in the town to replace the felled poplars and villagers could sponsor a new poplar. Planting of the new avenue of poplars was completed in 1990 and the results are still there to see today.

Further on along Poplar Avenue, there is evidence of a new threat to trees.

Beavers are widespread throughtout the Tay river system and in the small watercourses hereabouts they are certainly making their mark, felling trees, both small.....

....and big.

The beavers in the Tay system are generally thought to be descended from escapees, although beavers have been deliberately reintroduced in Argyll, for example.

The reintroduction of a species last seen on Scotland 400 years ago has bot been without controversy. There are issues around the loss of trees and the possible effects of beaver dams on the passage of migratory fish. Overall, the scientific evidence seems to suggest that beavers are beneficial. Their dams have not been shown to affect salomn navigating watercourses in Scandinavia and North America, except perhaps in very dry seasons. The dams actually provide refuge for very young fish and allow larger fish to lay up as well. They also lead to greater production of invertebrates which provide food for fish and birds. Beavers themselves are vegetarian and do not eat fish. 

Now, there are any number of bridges across the Tay and we crossed another, for pedestrians, further downstream.

It was a bit bouncy.

This is Sharon on the bridge.

There were some nice views up the river to the snow dusted hills behind.

All this walking just makes you hungry, so we drove over to Grandtully for a nice lunch at The Inn  on the Tay.

Grandtully means Thicket on the Hill and derives from Old Celtic and old Gaelic.

The river here was once very famous for salmon fishing and guests would often stay at the hotel for months during the season. One such guest, a Mr Waddle stayed for March and April during the 1950's and 1960's. He is recorded as having taken 71 fish in March and then 72 in April. And modern fishermen wonder why there are no salmon left!

We were not so profligate at lunch and I had a very nice piece of gin cured mackerel, mackerel pate, rye toast and celeriac slaw to start, and very good it was too.

For my main I was a good boy and did not have the fish and chips like Chris, opting for the much more virtuous crab and prawn salad with mango and chilli salsa.

I felt positively saintly when we left to go to the Highland Chocolatier on the other side of the road.

Before we left, we had time to look at the river, which was running fairly high. It is not always like this. Indeed, the river was at its lowest point in 1955 after 7 weeks of no rain. Just above the bridge there is a marker stone to let anglers and canoeists judge the water level. In 1955 the level was so low that the stone was dry and could not record the depth. Another location had to be found to mark this historic occasion. When they were doing that they found another marker stone which had been used to record the previous low in 1919. The 1955 level was 6 inches less than the 1919 figure.

So, across the road we went in search of some nice chocolate. We were not to be disappointed. Once we had a wee look about, which helped lunch go down, we went on the interpretive tour.

This was very interesting and Sandra, Chris and Sharon were absolutely transfixed by it all.

What was most amazing is that most raw chocolate does not taste of very much. Only the very best chocolate will have some naturally occurring flavours. Iain Burnett, the Highland Chocolatier gets his from a single estate on the island of Sao Tome, off the coast of Africa.

After the fact finding, you get to taste some chocolate. I chose the dark selection, as did Chris. Sharon and Sandra chose the milk. 

Each of our selections included the velvet truffle which has been voted the best chocolate in the world on a number of occasions. You are talked through the tastes as you eat them and they were quite surprising, very luxurious and remarkably filling. 
Here I am, enthralled by the descriptions, but really just wanting to get on with the tasting.

This was something we had never done before, but it was well worth it.

The really strange thing is that we were so sated by the tasting, that we didn't actually buy any to take home with us. Is this a shaky business model, I wonder?

We were not done with the eating, though.

Once we were back home and after a decent interval had passed, we had a simple meal of steak and frites. The steaks were rib eyes from the local butcher and they were really good.

There was not much more we could eat after all of that, so it was a quiet night with some exciting (or not) cribbage before bed.

Day 4 Village rambles and luxury spas

Once again the weather was less than summery, but maybe that was because it was winter.

Sharon and Sandra went into the village for a look at the shops and Bob went along too. Chris didn't. In fact, I'm not sure what he did, but I don't think it was too taxing.

While the ladies went into almost the first shop they came to, I walked into the little memorial garden, which provides one entry up into the famous Birks of Aberfeldy.
The Birks of Abefeldy - named after the prolific birch trees in the ravine - were made famous by the writing of the poem of the same name by Robert Burns in 1787. It is thought that the poem was, in fact, a lyric for a tune that was already in existence rather than a stand alone poem.

The Memorial Gate gives the First World War dates of 1914 to 1919. This is a little bit unusual as the bulk of memorials refer to 1918. Those that refer to 1919 are correct, in that the Treaty of Versailles ending the war was signed in 1919. The 11th November 1918 date that is marked to this day refers only to the Armistice or Cease Fire, the War had not actually ended. In fact, the British Government did not declare the War to be officially ended until August 1921. The Memorial Gate was unveiled and dedicated in June 1922.

Inside the gardens are a couple of very nice iron benches.

There is a path leading to a bridge over the Moness Burn, (which is the same water that fed the Watermill). You can see the attraction of water power to turn mill wheels.

The modern pedestrian bridge here is actually the third on the site in the last hundred years. There is archaeological evidence of settlement here since Neolithic times - between 4 and 5000 years ago. St Paldoc, mentioned earlier, is thought to have lived in the Den of Moness in the 5th Century.

There are some nice wooden carvings in the garden.

Closer inspection suggests one of the owls was a bit on the sleepy side.

Further along the street, stands Alexandra House. This is a three storey shop and tenement above. The shop is now occupied by the Three Lemons cafe, which we did not visit.

This is a Listed Building.

One of the features of note are the fine barley-twist cast iron downpipes, which I have never seen before. They are pretty smart

Once back at the cottage, the girls left us to go to the Atholl Palace Hotel for a bit of pampering and afternoon tea.

Chris and I went back to the Watermill to browse the books and to have a spot of lunch. For me, that was a very nice chicken and pesto sandwich with cous cous and a very nice dressed salad. It was very good indeed.

While we were nibbling our sandwiches, Sharon and Sandra were being massaged and exfoliated! Then they went to one of the lounges and had a prosecco afternoon tea.

The Atholl Palace is a very large hotel in Pitlochry with a long history dating from 1878 to the present day. It was opened as a Hydrotherapy hotel at first. It was used to house evacuated school children from England during both World Wars. It only opened for all year round trading after 98 years. It underwent major refurbishment over a ten year period from 2001. In 2005 it opened its own museum, one of the first hotels in the UK to do anything like that.

Given the consumption of prosecco by the girls,we had been organised to go and pick them up when they were ready to leave.

We were allowed a few slim pickings off the plates.

As we left for Aberfeldy, the hotel was looking pretty impressive from the driveway with the moon high in the sky, behind.

  

Later in the evening, we went out for a reasonable curry, which we all enjoyed despite all the food we had eaten over the last few days.

Once back to the cottage, I seem to remember that Sandra and I cemented our position as the King and Queen of cribbage, despite the setbacks earlier in the week.

Day 5 Dunkeld

Today, we had to leave our holiday home and move on to pastures new. Sandra and Chris went home to Forgandenny to make sure everything was in good order for us coming to stay for the night later that day.

We, on the other hand, had time to spare before going to visit Sharon's parents.

So, leaving Aberfeldy, we crossed over the architectural Wade's Bridge and took our time to follow the Tay to Dunkeld.

We had not been to Dunkeld for some time and neither of us had spent any time at the Cathedral, so we stopped off for a while to wander about. The Cathedral is undergoing significant renovation and stabilisation, so we could only enter those parts that are still in ecclesiastical use. We could, however, still walk round the magnificent setting by the river.

It was a beautiful day, with lots of blue skies.

Much of the Cathedral dates from the 1200's, so it is hardly a surprise that it is showing its age. Dunkeld became an important religious site long before that when St Columba's relics were brought there in 849 by Kenneth McAlpin, first King of Scots and Picts.

Like many cathedrals and monasteries, Dunkeld suffered after the reformation in 1560 when the roof was removed and some artefacts were destroyed or damaged.

However, the site was considered so important that repairs were made and the Medieval Choir is still used as the Parish Church today.

It is pretty impressive, but it is also the coldest church we have ever been in.

To emphasise the history of the site, the Choir contains some early Christian stones dating from the 8th and 9th centuries.

One of the most remarkable tombs in the church is this, the Atholl Monument. It is written in Latin, but alongside there is a translation, which has a couple of points of interest.

For example, next to the ashes of the main man John, Marquis of Atholl are those of his wife who he survived by only a few months, so deeply affectionate for each other were they. Oddly, though, they detail his age at death some three months after his wife as being 72 years, 3 months and 5 days old!

Further down the monument details are given of other family members, but one, Jane, is not mentioned, although she died aged 4. It is thought she was not mentioned because she was just a girl child and not worth recording.

They clearly did not attend the equality seminar.

The Cathedral is also the place that the notorious Wolf of Badenoch was buried.

His tombstone effigy is tucked away at the back of the church. Given that he burnt down Elgin Cathedral in 1390, because the church excommunicated him, it is hardly surprising that he doesn't have centre stage. 

He was a bit of a royal bad boy, but he thought that he could get to heaven if he atoned for his sins and he spent some time doing the sackcloth and ashes penance in Perth in front of his brother the King.

 

All this walking about had made us hungry, so we set of in search of a small bite to eat. we were going for tea and cakes at Sharon's parents and then having pizza with Sandra and Chris in the evening, so a sandwich was what was needed.

We stumbled on the Aran Bakery. I suspect this is not named after the island, but rather the Gaelic for bread which is - aran. In any event, they had a fine array of cakes and pastries and some very nice looking breads.

Sharon had a chickpea, cous cous panzanella type salad while I had one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten. Olives, artichokes, beans and rocket on the most wonderful sourdough bread. A complete joy in a car park near the river.

From there it was cross country to Monifieth to visit the in-laws. After that we were back with Sandra and Chris at Forgandenny for pizza, cribbage and films.

Then it was the end of another fine January break.

We'll need to do it again some time.