BLAIRGOWRIE BOTHY STAY

As is usual for us, we went away for Sharon's birthday. Given the time of year, it can be a bit of a hit or miss with the weather, but we are undaunted by such trivia.

We were off to Greengairs Highland Bothies, near Blairgowrie, for a few days. Hopefully the bothy was going to live up to expectations of luxury, rather than the spartan conditions we normally associate with mountain bothies.

We certainly needed a bit of luxury after the week we had just had. We had intended to take two of our grandsons away to see Sharon's sister, brother in law and mother, as well as to have a wee celebration of Sharon's birthday. That all collapsed around our ears when we went to pick the boys up from school and Cameron was knocked down by a car. All this whilst his parents, Elain and Darren had just gone to London for the weekend.

Whilst it was all horrific at the time, Cameron is now well on the way to recovering from a broken leg. It could all have been a lot worse, but suffice to say, a trip away had come at the right time for us.

Day1 Monday 20th March

We set off down the A9 on Monday morning, arriving at Sandra's house just about lunchtime. We had a quick sandwich with her, before we went to see Sharon's Mum.

We took her one of the very nice cup cakes that Sandra had got for Sharon's birthday . It would seem that this was the birthday that stretched over a considerable period of time.

It wasn't too far to go to pick up Sharon's mum and take her out for a cup of tea and to show her some photos of all of her great grandchildren. She enjoyed the afternoon out. She also greatly enjoyed a huge chunk of lemon sponge.

 This all has very little to do with our break away, but it was to have happened, along with other surprises, over the preceding weekend. It also meant we were rather closer to Blairgowrie than we had originally intended to be.

However, it meant we had alovely meal with Sandra and Chris and Bob had some of Chris's whisky, which is always welcome. It was very good of them to accommodate our short notice change of plans.

 Day2 Tuesday 21st March

As we were a lot closer to the Bothy than we had expected to be, we could have a leisurely breakfast and then head east. We had decided that we should go to Alyth as neither of us knew very much about it and Bob had found an interesting sounding self guided walk around the village. So, that is what we did.

Alyth is thought to be a name of Pictish origin, although the name also has Gaelic references, meaning steeps bank, which might refer to the hill behind the village. The settlement is certainly very old and was long an important location for cattle and sheep markets and more latterly for textile milling, using water power. As these industries declined, tourism bcame more important and is now of major importance. We, of course, were tourists for the day. 

We parked up in the central market square and started out on the walk. Alyth has a wee river running through it - the Alyth Burn - the source of power for the mills. It makes the village look a little French, I thought. The temperature was anything but continental, It must be said.

There was some blue sky about, though and when you were out of the cold wind, it was quite pleasant.

Hopefully, the location of a defibrillator at the start of the walk wasn't a sign of some strenuous activity to come!

The first stop on the walk was the Alyth Hotel, just across the burn. This was once the home of James Sandy, the Alyth Genius. He had lost the use of both legs in two separate accidents, but, undeterred, he put his creativity to good use. He built a huge circular bed, which he only left on three occasions during his life - when the house was threatened by flood or fire.

He made many inventions, but is best known for making an invisible hinge for snuff boxes! He also hatched bird's eggs and would then raise the chicks, who treated him as their father! His house became the meeting place for the village and his popularity was such that his tombstone was paid for by public subscription.

Just up the road from the Alyth Hotel is the Losset Inn, which has been in existence since 1760 as a Drover's Inn, underlining the importance of cattle markets to the village. At that time Alyth was bigger than Blairgowrie and had 9 cattle fairs a year, so accommodation for drovers was important. The Inn is also one of the oldest in Scotland.

We carried on up the street, which was called Toutie street. This harks back to the days when people kept cows and sheep next to, or in, their houses or yards. The town herdsman would walk up the street, tooting his horn so that villagers could bring out their beasts for him to herd up to common grazings on Alyth Hill. He would toot his horn when he brought the animals back at the end of the day. I'm a bit of a sucker for old street and place names and the insights they can give into past customs and the like. I wonder how many people casually looking at the street name, would know what it was all about.

At the top of the street there is the market cross, which signifies the rights of towns and villages to hold markets. This is not the original cross. This dates from 1670. Alyth's original right to hold markets dates from 1488. The charter permitting this was granted by King James the third to Alexander Lindsay, a local landowner and son of the 5th Earl of Crawford. I don't know how long he was able to enjoy going to the markets as he was suffocated in his bed in 1489 by his relations after a quarrel with his brother! 

We walked along Monks Wynd, which refers to early Celtic Church monks who founded the first church in Alyth. That church occupied a site opposite the Market Cross. Whilst that church would have been a simple wooden building there are fragments of later stone buildings dating back to the 13th Century. Unfortunately, the site was not open when we were there, but the walk took us to the newer church just along the road.

Well, when I say newer, it was completed in 1839, which wasn't yesterday.

It is a little on the grandiose side for me, being built in the Romanesque style and it is a bit of overblown early Victorian architecture.

There is a fine 7th Century Pictish carved stone in the entrance to the church. The cross carving showing outward might be expected in a Christian setting. The other side has more traditional Pictish symbols of a double disc and Z-rod. Nobody knows what these mean and a bit of mystery is no bad thing.

The stone was found whilst the church was being constructed, which might suggest the site had some significance for many centuries.

Another stone cross is outside by the entrance gateway. This used to be on another church in the village and was placed here in 1977 as a symbol of the divisions caused by the Secession in 1781 and the Disruption in 1834. The congregations were re-unified in 1976.

Down the hill from the church is the old pack bridge. This is one of the oldest stone bridges in Scotland and is shown on maps from 1600, but is thought to have been built around 1500. I am not quite so old as the bridge.

The design is a bit unusual. It has overhanging parapets, which are very rare and the archways are also unusual.

A very fine looking structure.

Back towards the village centre there is a war memorial. Not, like in many places to the first and second world wars, but to the Boer war. It commemorates three local landowners - The Earl of Airlie, Nigel Neis Ramsay, younger of Bamff and Charles James Wedderburn Ogilvy, younger of Ruthven. Thye were actually the only local casualties in that war where 22000 British and Empire troops died. Having said that 16000 deaths were due to sickness and 6000 due to enemy actions. It was, of course, all about controlling rich mining resources rather than any high moral principle.

By now we were back at the car after our interesting and informative walk round the charming village of Alyth. Lunch was calling and it was time for us to move on to Littles in Blairgowrie.

We had booked a table, but, as it turns out, there was no need. There was only one other couple in the restaurant for lunch. Quite why that should be is a mystery, because it was a very nice looking place and the specials board was remarkably mouth watering.

So was the standard menu.

Here we are full of anticipation of a fine meal.

You might have guessed from the picture above that the restaurant was within a converted church. Turns out the food was heavenly as well.

I started with a twice cooked cheese souffle, with homemade piccalilli and an apple compote.

Sharon had baked crab. In both cases the watercress was stunningly good, I don't know where they got it from, but I'd like to know. The starters were a great success.

My main was a lovely piece of perfect cod, sitting on savoy cabbage and pancetta with a potato rosti. Very good indeed.

Sharon had sea bream on a chorizo and pea risotto with a tomato fondue. Another triumph.

It was all brilliant and we lingered over a chocolate brownie type sweet, before we felt we had to make a move. We will definitely be back.

It was still a bit early to go to our bothy and it was a lovely afternoon, so we went for a walk alongside the River Ericht.

This is Sharon on the bridge across the river, with Littles behind.

I was there too.

The river was pretty fast flowing, which, I assume, was the reason it once powered a large number of textile mills.

It also provided an escape for a presbyterian minister called Cargill. He was a Covenanter, meaning he was pledged in 1638 to worship as he saw fit, despite presbyterianism being outlawed during the reign of Charles II. Ministers were evicted from their churches and often held clandestine services. These were forcibly broken up by the military. Apparently Minister Cargill escaped from soldiers by leaping across the river below where we were standing. The spot is known as Cargill's leap. Unfortunately, his escape did not last and he was ultimately captured, tried for treason and executed in Edinburgh in 1681.

At this time of year greenery in woodlands like this can be a bit scarce. However, the green you can see was wild garlic. The smell was intoxicating and I did not resist. Finding a spot where dogs were not likely to have peed, I picked a big pocketful and took it with me.

Further up the river, one of the old mills has been converted to housing and it looks every inch the industrial powerhouse it must once have been.

The same cannot be said of the old Oakbank mill which is pretty derelict and can only hint at the power that was once generated here. Oakbank was the first mill in Scotland to spin Jute, which went on to be one of the staple industries of Dundee.

Very handily, there was a bridge across the river.

We walked back down the other side of the river to the restaurant and the car to drive over to our bothy. With only one slight hesitation on the road, we found the place and most impressed we were, too.

Importantly, the bed looked big and comfortable - always important.

The view from the bedroom was fabulous.

The living/kitchen area was airy and light and very comfortable.

We had access from the living area and a view out over the deck and the hot tub.

The wood fired hot tub.

We had a welcome cup of tea with Sharon's birthday cup cakes.

Once the hot tub was a toasty 40 degrees, we wasted no time getting in with a glass of something bubbly.

It was all very relaxing indeed.

Nicely relaxed, we had a picky plate of olives, grapes, tomatoes, cheese, biscuits and cold meats. A fine end to our day.

Day3 Wednesday 22nd March

We had to be flexible for today and the following day as one of proposed days out was weather dependent. Wednesday was supposed to be the worst of the two days, although, it looked pretty good from the bothy at breakfast time.

However, it was pretty cold and there were some hefty showers throughout the day. This meant that we went for a drive around some small roads and places we had never been before. On the way west towards Bridge of Cally, by some very small back roads, we spotted our first wildlife of the day - a kestrel hovering in the very strong wind. Not the best photo in the world, but we did watch it for quite some time.

A little further on a couple of roe der at the side of a field stayed obligingly close while we watched them form the car. It was nice of them to face the camera as well.

We passed alongside Drumore Loch and spotted some birds on the water, but failed to get a picture. We did get a nice view over he loch with this abandoned boat house. This dates from 1864 and it has a little verandah to the front. It looks like a fine place to get a bit of fishing.

More water at our next stop - Backwater Reservoir. Phillip from the bothy had recommended a walk up the west side of the loch, which is what we did.

There must have been a bit of recent rain as the water was topping over the spillway.

It didn't seem to worry these Common Gulls. I imagine that when we go away, they will slide down the spillway and have a great time.

As you can see, it was a bit chilly.

The reservoir contains drinking water and was built in the 1960's. Apparently it was the first in Britain to use chemical grouting to render the dam leakproof, as this could not otherwise be achieved due to adverses sub surface conditions. 

The thing about older modern structures is that they still retained the desire to make things that looked good as well as being completely functional. There was no need to include this portal on the gate, but it just adds a bit of interest and suggests that the builders were proud of what they had made. It deserved a bit of embellishment.

Looking through the portal, the concrete structure in the middle of he water is an island syphon house.

Just through the gate was a tiny gathering of mainly sleeping Oystercatchers.

There was still a bit of snow on the surrounding hills. Also, if you look closely to the left of the picture, backed by coniferous plantation, I managed to capture a windblown leaf.

There were a lot of little birds flitting ab out us and one finally rested on a tree long enough for us to identify. It was a Redpoll. These often, but not always, visiting birds from Scandinavia.

There was a hint of approaching rain, but we carried on for a bit.

There was a raft of Wigeon on the loch. These have most likely travelled from Iceland for the winter, although there are some breeding colonies in Scotland.

Further up the loch from the Wigeon were a few Whooper Swans. Again, these have most likely travelled from Iceland for the winter.

By now the weather was becoming ever more threatening and we decided there was no need to get soaked, so we headed back to the car.

Back at the car, we had a good view of the highly organised sheep, clipping the grass on the dam embankment in an almost unified way.

By now it was  beyond time for lunch in my mind, so we headed for Peel Farm. It was very busy, but we did eventually get a table and I had a very good beef shin pie. Slightly oddly, it came with a mixed salad and a good coleslaw and some crisps. The pie was very tasty.

We meandered a bit along some nice roads, spotting this Shelduck in a flooded field. This adult male will be another migrant, this time from Scandinavia. Shelduck form enormous flocks on the German North Sea coast, where the birds collectively moult their flight feathers.

Away from the lochs and more arable land, we saw this, slightly anxious looking Buzzard on an old dead tree.

Our final bird of the day was this rather colourful peacock. This is a male Indian Peacock. They are big birds and are known to eat just about anything they can get into their beaks. They can be very noisy. They were once eaten, even though the Roman poet Horace said they tasted like chicken and that eating them was ridiculous. 

There was no peacock on our menu tonight. To start, I made a quick bruschetta of tomatoes, olives and rocket. I had made an oil of the wild garlic I had collected and used this on the toast. It was all very good.

Our main course was a sirloin steak, with salad and a potatoes and onions.

We had time to sit in the hot tub and see the stars after dinner.

Day4 Thursday 23rd March

Thursday was another variable day, but that didn't matter to us. We were up reasonably early and off to the woods near Enocdhu to find Bob's Hide. Bob runs Nature Nuts and does wildlife tours and hide experiences. We had hoped to get into the hills and look for Mountain Hares, but the weather would heave rendered such a trip less than joyful. We were going to have a day in his hide instead.

First we had to find it. Happily the directions were good and it wasn't too difficult.

There it was nestled on the edge of the coniferous woodland.

Sharon had a wee keek round the front.

We spent about 10 hours at the hide and saw loads of birds and squirrels.

These are some of the better photos.

Squirrels are just too photogenic.

There were about half the Scottish population of Chaffinches at the hide. Whilst there might be a lot of them, the males, in particular, are uncommonly attractive little birds, when you take the time to look at them. 

There are thought to be over 5 million chaffinches in the UK. The RSPB fact sheet suggests that they prefer to eat under feeders rather than openly on them. Clearly the birds here haven't read the sheet. They were far and away the most numerous birds we saw

Female chaffinches are a bit on the dowdy side.

Great Tits don't hang around for too long, so they are a bit more difficult to photograph.

Not as hard as Coal Tits, which were in and out to the feeders before you could say snap.

Not so, this little fella. Take a bow, Blue Tit.

The Long-tailed Tits were equally obliging.

They really are bonny birds.

Another bonny bird is the Goldfinch. They are a good deal more argumentative than the Long-tailed Tits, though

They are very colourful, it has to be said.

Another very colourful bird is the Siskin and there were quite a few about the feeders all day. Interestingly, these were once called Black Faced Goldfinches.

Everyone knows the Robin.

We certainly know the Wood Pigeon as we get a few of these in the garden every day. I think if they were not so fat and waddly, they would get a bit more appreciation for their beautiful plumage.

Quarrels on feeders are commonplace. Here a Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Greenfinch make their feelings known.

The male Greenfinch is a bit more colourfaul than the female in the photo above.

We also had a few visits from a Nuthatch. These are relatively rare in Scotland, being more widespread in England and Wales. They have only recently started to breed in Scotland. We seldom see them at home.

They are thought to get their name from the habit of wedging seeds and insects in cracks in tree bark so that they might better get a peck at the food.

They are quite bonny birds, that don't travel far from the woods where they were hatched.

Nuthatch chicks can be predated by Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and they were certainly in evidence today as well.

They were, perhaps, the most obliging birds to photograph.

The males have a distinctive red patch on the back of their heads.

Less frequently at the hide was the Tree Creeper. Well, perhaps it was a more frequent visitor it is just that they are hard to spot. They are fairly common birds, but their camouflaged backs make them very difficult to see against tree bark, where they spend most of their time looking for insects. Their curved beak can get into all sorts of nooks and crannies in the bark.

You can see their long sharp claws which they use to climb trees. They also use their tails as an extra limb to brace against the bark.

The biggest bird that we saw was this fine male pheasant, who had a good strut about picking up whatever he could, while keeping a wary eye out, just in case.

They really are the most extraordinarily colourful birds.

We didn't spend all day staring at birds. We took the opportunity to have a walk up the track, just to stretch our legs a bit. 

Not far away, was a pond, which turned out to be full of frogs.

Sharon spent a bit of time trying to get a photo of one jumping. In fact, that is an easy way to tell frogs from toads. Only frogs can jump!

They do seem inquisitive at times.

Crossing the road is a bit of an occupational hazard for lots of frogs. The postie had to watch out today!

There was even a frog back at the hide.

In fact, it may well be that the presence of so many frogs rendered our last few hours at the hide a bit of a let down. Bob himself came to see us for a short while in the evening and was pretty confident that we would get a visit from a Pine Marten as darkness fell. He did say that the lure of easy pickings among the frogs might distract the Marten.

Here we were coorying up in the hide as it got darker and darker. However, it also got wetter and wetter, which was fine for the frogs, but a bit dispiriting for us. The Pine Marten was a no-show. We were disappointed, but then , it wouldn't be nature watching if it was predictable.

We had had a great day, and I'm sure we can do it again some day.

So, it was into the car for a rainy drive home, get the log fire on and heat up the hot tub, which was the perfect end to the day. There was a nice wee bag left on our doorstep by Karen, the owner for us. It contained water, crisps and a chocolate for our journey tomorrow as well as a little pottery bothy as more permanent reminder.

We even managed to finish of the picky food we had left. We needed that as I had forgotten to take the hot water flasks for a nice cup of soup at the hide.

Day 5 Friday 24th March

We were up and about taking a few last photos of the bothy, when Karen came to the door to check we had had a good time. We were certainly able to reassure her on that point and we were happy to say that we would certainly be back.

We have a great view at home, but this is different and not to be forgotten.

This was the view back the way to the bothy.

Just to prove we were there at the same time, here we are in front of the view.

It did look like we might be getting away before the heavens opened.

We took a bit of a roundabout route towards Dunkeld, stopping off at Loch of the Lowes as the breeding Ospreys were back for the summer.

The hide at the reserve is certainly more luxurious than Bob's, but it doesn't have quite the same exclusivity or character. It did allow us a view of the Ospreys, though.

Unfortunately, my camera was not behaving too well, so the photos aren't the best, but, you get the picture.

On the nest.

The male keeping an eye out for intruders.

The male flew over for a quick dalliance. A bit too quick for me, as you can just about see.

Meanwhile a lovely Great Crested Grebe calmly sailed into view.

Differently splendid to the Osprey.

From there is was into Dunkeld to get a sandwich from my favourite bakery hereabouts - Aran. Aran is, of course, Gaelic for bread and they certainly know how to bake a loaf here.

Dunkeld was absolutely heaving and there seemed to be even more delis, cake shops, cafes  and restaurants than I remember.

Still, I managed to get a Sausage, ricotta, mustard and salad focaccia sandwich which was quite epic in size and taste.

Sharon went to the deli opposite and got herself a much healthier salad. I'm pretty sure I got the better deal.

We went up to the Glen Tilt car park and ate our lunch. No squirrels and precious few birds, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

After that, it was straight up the A9 for home.

We finished off our excellent break with a nice dinner and a glass of Portuguese red. We really did have a great time, in fantastic accommodation, in a part of the world we don't really know and doing things we don't often do.

We will do it all again sometime.