Life in the Cottonfields: Wind in the Willows, Sheep at Loch Turret and the Famous Grouse

My last post found us in Edinburgh, staying at Castle View Guest House. A great central location in Castle Street, it had, however, no castle view and lots of stairs – we were on the top floor. A little drawing of Mole and Rat pulling Toad upstairs while Badger looked on, told us that in 1859 this was the birthplace of Kenneth Grahame, author of the children’s classic, Wind in the Willows – the quote was certainly appropriate! Stairs aside, I would recommend the guest house for the breakfast alone. We had a full British: bacon, mushrooms, sausage, egg, potato scone, and an option of haggis or black pudding – braw!

Here we are enjoying the company of Isobel and Kenny, friends and former colleagues at Forrester High School, reminiscing on old times and catching up on news. Incidentally, their daughter, Rachael Macarthur, is the Newcastle-based artist – check her out!

One of our topics was Edinburgh’s new tramway, recently opened to passengers on 31^st May 2014. Initial construction began in June 2008, at an estimated cost of 521 million pounds. However, with contractual and political disputes en route, the eventual outlay came to around 776 million pounds; once extra interest payments of over 200 million are added, the overall ‘damage’ approaches one billion pounds. Given that the original plan for 3 lines was pared down to just one with 15 stations, it’s clear that their budget management went completely off the rails – sorry, couldn’t resist that! Having put up with long-term transport delays and disruption, it may take the locals a wee while to embrace the trams as their own.

Time for us to leave Edinburgh. At Waverley station we spied The Royal Scotsman, gleaming in all her glory. Sadly, our budget doesn’t stretch to such luxury travel – a 2-night Highland tour on her starts at 2,350 pounds per person. She is now owned by the Orient Express group, described as a cruise-train, and claims to offer standards of a Scottish 5-star country- house hotel. Her 9 coaches carry a maximum of 36 passengers who enjoy all-inclusive fine-dining on board as well as local excursions.

So, if you want to see some of the scenic beauties of the Highlands in style, then this is the way to go.

We travel north – without liveried service! We go thorough Linlithgow which always offers a beautiful skyline etched with the outlines of St Michael’s Parish Church and, to the left, Linlithgow Palace. It is said to take its name from llyn laith cau i.e. ‘loch in a damp hollow’ and it is here, in 1542, that Mary, Queen of Scots was born. We disembark at Gleneagles station where friends, Margaret and Bill meet us. We drive past the famous golf course there, getting all set for the upcoming Ryder Cup, the biennial golf competition between male teams from Europe and the USA.

This is their lovely house outside Crieff where the actor, Ewan McGregor, hails from. He was the narrator on the BBC documentary ‘Hebrides - Islands on the Edge’ and his lovely soft lilt had me moist-eyed and homesick!

Margaret and I have lots of catching up to do – I refuse to divulge how many years it is since we last met - over a nice glass of wine! While H and Bill, new-forged friends, bond over a trip in and a mutual passion for open-top sports jobs.

There is some seriously good walking in their area and we enjoy the sunny afternoon, walking up to the Loch Turret Dam. The current earth dam was built in 1963 and holds back 18,000 megalitres of water. The reservoir is about 3 miles in length.

We did disturb the sheep’s peace, but they appeared more curious than cautious. In that area can be seen several of Perthshire’s munros, mountains of over 3,000 feet. I’ve never ‘bagged a munro ‘ – maybe next time I’ll bring my hiking boots!

And after all that fresh air we need sustenance so what better place to go to than the nearby Glenturret Distillery? This has two claims to fame: established in 1775, it claims to be Scotland’s oldest distillery. Bowmore Distillery on Islay, set up in 1779, makes the same claim, though excise records don’t have evidence of Bowmore returning taxes until 1816, with Glenturret following about two years later! Now if we take the official operational evidence as the main criterion, then Ardbeg, Oban and Blair Athol distilleries are by then in the business of production too. We’ll let them battle/ bottle it out among themselves.

Glenturret’s second claim to fame is being the spiritual home of the Famous Grouse, a bird well known and loved by whisky drinkers. There is a restaurant here too so since we felt peckish …..! Right, that’s enough punning for now. Here we are tucking into lunch – I had haggis, turnips and mash which was very tasty.

Bill said they had had video clips showing their portfolio of television adverts promoting the Famous Grouse. For me they were always guaranteed to be witty and entertaining , so I was a wee bit disappointed to find that was no longer on show. However, their art work did not disappoint.