Scotland 2.0, Day 1 : Distilleries 0, everything else 1

So, nearly eleven weeks after leaving Stirling Community Hospital with my arm in a sling, I was back on the roads and tracks of Scotland. I hadn't realised it was the 13th until I wrote the blog, that might have given cause for concern to some! Given the weather forecast, I decided that the first trip would be up to Pennan on the north coast, and then along the coast route to Fraserburgh before dropping back down via the Formartine and Buchan Way. Following the traditional full Scottish, I set out from the B&B towards Maud, immediately encountering the rolling roads that seemed all pervasive on the route. More than once I looked at the old railway trackbed on my right and thought that's where I should have been. However, the road allowed me to make a short diversion from my planned route to visit the stone circle of Aikey Brae. Well, as I was now an ancient monument I thought it appropriate to visit one!

Aikey Brae stone circle, something older than me.

 The detour involved some more climbing, but soon I was there and walked up to the stones for a look. As it was so high up, there were some fabulous views across the countryside in all directions. After a walk round I descended back down the track that led to it stony descent, (now where have I done that before.....) and rejoined the planned route. More rolling roads took me into Maud, where I stopped for a photo at the NCN Millenium Marker outside the Station Hotel. That done, I then joined NCN 1 out of Maud for a short while before branching off northwards. The roads were amazingly quiet and the traffic courteous, something I encountered on most of the roads during the day. Again they were rolling, although not too steep, and afforded some great views of the countryside. The fields were either full of cattle with calves or sheep, or were arable and had been recently harvested, evidenced by the many haystacks that were on show. I passed through the village / town of New Pitsligo, full of the typical style of house you see in Aberdeenshire with granite blocks, and found myself climbing for a considerable way, again with stunning views, before hit the high point of the road and I got my first glimpse of the sea. I could see from here back to the Grampian mountains, and also to the hills of North West Scotland. Descending now, I reached the coast road and crossed for a 14% descent (remember that for coming back!) into Pennan.

Pennan

Pennan is stunning, no other word for it. I spotted a sign for the Coastal Cuppie, a cafe I'd noticed online, so headed over and got myself a coffee. I was joined by a medium sized dog called Oscar, who kept giving me his felt frisbee to throw for him. In the midst of this playing, I was watching a heron out on the rocks at sea, together with dozens of cormorants sunning themselves. Eventually I said goodbye to Oscar and set off up the 14% ascent, cycling up it ok. It was a long drag back to the main road though, and a mile or so later I found another steep incline too much for my legs to take and so walked up for a short bit. After remounting, the road continued with its rolling nature, shortish, steep, sapping ascents followed by equally short descents which didn't allow much time for recovery. The views made up for this though, particularly to the left where the sea looked impressive, and there was even a long stretch where fuschias lined the roadside. Eventually I came to the crossroads for Rosehearty, but instead of turning left as intended I made another detour to visit the wonderfully named Mounthooly Doocot.

Mounthooly Doocot

 It was built around 1800 by a local landowner. The purpose of a doocot is for housing pigeons (for harvesting their eggs and meat), and this is a pretty posh one. The views from it are amazing though, to east and west along the coast. It was well worth the diversion to make the short climb up to the top. After rejoining the planned route, the roads became less arduous, still rolling but not quite reaching the heights of the previous miles. I soon reached Rosehearty, which has a pretty little harbour, and then continued on towards Sandhaven. One thing I'd noticed was the lack of people around on the streets, maybe something to do with the pandemic perhaps? From here it was a short hop (or should that be pedal?) on to Fraserburgh, at which point the wind, which had been fairly mild and benevolent previously, started to become a nagging headwind. There is plenty of evidence of a thriving fishing industry in Fraserburgh, and while I was relaxing on the promenade I watched two fishing vessels come in, and one go out. 

Map for Fraserburgh - Strichen section outside Fraserburgh

Leaving Fraserburgh I picked up the Formartine and Buchan Way and headed south. The track was a varied surface, sometimes hard packed gravel, other times wetter and with more vegetation pushing through the gravel trackbed. There was plenty of evidence of its former usage still around, with station buildings and bridges still surviving. The vegetation was growing back at pace in some places, threatening to crowd out the track, and in the wind a constant stream of Rosebay Willowherb seeds was being pushed into my face. Where road crossings were necessary though, I had to dismount to get through the barriers which was a little irritating, but at least it was easy to wheel the bike through them. 

A consequence of the recent harvest was an opportunity for the local birds of prey to get a decent meal, and in my travel I disturbed at least three from their watching to take off and fly away for a bit of peace. After the third, I saw something dark on the ground a couple of hundred yards ahead, and slowed down in case it was something interesting. It turned out to be a chicken, one of four who were crossing the track to..........well why DID the chicken cross the track? 

Strichen station building

 Soon after the chicken episode I reached Strichen. Here the old station building is still in situ, and the current owners have left a reminder of its former life in the form of a clock on the outside wall. Strichen itself looked very pretty too. In the fields I came across a farmer in a tractor toiling away, and eventually got back to Maud where I took the Formartine and Buchan Way branch back to Old Deer. There was more gorgeous scenery on this stretch, with a couple of rivers (or large streams) being crossed, and again much vegetation, including a number of very healthy rowan trees, judging by the amount of berries on show. Just before I left the track at Old Deer, I passed the ruins of Deer Abbey, which were situated by another lovely river. Shortly after this I left the track before Mintlaw Station (the place, not the actual station) and returned back to Old Deer and my bed and breakfast.

 I'd had a great first ride back in Scotland, having seen pretty much everything that could be offered. No distilleries though (although I did pass Tullibardine distillery on the way up yesterday), that's for later in the week.

It's not the Amalfi Coast, but it's real!

Today, six weeks after breaking my collarbone, I got back on the bike. Not on a stationary trainer in the garage, but in the real world!  Virtual rides with videos are all very good, but it's nowhere near the real thing, you don't get the smells, you don't get 360 degree scenery, you don't get the warmth of the sun when it comes out, you don't get real interaction with other cyclists.

I was a bit nervous at first when loading and unloading the bike into and out of the car. My collarbone feels to have repaired itself well, but there is some tendon / muscle discomfort at times, exacerbated by lifting or moving in certain directions, so I'd planned a long route and prepared myself to turn back if it got too troublesome.

My planned route was from Hadfield to Penistone, on the Trans Pennine Trail. I'd ridden a little bit of it previously, and thought it would be a gentle test of the injury and how well it had healed. Well, I was mostly right! From the first few pedal revolutions it felt really good to be out on the bike again, and I swiftly settled into my rhythm. In the first few hundred yards there was a plethora of sights, sounds and smells that I had missed these last six weeks. The track went on at a gentle incline up towards Woodhead Tunnels, where the original railway line burrowed under the Peak District rather than facing steep inclines. No such luck for the cyclist, the tunnels are closed to the public, so the Trail goes overland. 

Woodhead Tunnels

Here, the trail leaves Woodhead Station with a sign pointing up a fairly steep access road. I rode up to the top to be faced with the busy A628, and no indications of which way to go. I thought this couldn't be right, so went back down the road to the station, checked the map on my computer for an alternate track out, didn't find one, so struggled up the hill again. I was wavering over whether to continue or not, before finally deciding to risk a ride up the still rising main road to try to find a track somewhere. The road was very busy and a little unnerving, and continually rising, but fortunately I spotted the Trail coming in from the left and crossing the road to continue on the right. The Trail then descended a gravel path to cross a small bridge before ascending another steep rocky path alongside some fields, eventually turning left and levelling to rejoin the A628, this time to cross the road again to pick up the road into Dunford Bridge.

The road started with a climb before topping out and descending into Dunford Bridge with views of Upper Windleden Reservoir. It was a steep descent with a long set of traffic light controlled roadworks on the right. At the end of the roadworks, I turned right onto the Trail into Penistone. The track here was a good gravel track with a slight descent, and the scenery in the sun was terrific - the decision to continue at Woodhead proved to be a good one. On entering Penistone, the Trail became more of a pavement than a track, so I decided to stop for lunch at Penistone train station.

Bench and sculpture at Penistone Train Station

Once refreshed I set off for the return journey, only by this time grey clouds had rolled in and a fresh breeze had sprung up (headwind of course). I stopped to have a chat with a group of Sustrans volunteers before getting back to Dunford Bridge, and the steep climb up to the A628. I passed the lights at red, as there was plenty of road inside the cones to use, and struggled uphill. On reaching the lights at the top I saw a line of a couple of cars waiting to come down, and sure enough just as I was wanting to come out of the cones to pass the lights, the cars started to move. Fortunately they realised I needed to avoid stopping and waited for me, for which they got my grateful thanks.

At the A628 crossing I followed the track around the field again, and coming to the second crossing of the main road, decided to follow the Trail rather than the busy road that I'd come up. This turned interesting, a wide rough track with large puddles, and plenty of sheep. At one point I thought I saw a large dog ahead, possibly a Dobermann, and wondered if I was in for a savaging. Fortunately it turned out to be just a closely shorn black sheep! The rough track eventually turned into a grassy track, and started dropping down towards the reservoirs around Woodhead. Most of it was rideable but I came to a set of terraced deep steps, and with thoughts of six weeks previous on my mind, decided discretion was the better part of valour and walked down, eventually ending up at yet another crossing of the A628. Here, the Trail doubled back on itself and dropped down another steep rocky track, which I managed to carefully ride down, and popped out on the steep access road to Woodhead! It was easily missed going up, as the entrance was hidden by overgrown hedges, but I really should have seen it when I went down earlier. 

The return from Woodhead was nice and easy, being a gentle downhill back to Hadfield where I loaded the bike into the car and drove home. I really enjoyed the ride, and had no reaction from my injury which bodes well for my return to Scotland in just over four weeks time.

It's been a looooonnnnng three weeks!

For an active person like myself (most of the time!) being unable to do much due to injury or illness is the worst thing possible. I've been very frustrated and bored since breaking my collarbone, I just can't sit and do nothing (now that I've retired anyway.....).

To give myself something to look forward to, I've rebooked the second part of my Scotland trip, which has provided a bit of a bonus in that I have two more rides scheduled, having booked for six nights in the north east rather than the four in the original itinerary. The owners of the Aden House bed and breakfast where I was booked in rang me on the Saturday after my accident to enquire how I was, and to say they'd waived the fee I'd have had to pay due to my late cancellation, a very lovely and unexpected gesture! I promptly then worked out possible dates and settled for the week of September 13th, and then set about considering what new routes I could plan.

The River Spey and Thomas Telford's bridge at Craigellachie

For the first, I decided on a marriage of two of my favourite interests - whisky and old railways. I found the Speyside Way online, a long distance trail running from Aviemore to Buckie, using a disused railway track for much of it's way, and thought that would provide some stunning scenery. Investigating further, I realised there were a few distilleries either on or not far from the trail, so plumped for Craigellachie as a start point and worked out a circular route heading south down the Speyside Way, coming off at Cragganmore and returning via some quiet B roads. Initially this included passing by 13 distilleries, however in the last couple of weeks further investigation and planning has raised this number to 21! I hasten to add that I will be photographing these, not nipping in for a wee dram at each!

Tarlair swimming pool

The second route I planned involved a return to somewhere I'd remembered as a name, rather than actually having been there, but my sister tells me we did go. I remember a drive with my Nan and it seems this was on a trip to Tarlair, an outdoor swimming pool in Macduff on the north east coast. Having found some photos of it on the net, I still don't remember visiting, but it will still be interesting to check it out. It's been disused since the mid 1990s, and is now a Grade A listed building, which a "Friends of Tarlair" group are trying to restore. I wish them luck with that.

Having at least something positive in the near future to focus on, I also decided to invest in a smart trainer so that I could maintain my fitness in the garage. It's quite fun, although can never replace the feeling of being out on the roads or the trails. It does try its best though - there are actual tourists and tractors on some of the video routes that you have to slow down for at times in order to overtake! At least I shouldn't fall off while using it, although second time I went on it I hadn't checked that the rear wheel was securely attached to the direct drive and had a small wobble!