Stonehaven Day 1 (Saturday 29th December) Bexleyheath to Stonehaven
Today was an early start, we had planned to be up and on the road by around 2:00am but finally left the house at 3:40am. The car had been fully loaded the night before both inside and out. Never known for travelling lightly, we had with us everything that we would need for our week’s stay in Stonehaven Scotland. We had packed clothes for all weather conditions and eventualities having previously consulted the forecast for the week ahead – sufficient to cope with cold, wet, windy and, dare I say it, possibly even warm. The top box was full of our clothing and the inside of the car was full of food and drink, everything to contribute to our home comforts, even the Gin and Tonic had been carefully packed. Nothing had been left to chance. The car was full of diesel which unfortunately wouldn’t be sufficient to take us all the way to our destination we would have to find somewhere else to refill. As we left home it was eerily quiet and the roads appeared deserted. We drove through the Dartford Tunnel which was thankfully free of charge at this ungodly time of the day. We pressed the switch and flicked the lever to place the car on cruise control at 70 miles an hour and for the next few hundred miles I hardly moved my feet to control the speed of the car. Eventually we reached, in record time, our breakfast destination on the edge of the Lake District. Rheged café was open at 8:30am and we arrived at this our planned breakfast stop in record time at about 9:15am. We ordered tea and coffee with poached eggs on avocado toast which we drank and ate in the virtually empty café. We’d never known this Visitor Centre so quiet and deserted.Thus far we had driven 330 easy miles. After about an hour and a half relaxing and stretching our legs we filled the car up with diesel and continued on our way via Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and Forfar until eventually we arrived in the small fishing town of Stonehaven where we would be spending the next week. We easily found our accommodation in the High Street of the old town nestled right beside the picturesque harbour. It was dark and the weather was calm it was 10°C and a very quiet and sleepy place. Our accommodation was surprisingly good, there was a welcoming pack of coffee, tea, sugar and milk, a bottle of wine in the fridge, bread, biscuits, a cold meat platter with olives, we certainly felt very welcomed. After a quick cup of coffee we unloaded the car and settled in. A little while later we went for a stroll into town, what at first appearance seemed a sleepy backwater of a place; we now know why it’s called Stonehaven as we quickly realised that in order to cope here you either had to leave and move somewhere else or you simply got stoned.
Day 2 (Sunday 30th December) Stonehaven to Dunnator via the cliffs and Dunnator Woods
We slept for 12 hours last night after going to bed at 8:00pm!!!
The weather today was beautiful with a pink/blue sunrise over the smooth waters of the harbour. Lots of people were already up and about as we ventured out after our breakfast, this was a sign to us of the gathering ready for the famed New Year’s Celebrations. First we walked along the numerous harbour walls which protect this fishing port from the North Sea and then popped into the local museum, the Tollbooth, previously used as a prison etc but now displaying numerous artefacts from the local area.
Our plan today was to recce. the walk up above the town and harbour to the cliff tops so we could find the path to the ruins of Dunnator Castle some 1.5 miles away. The views did not disappoint. Along with numerous others we strolled along taking in the scenery. The North Sea was calm and the high whispy clouds hung sparsely in the blue sky round about. We noticed gulls and cormorants flying and diving whilst all the time we got closer to the castle ruins at first silhouetted on the distant skyline. Hidden beaches lay below us with their easily identified paths leading down towards them.
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At last we reached our goal Dunnator Castle which sat atop the end of a small peninsula, a spectacular location for any fortress. We walked down numerous steps to the Castle Gate and then again back up these. We would visit this place more thoroughly tomorrow.
It was splendid seeing so many people of such diversity enjoying this spectacular location.
We next walked inland via the car park and then along a lane passing a derelict radio station. This place, we later discovered, was instrumental in the operations to assist during the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster.
We walked further down the lane until we reached a junction with the main road into Stonehaven. We turned left away from the town and entered Dunnator Woods a few hundred metres ahead. We followed some paths through the trees via The Shell House, eventually entering Stonehaven through a housing estate.
A short stroll saw us back at the start of our walk and back at our apartment. It had been a good introduction to the area and provided us with a mix of landscapes to enjoy.
After a rest and then our dinner we checked on the estimated arrival time of Lyn and Mick’s flight, which was expected on time.
At 9:00pm we left for Aberdeen airport and as we arrived we saw Lyn and Mick crossing the road to where we were waiting.
A quick ride back to Stonehaven albeit with a little unanticipated detour along the promenade to a dead end saw us back in our accommodation, drinking wine and snacking on a variety of nibbles.
We eventually went to bed at 12:30am
Day 3 (Monday 31st December) Dunnator Castle and Woods and the New Year’s Eve Fireballs Celebration
What a stunning sunrise at 8:06am this morning, pinks, reds and blues welcomed what was set to be a great day all culminating in the reason why we 4 had travelled so far.
After breakfast we eventually got going at 10:35am.
Today we had decided to retrace our steps from yesterday. Once again, our walk did not disappoint us. The weather was fine with bright sun and broken cloud in a patchy blue sky, perfect for photographs of this scenic 6.38 miles stroll. It seemed that other visitors to Stonehaven had decided to make a similar walk prior to this evening’s celebrations. Today we decided to make a slight detour to visit the war memorial on the hill overlooking the harbour.
The Stonehaven architect John Ellis designed the World War One and Two War Memorial that proudly stands on Black Hill, Stonehaven. It is unique in that it can be seen from most parts of Stonehaven and its surrounding areas, providing a permanent and daily reminder to local people of the supreme sacrifice of servicemen from Stonehaven. As the photograph on the left shows it looks like an incomplete round temple – and was intentioned design as such to be a reminder of the loss of life and incompleteness of a full life of those who died in the Wars. An inscription carved into the stone at the top of the temple is written: “One by one death challenged them, they smiled in his grim visage and refused to be dismayed”. Lower down on the lintels are carved the names of World War One Battles – Gallipoli, Jutland, Marne, Mons, Somne, Vimy, Ypres and Zeebrugge. Some of the Second World War Battles were later added.
Our walk was similar to yesterday and we enjoyed sharing it with Lyn and Mick.
Upon our return to our apartment we popped into the pub for a Fireball Beer, brewed in Stonehaven and named after the New Year Celebrations to come.
We then visited the Tollbooth Museum and afterwards returned to the apartment for dinner. Pasta and flatbread and two bottles of wine later we settled down in our comfy chairs watching the evening’s preparations from the warmth of our sitting room.
Slowly at first people started to gather behind the safety of the roadside barriers and at around 10:00pm we wrapped ourselves up and went outside to join them and to bag our place. More and more people gathered along the pavement and soon the crowd had swelled to hundreds at our corner of the High Street, the start and end of the Fireballs procession.
As we chatted to various Marshalls, Swingers and strangers within the crowd, The town’s Pipe and drum Band struck up and marched up and down the road stopping to play at our corner and then the swingers began to walk down to our end of the High Street carrying their as yet unlit fireballs, metal mesh bags of everything flammable from old towels and cloth to wood and compressed wood firelighters. These men and women both young and old were dressed in a variety of clothing from traditional Scottish dress, kilts, long socks, sporrans, caps and jackets to boiler suits and casual everyday clothing.
As the band struck up Scotland the Brave, a group of fire jugglers performed on the quay side next to the ramp. As a new addition to this year’s celebrations there was a children’s fireball parade where children swinging battery powered light balls paraded for us. As midnight approached the crowd could see and smell the first of the fireballs being lit and then everyone counted down the seconds until 12:00 midnight arrived, we exchanged Happy New Years, kissed, shook hands with those around us as the fireball swingers led by 2 pipers lined up and began what we had all been waiting for. They began parading up and down the street using either one or two hands to swing these burning baskets around their heads. They turned and walked up and down the wide road as their baskets glowed, flamed and sparked close to the onlookers whilst everyone exchanged with them, again and again and at the tops of their voices a Happy New Year.
There were 48 swingers in all and they must have walked along the road for at least 20 minutes until one by one their fuel ran out and was finally extinguished in the water of the harbour.
Immediately the last flames were doused a fireworks display began from the hill behind the harbour, the very one we had walked on at the start of our walk today.
As the last Big Bang of the evening heralded the end of the Celebrations the crowd quickly dispersed and we crossed the road to our apartment, popped open a bottle of champagne and toasted 2019.
We finally got to bed at 2.30 am
Day 4 (Tuesday 1st January) Nippy Dip and Fowlsheugh RSPB
The day began rather later than normal due to the fact that we had gone to bed only a little earlier in the day. After breakfast we decided to walk around part of the northernmost and larger of the 2 bays that made up the coastline in and around Stonehaven. We walked a little way along the boardwalk as did many other New Year’s Day holidaymakers and locals along with their dogs and their children.There were some Mallards and Gulls being fed on one on the banks of a river coming into the bay where we noticed amongst these common birds a rather more interesting duck called a Goosander. We walked back to our apartment via the town where we did some ‘window shopping.’ We hung around having a coffee in our apartment whilst noticing the crowds who were gathering around the harbour for the traditional New Year’s nippy dip, people in fancy dress, people in swimming costumes, people in wetsuits and thankfully the fully manned RNLI lifeboat in the bay along with many board paddlers all ready to help any who might just possibly get into trouble because of the very cold North Sea. Wrapped up warm against the cold weather we stood on the sand waiting for 12 noon when everybody would be given the countdown to enter the water for a paddle or even, dare I say it, a swim. It was at this point that I decided to join in on the action. Not wanting to miss the opportunity for a bit on New Year’s Day revelry I went back to the apartment put on my pyjama bottoms kept my thermal top firmly on and walked barefoot back to the beach and, after first registering in the RNLI office I joined the gathering crowd on the slipway. At 12 o’clock the organisers counted down from 10 to 1 and everybody, including myself, began entering into the water. Perhaps because I was already feeling the cold, the initial shock wasn’t as great as I had expected and although some people only went in up to their knees pulling contorted faces as they did so showing just how cold the water was I decided to duck below the water and at least do a few backstroke and a few breaststroke strokes, at least I had swum in the North Sea on January 1st. 2019!
It was quite exhilarating. I walked slowly back to the apartment stripped off and stood under the warm shower. It was very welcomed to say the least and I had finally ticked off another one on my bucket list.
I dressed and returned to the bay to join the others and at the end of the celebrations we decided we would go out for an early afternoon drive then stroll along the cliff tops very close to the Fowlsheugh RSPB site that we had identified earlier in the day.
As we were getting into the car, an SSPCA van pulled up to make a U turn near our parking slot. The driver told us what she was doing and as we spoke she mentioned that she’d just rescued a seal pup from the rocks behind the bay. She asked us if we’d like to see the pup which was in a cage in the back of her van, of course we said yes. It was surprisingly large, grey and spotted with big watery eyes, a beautiful thing to see and even lovelier to know that it would now be safe at the SSPCA rescue centre.
After driving some 4 miles to Fowlsheugh we parked up in the empty car park and went for a stroll. Although we saw very few interesting birds on our short walk today (it was the wrong time of year), we did see the deserted ‘ghost’ village of Crawton that we had noticed in the guidebook and we also walked down to the cliff edge where we saw a magnificent waterfall falling from the cliff tops opposite straight into the sea below.
Maggie spotted a seal breaking surface close to the shoreline. Although there were no boats to see we did notice 2 wave runners in the very windy and choppy sea making their way towards us from Stonehaven. They spotted us on the cliffs above and gave us a wave, we waved back.
The sky became cloudier and greyer and soon the rain was coming down so we beat a hasty retreat to the car.
It was now lunchtime so we decided to return to our apartment and have some bread rolls and cheese and a cup of coffee, we were all feeling the cold. Interestingly enough the waverunners being towed on their trailers passed our windows later in the afternoon.
We sat and chatted until around 4:00pm when we loaded the car with Lyn and Mick’s luggage and drove the 17 miles to Aberdeen airport. It was now very dark but the lights in and around the airport helped illuminate everything. We craftily avoided the drop off fees by stopping at a roundabout very close to the departure building where we said our goodbyes where Lyn and Mick walked off to departures and we drove back to Stonehaven.
For the rest of the evening we sat and watched TV and come 10:30pm we were tucked up in bed, Stonehaven was dark and quiet and certainly very very different from last night.
Day 5 (Wednesday 2nd January) Fowlsheugh Cliffs and Beach
Today the Sun rose as it had done on previous days at around 8:05am, the sky was grey and there was no sun to be seen, the air was still and a few hardy souls were already walking around the harbour wrapped up from the cold.
After breakfast we decided to take a look and see what was going on in the larger harbour to the north. Here the waves and breakers were crashing onto the expanse of sand which was the town beach. To our great surprise there were six or seven paddle boarders surfing through and others on the waves, some of them, it was plain to see, were expert whilst the others appeared to be either at beginner or intermediate level still, it was great fun to watch them as they attempted to stand or lay on their boards while the giant waves crashed around them or brought them safely towards the beach. We stood watching them along with other people for a good 20 minutes.
Following this unexpected sideshow we got in the car and drove to the same RSPB site that we had visited yesterday. I wanted to take some more photographs of the waterfall that we had seen and we certainly had wanted to walk further along to the cliff and eventually down to the beach to see what we could find.
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As the wind blew cold and the Sun shone we walked in the icy air along the sides of some fields out as far as we could so that we could then get a great view of the coast with the waves crashing on the rocks below. As we walked we saw a variety of birds gulls, oystercatchers, crows and rooks, even a heron flew off after we disturbed it by speaking too loudly.
Finally we made our way down a track to the stoney beach below. The pebbles here were huge and extremely difficult to walk on as they shelved two or three times to the water’s edge.
Unfortunately it was here we found the remains of a dead seal not a nice thing to see with all the other beauty around it but certainly a beach where seals could come on shore if they had wanted to, in fact we saw one poking its head up above the surface of the water some 50m away from ourselves.
After spending some time here we retraced our steps to where we had parked the car and drove back to Stonehaven. As we turned off the main road unfortunately we saw the remains of another dead animal, a deer, which had obviously been hit by car, it lay on the grass verge by the side of the road and must’ve happened very recently as it hadn’t been there on our way out three or four hours ago.
Our warm apartment welcomed us as we stepped through the front door, it was good to be out of the cold air at last. We each had a warm drink and we settled down as outside it gradually became darker. I downloadd my photographs whilst Maggie consulted the bird book to confirm what we had actually seen today. After about an hour Maggie took herself off to the local co-op to buy some dishwasher tablets and I settled down to write my blog.
We spent the rest of the evening watching television and having our evening meal finally retiring at 11:15pm.
Day 6 (Thursday 3rd January) Braemar in the Cairngorms
We woke to yet another beautiful blue sky and windless day even though this looked to be the coldest day so far judging by the hard frost on the car. After a rather late breakfast we set off before lunch to drive the 50 or so miles to Braemar in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. The drive took us through beautiful scenery with trees and fields covered in a coating of heavy white frost until eventually we reached Braemar Castle on the outskirts of the town itself. This castle was more of a tower than a castle in the traditional sense. The building originally built to protect the passes in the local area and now in the process of being renovated voluntarily by local people. It is shut throughout winter simply because it is too cold to keep it open for visitors. We did spend a few moments there taking some photographs and looking at it but it was not quite as picturesque as we had first thought – you decide.
A mile further on up the road and we were in Braemar itself famed for its highland games which are always attended by the royal family who spend their time at Balmoral Castle whilst in the area. The castle which we had passed a few miles outside Braemar.
It was very quiet in the town and certainly very cold for many people to be walking around. Some of the shops were shut others were open so we decided to take a stroll up through the town following a sign which led us up to a viewpoint. We passed some very large and substantial housing and agreed that the people certainly have to be hard to live here in the middle of winter. The still air was particularly cold and we were glad to be wrapped up against the very low -4 temperatures registered on our car thermometer, thank goodness there was no wind chill.
The local duckpond was frozen solid as were some of the streams flowing down the side of the footpath so we took care as we walked up to the viewpoint and looked out over the splendours of the Cairngorm mountains. Some of the hills and mountains tops had a light dusting of snow, obviously this winter’s heavy snow had yet fully fall.
The Cairngorms near Braemar (Scotland)
We hardly met a soul on the way up or back but did see some beautiful examples of hoarfrost formed on the grasses and dwarf, lichen covered trees, everything was coated in a thick layer of white
and even the banks of the River Clooney which along with the River Dee run through Braemar were covered in ice.
We returned to the car park and made ourselves a cup of hot coffee.
Having bypassed the town of Ballater on the way to Braemar we decided to drive through it on our return and were pleased that we had chosen to do this. This town, in our opinion, was much more attractive than Braemar and had a renovated original Railway station the same one that the royal family would have used before other forms of transport were made available.
The sunset at 4:00pm on our way home and we arrived back in Stonehaven at just after 5:00pm. We were very glad to get back into our warm apartment, boy had it been cold today!
Day 7 (Friday 4th January) Cliff walk to Cowie Bay
What an unexpected day today both in regards to the weather, which was, dare I say it, warm in the sunshine and also in what we saw on our walk. Just look at the sun and sky below which helped show Stonehaven harbour in all its glory.
We set off mid morning to walk along the town bay and see just how far we could get using the recognised footpaths.
There were quite a few people out with their dogs or children in buggies as we set off along the boardwalk directly behind our apartment.
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The sea was dead calm except where groups of rocks protruded from below the surface. A number of gulls either flew overhead looking for an easy meal left by any untidy holidaymakers whilst others bobbed on the sea along with some solitary ducks and shags.
After 10 minutes or so we joined the short promenade with its ice cream parlours and coffee bars then on through a small housing estate at Cowie before joining a grassy/muddy and in some places quite exposed footpath leading up to and along the top of the cliffs. It was here we began to get some fantastic views of the sea and rocky shore.
We noticed numerous Oystercatchers, Cormorants, Mergansers, Shags, Gulls and some Waders which were too far away to easily identify. A watery sun shone brightly and lit up everything as we walked northwards, it made our return journey directly into its rays very difficult for us to identify the track without first shading our eyes with a hand.
The path appeared to end nearby to Stonehaven golf course where we visited the graveyard and remains of the Chapel of St. Mary & St. Nathalan, a church dedicated in 1292 to St. Mary of the Storms.
We walked on a little further and then decided to retrace our steps and take a slight detour before returning along the promenade, saying goodbye to our last Gull
and stopping in town at the co-op to buy some milk and other essentials for the trip home tomorrow. We were now in the shade as the sun had dropped lower in the sky and the temperature had certainly tumbled significantly enough for us to be pleased to get back to the warmth of our apartment.
Day 7 (Saturday 5th January) Back to Bexleyheath
We left the dark and very quiet town of Stonehaven at 5:10am having loaded up the majority of the car the previous evening. As we pulled away we recorded our trip meter on our the car as having already completed 761.9 miles and expecting to add substantially more to this on our way back home although we didn’t realised quite how much more we would eventually have to add.
We retraced our route up until the time we missed the turning to Stirling and Glasgow until we realised that we were actually heading for Edinburgh on the wrong side of Scotland to where we needed to be. After a bit of twisting and turning we found an alternative route which took us in the right direction but along slower roads through some small sleepy villages much closer to Stirling than we ever needed to be. This route added some extra time to our journey and put more miles on the clock. After about 40 minutes we found ourselves back on track, by-passing Glasgow and then onwards past Gretna and Carlisle then to turn off the motorway for breakfast in Rheged. That’s when I made a big mistake because instead of turning off the roundabout to Keswick and the road to Rheged, for some inexplicable reason I turned too soon and, would you believe it, on to the M6 again!!!!!! What a twit.
Anyway there was nothing we could do except continue on to the next junction 39 some 11 miles further south. We chose to exit the motorway here and drive to Kendal for breakfast and refuelling. We passed through Kendal, if you’ve ever been then you will realise why. We drove on to Staveley where we knew we could get a good breakfast at Wilf’s Café, it did not disappoint us. Breakfast over and a look around the Wheelbase Cycle Warehouse next door followed by a quick visit to Ings, just up the road, to fill up with Diesel and we were back on very familiar roads heading home.
Our journey was very good and found us never having to go slower than 70mph except in the 50mph or 60mph average zones. We were also fortunate enough to join the M1 on the southern side of a serious hold up and road closure which resulted in very light traffic for us from the M1 to the M25 junction. Even the Dartford Crossing had less traffic than normal so we arrived home at around 4.40pm.
We had travelled 1341 miles in total
Then end of a super holiday.
Och aye the noo!