Bonny Scotland we loved you…

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend the weekend away with my husband and my sister and her hubby in a beautiful place called Dunkeld in Scotland. The weekend was part of my brother in laws 40th birthday celebrations and what a great weekend we had. Grandparents stepped in and looked after the kids this time and I have to say it was nice to get away just adults. It’s something we never do so it was a real treat.

The weather was very kind to us and although very cold it was bright and sunny and as you can see from the photos the autumn colours were so pretty. It really was picture postcard scenery and we saw “Scotland in the fall”

We stayed at the Dunkled House hotel which is set in the most beautiful grounds right on the River Tay. The hotel itself was very traditional and at times it put me in mind of being on a cruise ship. The rooms were lovely with our own private balcony, a little too cold to sit out but we had an amazing view of the river. We had booked bed & breakfast and our evening meals at the hotel, the food was really impressive and it’s a hotel I would definitely stay at again.

We did lots of walking by the river, we were close enough to Dunkled to walk into the little town or should I say city as it’s classed as a cathedral city. It’s a really pretty place scattered with bars and lots of places to eat. The cathedral was lit up as we passed and they are doing work to restore parts of it.

Early on Saturday morning my sister and husband had booked us a surprise activity….Clay Pigeon Shooting! First time, and me and my sister were very quick as always to get into a competition with the men. Little did we know how hard it was to shoot a clay pigeon! Out of around twenty-eight shots I hit…wait for it….one!! The very last one I must add! The cheer from the others and the instructor who was becoming a little impatient with me was music to my ears as I couldn’t have shot even one more!   My sister did much better than I did and the men, of course as they would be were naturals hardly missing a shot!! I don’t know if you have ever tried it but it really is difficult. The rifle was very heavy for me and what I didn’t expect was to come away with a bruised cheek, my sister too. This was caused by the re coil from the gun, every time I shot the rifle banged my cheek…by the end of the session we were both bruised and swollen. It was however a great experience and will be something I always remember but I think next time I’ll hit the spa and leave the men to it!

We visited a whisky distillery and had a tour and the men had a whisky and chocolate tasting session. The distillery was Dalwhinnie , in the Cairngorms National Park, and here we left the Autumn colours to be met with snow and ice, you can see in the photos how the temperature and weather changed and the guide told us they have an average yearly temperature of just six degrees!  The tour of the distillery was really interesting and an experience I would recommend even if like me you aren’t a fan of whisky you can always try the chocolates. An interesting fact I came away with was the distillery use water from the highlands and they use it as it is, they don’t purify it, it comes from a loch that they don’t own but they pay yearly rent for, somewhere in the region of 10 cases of whisky value wise!!

Loch Lomond was just around the corner from the distillery so we stopped there to have a little walk and take some photos. It really was cold so we didn’t hang around too long here.

We visited Pitlochry which was about a 30-minute drive from where we stayed. Again another pretty little town, busier than Dunkeld with lots of tourist ship and full of bars and restaurants. A really friendly place with a lovely Scottish feel about it I loved it.

All in all, a really fantastic weekend where we managed to do everything we wanted to and still found time to relax. I think I had forgotten just how beautiful Scotland is. We really do have some amazing places on our doorstep. Our next trip is going to be Ireland I think, somewhere remote and somewhere we can escape reality for the weekend!

Have you been to Dunkeld? Or any other places you can recommend for a UK or Ireland weekend break. As always I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading, until next time Abbi x

 

 

 

 

 

 


About Me

I have been in the travel industry over 20 years, what was meant to be a short summer working in Menorca when I was just 21 turned into many fantastic years within the industry. I have been lucky enough to travel to lots of destinations all over the world, including…

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